"The last major direction is equality!" Huang He continued to instill in Old Hu the development direction of the future media group. "In the future, our media group must do its utmost to expose inequality and lack of rights in society. For example, inequality between men and women, inequality between races, inequality between religions, inequality between citizens and refugees, inequality between genders, and even further to inequality between humans and animals, inequality between humans and plants, and even inequality between humans and bacteria, all of which can be discussed and point the direction for society!"
"This is the fifth major direction, which is to do our utmost to create a atmosphere of equality for all things in society, and to strive for everything that is unequal... Of course, don't talk about the inequality between the common people and capital, the first priority is to establish ourselves!"
"We also need to find typical figures to help us promote our views, such as black female champions for men, and little girls who protest by striking while still in school, etc. Any typical figures that embody equal rights should be promoted by us," Mr. Huang instructed.
At this time, Old Hu was bewildered by Mr. Huang's last two major directions, completely failing to understand what Mr. Huang was saying. Mr. Huang, on the other hand, seemed to have no interest in explaining and calmly added, "These five directions will not go wrong. In fact, even if we don't follow this direction, various media in the future will follow this direction. All we need to do is to accelerate this process, so we will not encounter much opposition!"
Old Hu still didn't understand the purpose of Mr. Huang's actions, but he followed Mr. Huang's instructions one by one. Many years later, when Old Hu understood Mr. Huang's intentions, he could only lament Mr. Huang's foresight in crippling the European Union in advance. Getting back to the topic, although Jiangnan Group spent a total of 50 billion Euros to establish this massive media group, it was actually a great bargain.
After all, under normal circumstances, it would cost at least two to three hundred billion Euros to control more than 50% of European media. This time, it was acquired at 1/6 of the price, which was definitely a huge profit.
Moreover, this money was not from Jiangnan Group, but from American shareholders who bought shares in 00 Network. After selling 40% of its shares and going public, 00 Network directly obtained a huge sum of nearly 200 billion US dollars, which was equivalent to nearly 160 billion Euros. This amount was more than enough to acquire these European media outlets.
In fact, Jiangnan Group not only acquired these media outlets but also acquired a large number of technology companies across Europe. Most of these companies possessed one or two unique core technologies, and it was impossible to acquire them under normal circumstances.
However, with the arrival of the subprime mortgage crisis, these companies that were previously not for sale were on the verge of bankruptcy, forcing them to sell themselves to Jiangnan Group and obediently hand over their technologies.
These technologies were then gathered at Jiangnan Group's research center, helping Jiangnan Group launch more super technological advancements.
And because the entire world was in the midst of the subprime mortgage crisis at this time, no one had the time to pay attention to Jiangnan Group's actions, and many countries even strongly supported them.
Firstly, Jiangnan Group's acquisitions could save these struggling companies, reduce unemployment, and thus maintain government support.
In addition, acquisition transactions require paying a considerable amount of taxes to the relevant authorities. A transaction of 50 billion Euros would result in at least 12 billion Euros in various taxes and transaction fees, all of which would eventually go into the hands of various governments, who would naturally welcome such transactions.
As for the consequences this might cause, they couldn't afford to worry about it. The priority was to ensure their current government could safely navigate the crisis and try to get re-elected.
After all, if the next government changed, any achievements made would benefit others.
While Jiangnan Group was spending lavishly across Europe, the United States, on the other hand, finally welcomed its quadrennial major event. And just as Mr. Huang had predicted, after launching its own economic stimulus plan in a similar fashion, the competitor not only failed to gain more popular support but was instantly ridiculed online as a clumsy imitator.
Even many of the voters who had previously supported him were severely dissatisfied with this. After all, they had voted for this guy precisely because they opposed his $40 trillion bailout plan.
And now, he was proposing an even more outrageous $80 trillion bailout plan. What was the point of voting for him then!
As a result, the competitor not only failed to gain more voter support but was also abandoned by many of his own voters, ultimately trailing his opponent by nearly 300 electoral votes. Keep in mind that the United States has only 538 electoral votes in total.
This was a landslide victory not seen in nearly 40 years, which shows how high the current president's popularity was among the public.
All US presidents throughout history have generally had one characteristic: their popularity was at its highest when they were inaugurated, and then it generally declined in a straight line. Unless there was a war or something similar that required the people to unite closely, it was almost always like this.
The reason is simple: when you are not doing anything, you only need to shout slogans, and naturally, you will not make mistakes.
However, when you actually have to do things, you will constantly make mistakes and ultimately drag down your approval rating.
Therefore, taking advantage of his highest-ever approval rating and strong support within his party, just one month after his inauguration and after consolidating his power structure, the younger brother officially submitted the $40 trillion bailout plan to Congress for review in January 2009.
If Congress approved it, this money-printing plan would be officially launched; otherwise, it would be almost impossible to pass in the future.
Thus, everyone in the United States was paying close attention to the vote on the $40 trillion bailout plan, speculating which congressmen would vote against it, whether the opposition party would obstruct it with all its might, and who the key figures were.
What they didn't know was that the congressional vote a few days later was just a formality. The real voting meeting had already begun on Wall Street a week earlier.
This was a meeting that outsiders had no way of knowing about. The attendees included not only Wall Street financiers but also representatives from the US military-industrial complex, representatives from the US military, representatives from large industrial enterprises, and, most importantly, representatives from major financial groups. Finally, there was a personal representative of the new president, the younger brother, who was his own brother, Malik.
After all, the president's schedule was closely watched by countless people, so it was impossible for him to come in person, and he could only send his most trusted person to attend this meeting.
When everyone was assembled, Malik stood up, cleared his throat, and said, "Gentlemen, after consultations with all parties, we have tentatively drafted a distribution plan of $40 trillion."
"Please believe me, this is truly a draft that we have painstakingly balanced to consider all parties' interests!" Malik said.
"Sincerity is not spoken, but demonstrated. How does the President intend to allocate it this time?" a man with oily hair said indifferently.
"Alright!" Malik nodded and said, "Of this $40 trillion, we first decide to allocate $880 billion as new military spending, to purchase various the latest weapons and protect our country's security!"
Upon hearing this, the representatives of the military-industrial complex and the military showed expressions of pleasant surprise. Since this $880 billion was specifically for the purchase of weapons, it was clearly profit allocated to them, and this figure was slightly higher than they had expected. They had originally thought they would get around $600 billion at most, but to their surprise, they received $880 billion this time. They immediately showed smiles on their faces.
Of course, if the military-industrial complex was satisfied, it meant that others would get less of the pie, so the representatives of some other parties immediately showed expressions of dissatisfaction.
Malik then continued, "Of the remaining $31.2 trillion, $30 trillion will be used to rescue the financial markets. This money will be used to directly infuse capital into financial institutions that are currently operating at a loss, helping them restore liquidity!"
"Three trillion dollars to save us?" The Wall Street representatives also showed expressions of extreme joy. After the military had already taken $880 billion, they thought they would only receive up to $2 trillion at most. But now, they were actually getting $3 trillion, which was the best possible allocation result. With these three trillion dollars, many of their institutions could be instantly unraveled, solving the bad debts caused by junk loans, and even making a small profit.
Of course, while the Wall Street representatives were happy, the remaining parties were instantly stunned. These $40 trillion were gone in the blink of an eye, with $38.8 trillion already allocated, leaving only $1.2 trillion. Their combined share was so little?
The remaining people, namely the representatives of the real economy and the financial groups, immediately stood up, and judging by their demeanor, they looked as if they were about to chop off Malik's head.
"Please, don't be in a hurry. Let me finish!" Seeing their angry expressions, Malik said unhurriedly, "The President also plans to launch a $2 trillion consumption stimulus package and a major infrastructure plan."
"First, we plan to issue $300 in consumption vouchers to every citizen every month for a year, totaling approximately $500 billion. These consumption vouchers must be used within the same month and can only be used to purchase goods produced by American companies."
"The remaining $1.5 trillion will be used to promote a large number of infrastructure projects nationwide. Many of our country's infrastructure is already lagging behind, even worse than in Africa, so it really needs to be properly improved!"