"It's the first time in so many years that everyone is sitting here so neatly. I'm very touched!" Inside a huge conference room, looking at the full crowd of bigwigs on both sides of the round table, Dr. Cooper said with emotion.
This was indeed a rare large-scale meeting on Wall Street in the past decade. Apart from a few big players who were not in Wall Street, all the important figures of Wall Street were present in this conference room.
Even those who did not attend had sent their representatives. It could be said that this conference room represented over 85% of Wall Street's strength. If someone were to launch a missile at this place, the entire world would be liberated.
Of course, such a high participation rate also showed that the entire Wall Street had sensed the severity of the crisis and they had to find a way to unite and resolve it.
The last time they gathered on such a large scale was due to the financial crisis of '97.
"Cooper, you old fox, you are the one who wanted to escape by stepping on our corpses and fleeing first. How dare you have the face to call us for a meeting?" An old rival of Dr. Cooper said with an unfriendly expression. He and Dr. Cooper had always been at odds. If it weren't for the extreme seriousness of the current situation, he would never have appeared in this conference room.
"Heh heh!" Dr. Cooper gave a dry laugh. "We all know what kind of people we are, everyone present here knows it clearly. It's just that we happened to seize such an opportunity. If you had such an opportunity, you would also escape by stepping on my corpse!"
"We can only blame that bastard Xiao Swift for breaking our rules and completely ruining the situation we painstakingly created, forcing us to flee prematurely!" Dr. Cooper said.
"Denis ran away too quickly. That black guy posted on Weibo, and you guys started running right after him, with a gap of less than 30 seconds. Did you know in advance that the black guy would post on Weibo, then lock all the traders in the trading room, just waiting to escape!" Someone said with a cold laugh. As expected, none of the people present were good people, and the other party had actually guessed Dr. Cooper's actions almost perfectly.
"Nonsense, you all know about the mess between Goldman Sachs and Jiangnan Group. This is just basic respect for a competitor. As for why we acted so quickly, at this critical juncture, aren't your traders sleeping on the floor in the company every day, ready to flee at any moment?" Dr. Cooper's words left everyone speechless.
Although everyone felt that there were many problems, no one could produce any evidence. Moreover, Dr. Cooper's logic was very meticulous, with no apparent loopholes. Coupled with Goldman Sachs's position, no one wanted to truly offend Goldman Sachs without evidence, otherwise they wouldn't have attended the meeting called by Goldman Sachs.
Of course, the most important point was that although Goldman Sachs ran, it only managed to escape with its head, just a few hundred billion dollars, while its body was completely trapped. Over 400 billion dollars in funds were all stuck in the market, and their situation was not much better than everyone else's, even considered the most miserable among them.
If one person were to save themselves while others suffered, everyone would naturally express their contempt. But if you were even more miserable than everyone else, then everyone could find comfort in you, which would instead foster a good impression.
Therefore, since Goldman Sachs's losses were also so huge, no one had any intention of continuing to trouble Goldman Sachs. It was precisely by grasping this point that Dr. Cooper confidently took the initiative to initiate this meeting, confident that everyone would attend. And the facts indeed unfolded as he predicted, with almost everyone present.
"Gentlemen, at this point, many issues are no longer important. What's important is how we can extricate ourselves from this terrible quagmire. I'm afraid none of you want to be trapped in this muddy mire and unable to climb out!" Dr. Cooper said.
"Nonsense. If it weren't to get out of this mire, who would be willing to come here to have a meeting with you!" The person who was at odds with Dr. Cooper before grumbled.
"Dr. Cooper, you are the most experienced and resourceful among all of us here. Since you are willing to initiate this meeting, you must have found a way to save us! Don't play coy anymore. Just tell us your plan. As long as it can save everyone from suffering, we will certainly follow your lead in the future!" A handsome man with a proper appearance and a look of righteousness spoke up.
However, contrary to his appearance, everyone in the circle knew that he was a pervert, and a pervert of the BDSM community at that. The number of boys who were played to death by him had already approached three digits.
But at this moment, he was the most sincere and anxious person among those present, because the institution behind him was Lehman Brothers Bank, and this was also one of the large financial institutions that was most severely involved in the subprime mortgage crisis. Nearly 70% of the company's assets were invested in the giant pit of subprime mortgages.
Despite Lehman Brothers Bank being so colossal, if this fuse were to detonate, Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy and closure would only be a matter of moments. That was why he was so expectant of Dr. Cooper, wanting to obtain a solution for liberation from his hands.
"Gentlemen, the truth is very simple. The reason why we are trapped in this crisis and cannot get out is because we have a large amount of money locked into the subprime mortgage pit. As long as we can find other things to fill this pit, everyone can naturally be freed!" Dr. Cooper said calmly.
"Are you kidding me? The subprime mortgage pit involves funds as high as 8 trillion US dollars. Even with leverage, it would still require at least over 1 trillion US dollars to fill the pit. Where can we find this 1 trillion US dollars? Are you going to pay for it?" someone sneered.
"We at Goldman Sachs certainly cannot afford this money, nor should Goldman Sachs be the one to pay for it."
"There is a Chinese saying: 'Every debt has its debtor, every wrong has its perpetrator.' Whoever caused us to fall into this situation where we cannot escape the market should be responsible for filling this hole!" Dr. Cooper said.
"You mean the Western Mustang Fund!" Someone immediately understood Dr. Cooper's meaning and his plan. This plan was quite simple and crude: find a scapegoat, kill him, and use his corpse to fill everyone's pit.
Would everyone agree to such a deceptive plan?
The answer was obvious: almost everyone applauded at this moment, expressing their approval of this excellent plan with their own hands.
The attitude of these people was indeed within Dr. Cooper's expectations. Not to mention that Xiao Swift's Weibo post had completely torn off everyone's disguise and ruined the good situation of a gradual escape. This point alone was enough to make everyone united in their desire to kill Xiao Swift and the Western Mustang Fund behind him.
Even setting aside this point, everyone could reach a consensus. Who told the Western Mustang Fund to be so arrogant recently? It had become the fastest-growing fund in the market, holding over 400 billion US dollars in capital in just a few years, surpassing more than 50% of the institutions present.
Moreover, the fund's scale was still increasing at a rate of over 100 billion US dollars per year. In a few years, it would become the largest fund in the world, even larger than the capital scale of Buffett and Soros. Who wouldn't be envious?
What was even more deadly was that Xiao Swift didn't know how to behave. Although he never boasted in the industry, he always remained aloof from industry events.
At first, because he was black, hardly anyone invited him to events. But now, everyone endured their disgust and invited this black man to attend events, yet he remained aloof, refusing all invitations except for a few times.
Some people wanted to do business with him, but he never met them. This made the entire Wall Street very displeased with him, but they were too lazy to bother with him when the economy was good.
Now, when it was time to slaughter a pig to fill the hole, it was only natural to bring this guy out.
Well, these people who were resentful of Xiao Swift would never guess that Xiao Swift's refusal to participate in any activities was not because he was too arrogant, but because he really didn't have the guts to attend them.
Good heavens, Xiao Swift knew very well that if he had even a casual conversation with these financial experts, his status as a mere rank-and-file soldier would be instantly exposed. Therefore, the best approach was not to communicate with others and maintain an air of mystery, so that no one would question his abilities.
To get back to the point, Dr. Cooper's proposal was immediately met with a positive response from everyone. They all thought that killing the Western Mustang Fund, this pig, was a good idea.
Of course, some people raised objections. For example, the handsome CEO of Lehman Brothers said worriedly, "Dr. Cooper, the Western Mustang Fund only has 400 billion yuan. That might not be enough to fill the entire hole!"
"That's right!" Dr. Cooper nodded. "So, it's not enough to just kill the Western Mustang Fund. We need to add another pig."
"Which pig?" the handsome CEO asked excitedly.
"Who else could it be?" Dr. Cooper smiled faintly. "Naturally, it is..."
"Naturally, it is the 00 Network, which shares the same origin with our Western Mustang Fund and is also controlled by Chairman Huang He!" Suddenly, a voice said cheerfully in the conference room. "00 Network alone currently has 700 billion, and adding my 400 billion makes it 1.1 trillion US dollars, which is just enough to fill the entire hole!"
Because a bodyguard who had been standing behind a certain big shot suddenly took off his hat and sunglasses, revealing his dark face and the title of "God of Finance."