Reinventing the Millennium

The charity gala takes a week to prepare.

There is a dedicated person in charge of this aspect of the organization, and the guests include Rubin and Savoy, two former financial stewards, who have already raised the tone. When Geithner of the New York Fed received Fang Zhuo's call, he readily accepted the call.

In addition, Susan, a member of Northern Trust's board of directors, and Phipps, vice president of Bessemer Securities of Bessemer Trust, all accepted the invitation after hearing their names.

Powerful and wealthy.

Fang Zhuo thought about it and invited Stringer, the head of Sony in the corporate world, and Larry, the founder of Google. This way, he had both business relationships and rich people on the list.

Finally, he personally called and invited Michel, a director of Deutsche Bank. This person is responsible for Deutsche Bank's global markets and investment banking business in the United States. He is well-known in the financial circle and has a "big shark" because of his style. reputation.

MIGA Fund is now gradually cutting off its cooperation with Deutsche Bank in the CDO market, but considering the New York Fed's interest in Deutsche Bank, it would be great to have someone like Michel on the scene.

After the party's guest lineup was established, Fang Zhuo no longer cared about this aspect, and instead walked around New York City twice.

New York is a financial center and an international metropolis.

In the past few years, the average annual increase in housing prices in New York has exceeded 11%. The price of the same property in 2006 was almost 1.9 times that in 2000. In other words, if you bought a property for US$1 million six years ago, you can buy it this year. Sold for 1.9 million.

This is a realistic basis for the prosperity of the subprime debt market and related securities.

However, in the month of June that just ended, the high-end real estate market in New York seemed to be undergoing changes, with many properties quietly lowering their prices and seeking to be sold more quickly.

On the contrary, the low-end real estate market still seems to be booming.

Fang Zhuo was accompanied by Zhao Zhishan to observe the real situation of real estate.

When he and Xiao Zhao chatted about what they had seen over the past few days, the latter talked about what she knew about the Washington market.

"Mr. Fang, when I was in Washington in May, more and more home-buying advertisements, price promotions, and gift certificates appeared in the slightly more remote neighborhoods there. However, the number of customers was getting smaller and smaller."

"Many newly built properties have received poor response, so they can only put up a 'temporary rental' sign."

"Washington is not as good as New York, but..."

Zhao Jishan is not responsible for fund work in the United States. This will remind him of what he has seen with his own eyes.

Fang Zhuo nodded slightly. Different local samples have different situations, but judging from contacts and some surveys, the U.S. real estate market has indeed reached an inflection point as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates.

Relatively speaking, the situation in New York is better.

In some cities and some small and medium-sized banks, a down payment of 1 million dollars for real estate can be obtained with only 70,000 US dollars. These will surely be in turmoil after the turning point.

Different from the reality of the real estate market, the CDO securities market is still generally prosperous, although there are some different voices.

Different conclusions can be drawn from the same data from different angles.

If coupled with neglect, luck, paralysis, guidance, and profit-seeking, the market will only believe the conclusion it is more willing to believe.

On July 8, the New York Institute of Economic and Social Development Charity Dinner was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

On the surface, this charity dinner is a bright sign for the New York Economics Institute.

Secretly, this was to celebrate Teacher Xiao Sa's re-employment after being laid off.

In the evening, guests began to arrive in the banquet hall.

At 6:30 in the evening, Zhao Zhishan, who was organizing the dinner, hurried from the banquet hall where he was watching the situation to find the boss who had not yet shown his face, only to find that he was reading a newspaper in the room with his legs crossed.

"President Fang, Stringer has been here for a while, and Geithner has just arrived."

Zhao Zhishan has had a profound experience in the past few days. The name "Gaithner" is very useful.

The cost of this one-night charity gala was about US$300,000, including the accommodation suites prepared by the Plaza Hotel. It was originally all covered by MIGA funds. Unexpectedly, as soon as the name "President Gai" was mentioned, people came to sponsor it.

The cost of the plan is not only unused, but also excessive.

In addition, several financial institutions inquired about the budget for the charity dinner auction in advance, showing considerable enthusiasm.

This doesn't even use the names of Summers and Rubin.

"Old Sir, you came quite early." Fang Zhuo read the last half page of the newspaper and asked, "How is the atmosphere?"

Zhao Zhishan hesitated for a few seconds. How to describe the atmosphere at the scene?

She organized her words and replied: "The atmosphere is not bad, different people seem to be somewhat distinct."

Fang Zhuo nodded, this is normal.

He drank the remaining half cup of coffee and said to his secretary: "Put the newspaper away for me as a souvenir."

Zhao Zhishan took two steps and couldn't help but look back at the newspaper compiled by his secretary. He saw a copy of the New York Times. The headline on the page was very conspicuous - "New York housing prices are far from peaking."

She withdrew her gaze, quickened her pace, and reported the situation as she walked: "There should be more people attending tonight than planned, because almost all of them brought female companions and friends, and some of them are more influential."

"Among them are two New York City Council members and one New York Comptroller."

Fang Zhuo smiled and said: "It's good. It seems that our retired old man activity center can indeed have some influence."

Zhao Zhishan smiled and said, "Retired Old Man Activity Center... People like Rubin and Summers have extraordinary influence, and they can switch between retirement and office."

Soon, Fang Zhuo and his party arrived at the banquet hall downstairs. The security assistants only brought one in and let him wander around the edge.

Fang Zhuoxian said hello to Geithner, and under his introduction he met the comptroller, city councilors and others who attended the charity dinner.

Then I met Sir Stringer again and got to know a circle of his friends.

Tonight's charity dinner will feature Kelly Clarkson, Gwen Stefani, and others, the most popular singers in the United States in the past two years, singing for free. This is a resource directly obtained from Sony Music.

Fang Zhuo walked around twice and found some people who didn't match the information, so Zhao Zhishan followed him to remind him.

"The vice president of Time Warner has a good reputation."

"The head of Morgan's investment banking business has just taken office. I heard that he is relatively low-key."

"There are rumors about this."

"He is from Alcoa, so there is no information about him."

"Lehman's Fuld leaves no room for error and has a fierce style. He is nicknamed the 'Gorilla' in the industry."

As Zhao Zhishan introduced more and more people, another guest who had been briefly commented on by her walked into the banquet hall. This one actually needed no introduction.

Richard Fuld, the head of Lehman, has been in charge of this famous investment bank for more than ten years. Today he took the initiative to come over to support Summers.

Mr. Sao Sa resigned as president of Harvard. His developments are worthy of attention.

The chief economic adviser of a new research institution is not really a big deal, but Rubin showed up and held a charity dinner, which shows that Mr. Sao still values ​​the New York Economics Institute.

So here comes Fuld - many of whom have similar reasons to him.

Fang Zhuo and Fuld briefly shook hands to get to know each other, and then they saw Google founder Larry following them.

Larry's trip was actually quite coincidental. He was about to fly to New York when he received the call from Mr. Fang and planned to buy a villa property. He happened to hear about the characters in the New York Economics Institute, so he spared one night.

As Google's stock price skyrocketed, Brin and Larry became the two youngest people among the top 100 richest people in the United States this year, ranking 12th and 13th respectively.

In fact, a considerable part of the MIGA fund's profit income comes from the purchase of Google stock.

After all, the opportunity for low-priced Chinese concept stocks like NetEase and Sina is only in the early period. They have also increased in the past two years, but the momentum has been relatively stable. The high-yield reputation of MIGA funds is for Internet companies such as Google, Amazon, Penguin, and Baidu. Overweight on U.S. real estate stocks.

Compared with other people in the banquet hall, Fang Zhuo still had a good chat with Larry for a while.

The cooperation between Google and Yike is very important. Both parties have a lot to do, and there will be a closer connection based on the Android system in the future.

Larry still praised the mobile phone design he saw at the Yike R\u0026D Center that day, but he also mentioned a small problem he encountered recently - the Android system has not yet found a US operator willing to cooperate...

Fang Zhuo: "?"

Larry saw the big question mark raised by Mr. Fang and said seriously: "There are problems with the progress of this matter. AT\u0026amp;T clearly rejected us, and other companies' attitudes were not positive."

He frowned and said: "After all, it is the first time for us to develop a mobile phone system, and operators do not trust Google and Android."

"Should this cooperation be prioritized in the front row?" Fang Zhuo was a little helpless.

Looking at Mr. Fang's expression, Larry suddenly found it interesting and said with a smile: "We are arranging it, we are arranging it. There are twists and turns, but we are still confident. We are already looking for executives who have jumped out of the operator. This matter We still have to talk about it from this aspect.”

Google has deep pockets and can spend a lot of money to recruit executives with connections in order to advance a partnership.

When Fang Zhuo heard this, he felt relieved. Google was willing to spend money and work hard, but it was afraid that he would waste time.

He led Larry to Geithner's small circle. The two knew each other but had not had much interaction.

Larry didn't like the bureaucratic atmosphere around President Guy very much, so he chatted politely for a few words and then walked away to pursue freedom.

However, Fangzhuo noticed that when Summers and Rubin appeared together, Larry quietly returned to the drinking party next to the president, giving up freedom to worship of economists.

At 7:30 in the evening, almost all the guests at the charity party arrived.

Fang Zhuo remembered most of the faces, and relied on Zhao Zhishan to make up the rest.

Singers sang, guests socialized, and the charity auction hadn't even begun yet. Everyone was relatively comfortable in their own appropriate circles.

Summers, Rubin, Geithner and their friends have the strongest influence, and those who chat and laugh with them are Northern Trust, Bessemer Trust, Lehman, Deutsche Bank, Bear Stearns, Morgan and others. Well-known institutions.

Those further away are differentiated according to company size and identity background.

However, in the dinner scene where everyone seems to be in suits and ties but there is an invisible gap, there are also people who do not follow the invisible rules.

This is what happens to wealthy people like Larry.

Not only did he not wear formal clothes, just a simple and casual T-shirt, but he also only maintained respect for a limited number of people. Others could chat if they wanted to, and would not be polite if they didn't want to chat.

Fang Zhuo's positioning is somewhat similar to Larry's, but his wealth is not as good as that of the Google founder.

According to this year's ranking of the world's richest people given by Forbes, Larry is ranked 21st with 14 billion U.S. dollars, and the next 22 are Xiangjiang Lijiacheng with 13.5 billion U.S. dollars. Fang Zhuo mainly relies on the rise in Yike's stock price to advance into the top 100. No. 93 with $6.4 billion.

Last year, Fang Zhuo was ranked 165th in the world on the Forbes rich list. This year, he has made great progress.

In addition to his wealth, Fang Zhuo also has some needs to promote MIGA funds today, so things will go more smoothly.

However, when Kong Yu, President of MIGA Fund, was talking about the fund's income further away, an uninvited guest forced MIGA Fund to show its presence.

New York real estate tycoon Agawa is a rich man with an exaggerated behavior style.

He did not receive an invitation to the NYE charity gala, but after learning that there was such a show, he came to the event easily.

Achuan did not disturb the small circle of bosses at the scene. He went to the MIGA fund's spokesperson with a clear purpose and claimed that he wanted to become a client of the fund.

Fang Zhuo was quite surprised to see a person like Achuan here and now, and his emotions were very complicated.

Agawa started the conversation from the Empire State Building rented by the New York Times, and talked about his relationship with the Empire State Building. He had the operating rights there for the past two years. It was precisely when chatting about the brand presence of the Empire State Building in the past few days that he learned about it. After attending such a charity party, I also set my goal on making money.

He had no intention of asking for trouble from people like Rubin and Summers. Today he wanted to do business and invest in a private placement.

In principle, Fang Zhuo would not refuse investment from a client like Achuan, but in terms of specific negotiations, he still recommended him to Kong Yu, who was busy sharpening his skills, without much communication.

It was this scene that made a group of drinkers such as Lehman and Bear Stearns talk about MIGA Fund, an increasingly famous private equity fund.

Phipps of Bessemer Securities has decided to invest in the MIGA fund, and he expressed his appreciation for its investment strategy: "It is not without reason that the MIGA fund has gained so much fame in just a few years. Mr. Fang is very discerning. Google and Amazon made decisive choices."

Susan from Northern Trust also conducted as much detailed research on the MIGA fund as possible before coming. However, her perspective was more focused on the activities of this private equity company and its series of institutions in the CDO market.

In her view, with figures like Rubin, Summers, and Geithner at the forefront, the probability of MIGA funds making money is extremely high.

Susan also praised the MIGA fund a few times and believed that investing money in it was a wise choice.

Phipps and Susan were both quite prominent people. When they spoke, everyone in the circle praised Mr. Fang and his foundation.

"I heard that MIGA Fund is selling stocks of companies such as Google and Amazon. It must also know that the prospects of these companies have reached a bottleneck. Without such lucky investments, how can this private equity company maintain its high returns?" Lehman's Forecast said. De listened for a while, somewhat disapproving.

"MIGA Fund has also done well in cooperating with Bank of Washington and Goldman Sachs in the CDO market. Even if the returns are not as high as before, there will definitely be good opportunities." Susan said.

Fuld laughed and said: "Then you might as well buy our Lehman securities directly. We have launched several very good products this month, which will definitely be more stable and safer than private placement as a dealer."

He means it sincerely. Lehman is a first-level player in this market, while MIGA is at most third or fourth level. The level gap between the two also represents the profit gap.

Geithner, who was walking over, was a little unhappy when he heard this. Why is this gorilla so disrespectful? Are you slapping Mr. Fang in the face?

No, you're preventing me from making money!

Another time, another occasion, forget it, tonight in front of potential big clients like Northern Trust and Bessemer Securities, you are really not betraying anyone at all!

You really finished eating the meat and didn’t let anyone else drink the soup!