"You!!" Dr. Cooper's fleeting pity for Korobi vanished instantly. "Don't you know our relationship with Jiangnan Group? How could you cooperate with Western Mustang Fund? Don't you know they're trying to trap us? How could you trust those people and cooperate with them?"
"Because they can't digest me!" Korobi sneered. "Wall Street as a whole is maintaining the market. Western Mustang Fund is still just a small fund. Little Swift's recent record is poor, and his influence is not what it used to be. Moreover, the entire Wall Street has warned Little Swift and Western Mustang Fund. They absolutely dare not proactively burst the subprime mortgage crisis bubble. Otherwise, Wall Street will not let them off. I don't believe they have the guts to do such a thing."
"It seems you haven't checked the latest Weibo yet!" Dr. Cooper sneered. "I'm sorry, but it's none other than Little Swift himself who burst the truth of the subprime mortgage crisis. His Weibo was the first to fire the shot!"
After speaking, Dr. Cooper projected the Weibo screen from the computer. It was a Weibo post from Little Swift's account, which read: "Woke up this morning and saw that many friends have bought stocks related to subprime mortgages. I feel I can no longer deceive everyone like this. To tell you the truth, all subprime mortgages are now bad debts. There are over 4 trillion US dollars in huge loans that cannot be repaid and are about to detonate completely. Run as fast as you can, or you'll be going to see God in the future." xxs壹贰
"See, this Weibo is so well written. This Mr. Little Swift is truly a warrior, but he is cutting off all our financial paths. It has been over eight hours since this Weibo was posted, and all stocks related to subprime mortgages in the stock market have been in a freefall. The average decline of the five major stock indices has exceeded 5%. They might even trigger a circuit breaker at any moment. 5% might not seem like much, but these declines are actually all driven by stocks related to subprime mortgages."
"Do you know? The stocks and securities you locked onto for the company have now fallen by more than 45% combined. 460 billion US dollars has become less than 270 billion US dollars. You have caused the company a loss of 190 billion US dollars... This is the conspiracy between Little Swift and Jiangnan Group. You actually became their pawn, and you still have the nerve to say Little Swift wouldn't harm us?" Dr. Cooper said angrily.
"Sir, may I ask you, did Little Swift consult with you before bursting the truth?" Korobi was not flustered by Dr. Cooper's anger. Instead, he sneered and directly exposed him. "Otherwise, why did you start selling shares and assets as soon as Little Swift posted on Weibo?"
"We are rivals with Jiangnan Group. It's normal for me to keep an eye on Little Swift's Weibo, isn't it?" Dr. Cooper said with a poker face.
"Hahahahaha!" Korobi couldn't help but laugh. "Fine, all mistakes are mine. Whatever you say, sir."
"Alas, you few, keep him here, provide him with good food and drink, and wait for the board's decision!" Dr. Cooper waved his hand, and Korobi, the culprit, was taken away.
Dr. Cooper looked at his company's mess and the relentlessly falling stock market, losing the panic and anger he had before.
This was one of Dr. Cooper's greatest strengths: he would not be troubled by temporary mistakes. Even in an absolute predicament, he would find ways to solve problems.
Not to mention that the current situation was not a predicament for Goldman Sachs. Although Goldman Sachs had lost over 200 billion US dollars, which was a severe blow, it was obviously impossible to bring down the vast Goldman Sachs because of this. On the contrary, Dr. Cooper was already contemplating how to leverage the situation, turn adversity into advantage, and counterattack.
That evening, Dr. Cooper immediately summoned all the powerful figures within the family and then very straightforwardly presented the events of the past few days and the culprit Korobi to everyone.
Korobi did not break his promise and took all the blame himself, not shifting any of it to Dr. Cooper.
"What are we keeping this company-betraying animal for? Get rid of him!" the board members said angrily, and Korobi was taken away. That night, someone discovered that Korobi, due to his operational errors that caused serious losses to Goldman Sachs, had jumped from the top floor of the company.
Goldman Sachs also feigned a statement that afternoon, saying that the stock market losses were temporary and not worth paying the price of life for, and they would take good care of Korobi's family. The matter was thus dropped, and no one really investigated how Korobi had jumped.
However, Korobi's death could not resolve Dr. Cooper's predicament with the board. Moreover, the board members were not fools. So, after Korobi was dragged away, a director immediately asked sarcastically, "Dr. Cooper, was all of this really done by this fellow Korobi alone?"
"I think so. Otherwise, I can call him back for you to question," Dr. Cooper said calmly.
"Heh, what is Korobi? He was your secretary for 10 years, and you personally recommended him to be the head of the operations department. Now you're telling us that he caused such a huge problem behind your back, and you were kept in the dark the whole time? Do you think we'll believe that?"
This director's question made Dr. Cooper's heart ache beyond words.
If he had conspired with Korobi to do all this, he would have accepted such sarcastic remarks. But the problem was that he hadn't. He had truly been kept in the dark from beginning to end. He felt so wronged.
And the most pathetic thing was that if he were in the board's shoes, and the company's president were someone else, Dr. Cooper himself would not believe Korobi's story. Who would believe such talk is a fool.
Of course, Dr. Cooper also knew that explaining the matter at this time would be useless. Dr. Cooper simply said calmly, "The situation has turned out this way, which is indeed an outcome no one wanted to see. But the facts are as they are. The only way is to turn passive into active and recover our company's losses from elsewhere."
"What do you plan to do?" Hearing Dr. Cooper say this, the board members were immediately energized. Although Dr. Cooper had handled this matter very poorly this time, his past experiences undoubtedly proved how capable he was. The board had not dealt with actual company affairs for many years, and it was impossible for them to come up with solutions now. Therefore, all problems ultimately fell on Dr. Cooper alone.
"I suggest that the company immediately invite all institutions and heads on Wall Street to hold an emergency meeting. At this meeting, I will naturally be able to provide solutions. At the same time, we can turn passive into active and extract a significant piece from the main culprit, Jiangnan Group, to compensate for our losses!" Dr. Cooper said.
"Is just extracting a piece enough?" some directors frowned unhappily. "We should dismember Jiangnan Group and swallow it whole to compensate for our anger!"
"Although I really want to do that, it's truly impossible!" Dr. Cooper sighed helplessly. "Jiangnan Group's enterprises in the United States are not their core industries. Their core is their server technology and their five-dimensional computer technology, and all these technologies are hidden in China."
"Unless we want to start World War III, we will never be able to truly eliminate the entire Jiangnan Group!"
"Heh heh!" Hearing this, a director suddenly laughed heartily. "Third World War? If we can gain enough benefits, what's wrong with fighting? After all, we rose by standing on the shoulders of World War I and World War II. I am actually very much looking forward to World War III!"
"Heh heh heh!" Laughter suddenly echoed around the room. Even Dr. Cooper had a eager smile on his face. Not a single person showed any resistance to the terrifying word "war."
Of course, they did not seem to have considered what would happen if they lost.
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July 6, 2008. Although the sun was bright that day, the air on Wall Street seemed to be gray. Everyone had a pained expression, full of fear for the future.
"Plop!" Suddenly, there was a loud sound of a heavy object falling, followed by the urgent honking of car alarms. Some people glanced in the direction of the sound, and their expressions became even more terrified.
Someone had jumped from a nearby tall building again, smashing onto a car and causing this series of sounds.
But one thing they knew was that if the situation did not change slightly, they might very well be the next ones to jump.
In fact, they had just received news that morning that even the operations director of the esteemed Goldman Sachs Group had jumped from the building due to immense pressure from the huge mistake he had made, and his body could not even be recovered.
Thinking of this, everyone couldn't help but tighten their clothes, only to realize that it was actually the height of summer and very hot.
Fortunately, when they returned to the company, they heard a somewhat uplifting piece of news: Goldman Sachs Group had taken the lead in calling an emergency meeting, inviting all industry giants to attend and resolve the current severe crisis.
Everyone had high expectations for this meeting. They all firmly believed that as long as the people of Wall Street could unite, there would be no problem that could not be solved, and everything would surely get better.