Rebirth of the Tech Madman - Chapter 1082

Chapter 1079 Poke the bubble again and let you lose a

…

To Tang Huan’s surprise, Warren Buffett quickly followed.

So, the world’s richest man and the world’s second-richest stood by the car and talked.

Tang Huan joked: “When the shares of IT companies such as Yuan and Zheru Software were sold before, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch belonged to the trustees, and they made a lot of money, but they did not see Henry Paulson and David Koman. Sky sent me out; old friend you sent me out, aren’t you afraid of being isolated?”

“I’m not the same as those people.” Warren Buffett replied directly: “I am the boss, and they are similar to your team’s manager. After all, they will leave because of retirement, poor performance, etc. I am. Of course I care about you forever.”

“Thank you for your trust in me.” The richest man laughed loudly, while muttering to himself that the other party could see clearly.

This is indeed the case. In the next eight years, those CEOs who are sitting like a dog in a conference room on the tenth floor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will be lucky enough to retire in their entirety.

Seeing that Tang Huan’s posture at this time was not as strong as it was when he was besieged by Wall Street bigwigs before, Warren Buffett continued to confess: “I think you need an intermediary between you two, and I am willing to play this. Character.”

“I believe you.” The richest man nodded in approval, “However, before the next negotiation, they can’t continue to doze on the truth.”

Warren Buffett, who has many interests related to Tang Huan, seriously reminded: “Since last year, the operation of California high-speed rail has been seriously trapped by the California power crisis, California’s stringent environmental protection laws and other local negative factors; Recently, those airlines that have been defeated have begun to reopen routes between Southern California and Northern California, competing for passenger sources at low prices. You have to see the subtleties of this.”

“Don’t worry, the one who can’t stand it first will definitely not be me.” Tang Huan waved his hand confidently, “Compared to these open-minded maneuvers, I am more interested in the possible small methods. Just now. You have also seen that someone moved out old things like “Fu Manchu” and “Yellow Peril” to attack me. If this trouble continues, there may really be no room for maneuver in the future.”

Warren Buffett took off his glasses and wiped them to cover up his distress, and finally sighed: “I will remind these brave guys not to touch such a sensitive bottom line.”

“I hope I won’t die forever.” Tang Huan squinted his eyes at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York building, waved goodbye to Warren Buffett, and got on the bus to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel where he often stayed in New York. .

…

After playing “raising pigs and killing pigs” on Wall Street for so many years, the greed and meanness has penetrated into the bone marrow.

Take Merrill Lynch as an example. The richest man has taken care of its business, but his performance today is like a passerby. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is feeding an unfamiliar white-eyed wolf.

Tang Huan’s pressing on Wall Street step by step is of course well prepared, but he still needs to evaluate the timing of throwing the bomb.

For example, in the process of the bubble burst, many investors who were fooled by securities companies to not sell online stocks needed time to accumulate grievances against Wall Street.

For this reason, the richest man met several media professionals who are concerned about the situation in the hotel, which can be regarded as an insight into the extent of “popular grievances”.

Such a busy time, coupled with reading some important documents including information on the merger of the two banks of JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan, after Tang Huan fell asleep, was not woken up by his assistant until noon the next day. And asked him whether he would return to the west coast of the United States in the afternoon.

“Itinerary remains the same.” The richest man nodded, “Since yesterday, this place has been regarded as someone else’s home court.”

The assistant hurried to inform Silicon Valley Unit One, and Tang Huan took the time to wash.

After returning to the living room, the richest man frowned and saw a waitress cleaning.

When Tang Huan came out, the other party quickly apologized: “I’m sorry, sir, I thought I had checked out here, so I came in to clean it.”

The richest man spoke gently: “Then you can go to other places first. I will use this room for a while.”

The waitress raised her head, unexpectedly showing a pair of peachy eyes, looking at Tang Huan boldly, “Sir, do you need special services?”

“Don’t insult my wisdom.” The richest man raised his finger to the door and said lightly: “Get out.”

The waitress turned around, but did not move her footsteps. Instead, she gently shook her hips, dazzling the electric hip dance, and ostentatiously said: “Sir, I’m really good…”

Tang Huan, who was harassed and impatient, raised his foot and faced the trembling one, just a moment.

The waitress who rolled to the door, got up in embarrassment, scolded “eunuch” in anger, and ran away.

…

In the traditional box office off-season in the United States in March this year, there was a big hit film, “Never Compromise” starring Hollywood’s highest paid actress Julia Roberts.

This independently produced film, on the first weekend after its release, reached the top of the North American weekend box office rankings with a box office of more than 30 million U.S. dollars, and occupied this position for four consecutive weeks; even in May, Still very popular and widely praised.

As a feature film that does not take special effects as a selling point and is purely story-telling, the reason why “Never Compromise” can be so fame and fortune is naturally inseparable from the special social background.

The first main reason is that the large-scale power outages worldwide last year were really impressive; the blackouts in the United States and Canada in particular made Americans empathize, and in turn made everyone curious about the topic of electricity.

The main reason now is that the California power crisis is getting worse and worse, and people are miserable.

Who would have thought that such a state with a developed economy comparable to that of a large country would be tortured by the lack of electricity.

Of course everyone’s depression must be vented, criticizing California Governor Gray Davis for his incompetent response, accusing Enron of stockpiling, and condemning local California energy companies such as Pacific Watt for acting like a tiger…

In this way, in “Never Compromise”, the Pacific Watt, which caused the hexavalent chromium water pollution incident, was defeated by a single mother and a legal rookie. How unpleasant?

What’s more, in terms of the quality of the film itself, such as the production level, artistic connotation, and starring performance, “Never Compromise” is also excellent.

These voices of praise are not limited to traditional film critics. The Internet has already developed in the bubble, such as Amazon’s Internet movie database, the “Tang Zhizi” Rotten Tomatoes website, and other platforms. A positive evaluation was given.

It can be said that “Never Compromise” played the role of a “weapon” placed by Tang Daheng in the invisibility of Daheng, and widely evoked people’s disgust towards energy companies’ lack of social morality.

At this time, compared with the limited interaction that traditional media can provide, the advantages of online media are further revealed.

Unpleasant people can easily find like-minded people in cyberspace and express their opinions heartily. Any blog that analyzes the gains and losses of California’s power reform can easily receive hundreds of “likes.”

It has to be said that although the bubble burst, blogs have been proved by the waves to be a successful application of technology. The most convincing example is that traditional commercial marketing is increasingly turning to blogging platforms.

It’s just that the innate feature of blogging that anyone can become a media publisher is also a double-edged sword. Both right and evil depend entirely on how to use it.

Take Mr. richest man, the chief promoter of the blog, in turn, in the emerging media environment he created, he has been attacked by all kinds of strange and specious attacks, quite a kind of “don’t stop messing up” posture. As a result, the traditional media, which has always been “stable”, also began to pay attention to the developments in this area.

Professional black-tang media such as the “New York Post” even simply extract and summarize such messy remarks, and then put them in a newspaper that has long formed cognitive inertia and is considered to be more “authoritative”.

Its increasingly sensational view can be summed up as: Tang Huan, who has titles such as Tang’s richest man, Tang it, Tang Daheng, Tang Wenhao, Tang Jinzhou, Tang Shanren, Dr. Tang, Tang Shi, Tang Sheng, etc., is better than novels and movies. The “Fu Manchu” described in the comics is still terrifying. It will take a few years to control the United States and even rule the world.

It seems that the fire is about to add fuel to the fire. Recently, there has been a major incident that may seriously harm Tang Huan’s “undefeated golden body”. A waitress charged that the richest man, an careerist who was portrayed as an attempt to control the United States and even rule the world, sexually assaulted her when he entered the hotel room to clean up.

As soon as the news came out, a wave of waves was immediately stirred up.

The doubter laughed: Stop teasing. For so many years, Tycoon Tang has never seen anything in Hollywood. The possibility of getting tired of playing and turning is hundreds of times greater than forcing such a vulgar fan…

The crusaders dismissed: What’s so strange, people like Tang care about freshness, maybe the good women are more exciting to him.

It seemed that it was a proof of poor reasoning. Tang Huan only made a painless statement through the office spokesperson, “the clear one clears, the turbid one is turbid”, and he stopped speaking.

Almost overnight, the “hotel door” of the richest man overwhelmed the “zipper door” of US President Bick Clinton.

The paparazzi were like crazy, chasing Tang Huan around, hoping to get the best news, but it was not until the California high-speed rail held a media briefing that they were able to meet the richest man.

As a result of negative factors such as the California power crisis, Enron taking advantage of the fire, the civil aviation industry’s counterattack, and California’s environmental protection pressure, California high-speed rail seems to be showing signs of turning from prosperity to decline. Even some California high-speed rail employees said that their own Confidence, only the richest man with strong financial resources will unconditionally support the California high-speed rail.

Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine that the atmosphere at this media briefing was a bit heavy.

Jerry Brown, chairman of the California High-speed Rail Authority, has clarified all the measures that the California High-speed Rail might take to increase fares, take a wide-ranging shift of employees, and even lay off employees.

Originally, Tang Huan, who was sitting aside calmly and helping to stabilize the California high-speed rail, didn’t want to participate, but he couldn’t hold back the reporters from disrupting the rhythm of the media briefing several times, so he reluctantly agreed.

However, the richest man was directly thrown out by the first one, around the so-called “hotel door”, deliberately designed traps, and angered him.

“You are so stupid that you can’t see it. Is this a series of despicable conspiracies against me?”

“You really don’t have that patience. Wait until the day after tomorrow’s court the truth is revealed in the world?”

Tang Huan said with a sullen face: “If people do not offend me, I will not offend; if anyone offends me, I will do so!”

The reporters in the audience watched cheekyly as the richest man walked away while recording vigorously.

Then, I couldn’t wait until the next day, when there was a report that “Tang became angry because of the’hotel door”‘, rushing to emerge.

Soon, the United States was the most influential and one of the courts with the largest number of cases, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which opened a trial at the “hotel door.”

Tang Huan didn’t bother to be there, but many media interpreted it as: self-consciousness and avoid embarrassment. After all, if you can get rid of the relationship earlier, who wants to be tortured until now.

The lawyer on the side of the richest man is George Conway, who once represented US President Bill Clinton “Zip Door”.

Now that the “hotel door” is connected again, it is self-evident how George Conway shines.

However, George Conway did not respond to any questions from the reporters who flocked to him, and walked over with a serious face; on the contrary, the plaintiff put aside the cruel words confidently and wanted justice and so on.

The subsequent developments exceeded everyone’s expectations.

This lawsuit, which was originally estimated to be pushed back and forth for several rounds, took only one morning, and there was no need to waste time.

According to the media’s summary, George Conway was too lazy to talk nonsense, and soon took out a video to refute all the allegations.

This evidence illustrates three key points to the outside world:

First, the security protection level of the richest man is estimated to be incomparable to the president of a country. He even installed surveillance in the suite he stayed in.

Second, the waitress who sued was very problematic. As soon as she entered the suite, she took out a bottle of what seemed to be perfume and sprayed it.

Third, the richest man really made an act of “invasion”, kicking the waitress to the door with one foot, and after the other party cursed a few words, he left angrily.

George Conway said with a serious face: If the other party has bruises, his own party is willing to pay compensation; but this slander and the conspiracy that may be hidden behind will never be tolerated.

At the beginning, the waitress who played the image of the poor victim of Chu Chu was crying and begging for mercy in court. She was only in desperation because she was facing bankruptcy, so she had a vicious idea and wanted to blackmail a windfall from Tang Huan. .

The most unscrupulous media saw that this incident was not a hot celebrity sexual assault case, so after being greatly disappointed, it quickly turned to inquire about the conspiracy behind the scenes.

As a result, an incredible scene happened.

Within a few days, the waitress who reportedly wanted to write this experience into a book so that she could sell a sum of money to pay off her debt was found dead in the rented apartment.

The conclusion of the New York police: It may be that the pressure was too great, leading to a mental breakdown, and finally hanged himself.

The media, which had been chasing after and hitting hard, were like a discouraged ball. They all thought about other things.

…

Fortunately, another big event that happened immediately gave these people a chance to play their expertise down the stairs.

It is trying to merge with Sprint, the third largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, with a scale of 129 billion U.S. dollars, so that AT&T will be lifted from the throne of the boss, but it is temporarily stuck in the US and EU regulators. The WorldCom company was found to have a heinous financial fraud.

The cause of the storm was Bernard Ebers, CEO of WorldCom. This old man failed in his personal investment and his financial situation was about to go bankrupt. So he made a request on the board of directors of WorldCom to help him get a loan of 400 million US dollars. The result was a collapse and internal strife.

Among the chicken feathers on the floor, some people disclosed two news on increasingly lively blogs: one is that in the past two years, WorldCom has falsely reported billions of dollars in operating income; the other is that after WorldCom successfully acquired mci, The book value of its fixed assets was reduced from 14.1 billion U.S. dollars to 10.7 billion U.S. dollars, and this gap of 3.4 billion U.S. dollars was used by WorldCom to fill in other holes.

Furthermore, the senior management of WorldCom, from the chief executive officer to the chief financial officer, auditor, chief accountant, etc., all know and participate in this systematic financial fraud.

In this regard, WorldCom’s first reaction was to categorically deny: Don’t believe it, everyone! We have gone all the way and acquired many companies, including mci, to achieve today’s achievements; now we are talking about the merger with Sprint, so many people have offended it, maybe who is spreading it unpredictably. rumor.

But as soon as WorldCom’s voice came to fruition, Andersen, the world’s largest accounting firm, hurriedly withdrew its audit report on WorldCom.

This move was too meaningful, and all investors suddenly became suspicious, and the stock market, which had been dragged down by the bursting of the bubble, caused another wave of waves.

You know, WorldCom is also the “darling” of Wall Street, often calling itself a “star” in the stock market, with a stock price of over US$64 and a market value of US$180 billion.

It is precisely because of this halo that WorldCom was able to raise 37 billion US dollars, forcing the richest man to retreat and grabbing mci.

But now, the marriage between WorldCom and Sprint is basically empty.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which was moved by the news, immediately launched an investigation into WorldCom; another of the world’s four largest accounting firms, KPMG, took over the audit work of Arthur Andersen.

Without waiting for the results of these two companies, WorldCom’s stock was sold frantically, and its stock price went straight to single digits.

At this time, no securities analysts were cleverly confused about what the market was correcting normally.

Gein, an investor who has been embarrassed in the rupture, has refused to be fooled anymore.

What’s more, Wall Street itself has become a cocoon.

In the case of banks, both J.p. Morgan and Citigroup have given WorldCom loans, and the latter alone has given nearly 400 million U.S. dollars; as a result, their respective stock prices and reputation have fallen one after another.

Unlucky is followed by the pension funds of various states in the United States. For example, the New York State pension fund lost 300 million U.S. dollars, the Michigan pension fund lost 116 million U.S. dollars, and the Florida pension fund lost 90 million U.S. dollars.

…

Warren Buffett, who came to “Chang’an City” to spread the word, said with lingering fears: “I finally understand why they have been staring at you before. They have long known that they wanted to take real high-quality assets to offset. Own mistakes.”

The richest man asked calmly: “Old friend, how big is your influence?”

Warren Buffett replied with pleasure: “I have never touched technology stocks, even ibm, which was the most stable at the beginning. Later, I was influenced by you and had contact, but it was limited to your company.”

“That’s good.” Tang Huan nodded, “The scandal of WorldCom will have a bad impact beyond the United States, triggering the collapse of the global telecommunications industry.”

Hearing this, Warren Buffett was taken aback, “It shouldn’t be so bad, right? How long has the bubble burst, and the telecommunications industry will also collapse with it?”

“What’s so strange about this?” The richest man naturally analyzed, “The bubble encourages the telecommunications industry to build lines frantically. Now that the bubble has burst, it has caused an oversupply. Of course, the market has to ‘correct’.”

“I’m afraid, this’correction’ is coming in such a rush because of you.” Warren Buffett smiled bitterly: “Now, the credit of Wall Street has encountered an unprecedented crisis. The meaning over there, stop here, even if Everyone is tied.”

“They said to fight, just hit? They said to stop, just stop?” Tang Huan, who didn’t deny that he had moved his hands or feet, sneered: “I’m sorry, I only hit half the distance with this punch. I really can’t hold it anymore. !”

Warren Buffett asked in amazement: “What else is there other than the collapse of the telecommunications industry that followed the bubble burst?”

The richest man shrugged, “I am only responsible for igniting the fuze. As for where it will burn, and the earth-shattering explosion, then it’s up to fate.”

Seeing the weird light in Tang Huan’s eyes, Warren Buffett muttered to himself: “You mean, I can’t stop it?”

…

As the richest man said, the outbreak of the WorldCom scandal triggered the collapse of the global telecommunications industry.

Europe’s Alcatel, Vivendi, Vodafone, British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom… all survived.

To cite the most representative example, the share price of Deutsche Telekom has fallen gracefully from more than 100 euros.

The conservative Germans didn’t like stocks at first, that is, the wave of technology stocks that have been sweeping the global capital market in recent years has aroused interest, and this has ended; but now the cruel facts tell them that they still abide by their own traditions. , Live your life honestly.

In short, the bursting of the bubble and the collapse of the telecommunications industry marked the end of the bull market.

Those who feel the latter can only admit that they are unlucky; but those who misbelieve in Wall Street intelligence must be full of complaints.

…

Just as the ups and downs were frustrated, another major earthquake occurred.

In the case of the United States of America v. Zheru Software, Inc., the world’s largest accounting firm Arthur Andersen, which assisted the Ministry of Justice in auditing accounts, was also exposed after it recovered its audit report on WorldCom, and it audited Enron. , There are also major problems.

Investors who have become scared, do not ask what is happening, immediately fled one after another.

You should know that the stock price of Enron, which controls California electricity prices, has been raised by Wall Street to more than $90 at this time; and its executives have further promised investors that the stock price will rise to $140 per share; as for the basis, tacitly, such as The fruits of California high-speed rail and so on will be harvested soon.

As a result, Enron has been harvested by itself.

In fact, as early as March of this year, experts in the economic field published articles analyzing that there are problems with Enron’s profit model, which is not as clear as what it preaches.

But this voice of doubt was quickly overwhelmed by the voice of analysts reading the report.

only the guy drinking water knows it’s cold or hot.

Similar to the investigation process of WorldCom, before the US regulatory agency has reached a formal result of the investigation of Enron, certain phenomena have already told the outside world not to take a fluke.

For example, Arthur Andersen disintegrated himself first.

The reason is that, on the one hand, it is reported that the U.S. Department of Justice will prosecute the “repetitious” Arthur Andersen Accounting Firm in the name of obstructing justice. As a result, Arthur Andersen cannot conduct audits for other companies in accordance with federal laws. On the other hand, I know best what I have done. The elites who see their jobs are not guaranteed, of course know how to protect themselves.

To put it bluntly, the Andersen brand is hopeless, so hurry up and find a way out.

As a result, other accounting firms that were originally ranked behind Arthur Andersen began to split up Arthur Andersen’s resources crazily. After the Ministry of Justice officially launched the prosecution, Andersen seemed to have a shell left.

Investors are crying: liar! The full special code is a liar! The world’s first-class star enterprise, can’t believe it! The world’s number one accounting firm, can’t believe it!

Invisibly, this resentment also affected the U.S. election.

The thing is clear, US President Bill Clinton’s performance in the “Zipper Door” is an outright fraud.

Under such circumstances, voters’ requirements for the next US president tend to put character first.

It’s no wonder that the people have such simple ideas. The Enron scandal is more complicated than the WorldCom scandal, because this energy company has also stepped into the political arena and provided politicians in the United States and Britain with millions of government-government contributions.

It is not an exaggeration to say that now anyone who is involved with Enron has no good results.

Those who took out their coffins and bought shares of Enron are the most pitiful, and they are destined to lose their money. Institutions that have an affair with Enron will also pay an unimaginable price.

The “Wall Street Journal” strongly attacked Citigroup and j.p. Morgan, accusing them of being accomplices behind the “Enron Incident”, and now they deserve it.

This kind of guilt not only refers to the loss of deposits, the imminent astronomical fines and compensation, but also the loss of credit.

In the face of media inquiries, Sanford Weir, the inevitable chairman and CEO of Citigroup, finally said, “I would rather never know that a company like Enron existed.”

This meaningful sentence expresses the subtle mentality of Wall Street bigwigs at this stage.

At this moment, another weird scene appeared.

Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, who took the blame and resigned, died suddenly while on vacation in Snowmass, Colorado.

Pitkin’s police concluded that there was heart failure.

Four days later, Kenneth Lay’s ashes were buried in a secret location on the local mountain.

Such a once smashing business tycoon is not comparable to the waitress who can’t be extorted and doesn’t even bother to be asked for her name.

Fortunately, the media has gained experience this time and will not lose their voice collectively in an instant. Instead, they have turned to more representative topics, which Gu left and right neglected otherwise.

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