industrial overlord

Chapter 246
"This time, I followed the vice president around the countries of Western Europe. It was really shocking!"

In the He family, the first sentence He Haifeng said to the brothers and sisters of the Lin family made Lin Fanghua so depressed that she fell into He Lan's arms, and Lin Zhenhua laughed heartlessly.

"What's wrong? What did I say wrong?" He Haifeng asked in wonder.

"Uncle He, you let me down so much!" Lin Fanghua shouted, "How could it come out of your mouth?"

Lin Zhenhua smiled and repeated to He Haifeng what his sister had said to him before, and Lin Fanghua picked out a few words of admiration and frustration from Du Xiangyang and Ma Jie's letters and told them to everyone.

"What's so strange about this, the students in our class are now talking about foreign countries." He Lan said.

"What about you?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

He Lan snarled at He Haifeng and said, "I listen to Director He giving me political classes every day, so I don't dare to worship foreigners."

He Haifeng sighed, and said to Lin Zhenhua: "In the past, we always criticized foreign countries, but now we don't mention this word, and foreign conference tables are rounder than Chinese ones." His last sentence, Naturally, it is aimed at the contents of Du Xiangyang's letter relayed by Lin Fanghua.

Lin Zhenhua said: "It's not surprising, Lao He, didn't you just say that you felt very shocked after going abroad?"

He Haifeng said: "Yes, it is indeed shocking. The level of economic and social development of others is really too high. If we don't hurry up to catch up, we will really be abandoned by the times. Chairman Mao said that if we fall behind, we will Beaten. Comrade Xiaoping also said that China must learn from developed countries, and if it does not reform and open up, it will be expelled from the game. We went out this trip, and what we saw and heard felt a lot of pressure."

Lin Zhenhua smiled and said, "Pressure is great. Didn't it say in the movie that wells will not produce oil without pressure, and people will be light without pressure. Only when we are under pressure can we have motivation."

He Lan looked at Lin Zhenhua strangely, and asked: "Brother Xiaohua, why do I feel that you are so light when you say this. After my father came back from Western Europe, he always looks sad. Why don't you worry?"

"Really?" Lin Zhenhua was a little dazed by He Lan's words, as if he was indeed a bit different.He turned his head and asked He Haifeng: "Old He, are you sure? You have been so shocked after leaving the country, and you are actually frowning all day long?"

He Haifeng said: "What does Lanlan know? I am worried, not entirely because of the gap with developed countries. The most important thing is that there are problems in our current reform. If these problems cannot be corrected, the reform If you don’t do it well, you will fall short.”

"Is it that serious?" Lin Zhenhua asked in surprise.

He Haifeng asked back: "You are in the enterprise, don't you feel any problems?"

Lin Zhenhua thought for a while and said: "There is indeed a problem. It seems that the entire country's stalls are too large, the infrastructure is too large, the supply of materials is tight, and the price of raw materials has risen sharply. Fortunately, because we have undertaken the export task, many The materials are allocated directly by the planning department, and it is said that the life of those township and village enterprises is very difficult.”

He Haifeng nodded and said: "You are quite right. Now the entire economy is in danger of losing control, and the central government is very worried about this. Since last year, the central government has delegated a lot of power to the local governments. Enthusiasm. But the problem is that the enthusiasm of the localities is too high, and all localities are working hard, and the stalls are getting bigger and bigger, which has completely exceeded the level that the country's financial resources can support."

Lin Zhenhua said: "By the way, Lao He, we also encountered this situation when we went to the Frankfurt Equipment Exhibition this time. Various production lines such as color TVs, refrigerators, and motorcycles were blindly imported from all over the world. Just an Ariston refrigerator production line, it is said The whole country has introduced nine articles, which are exactly the same."

The worry that He Lan said appeared on He Haifeng's face: "I just saw the data reported by the Customs and the Bureau of Statistics. The Customs estimates that this year's overall foreign trade deficit may exceed 100 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to the annual export volume. half of the amount. If there is such a large deficit, then the less than US$100 billion in foreign exchange reserves we have managed to save in the past two years will not be enough to fill in all of it.”

"Minister Gao said the same thing," Lin Zhenhua said.

"This is foreign trade. The situation in domestic trade is even worse. Due to rising raw material prices, which affect downstream industries, the prices of many commodities have risen sharply this year. According to estimates from the Bureau of Statistics, the retail price index for this year may exceed 8%. Already, the consumer price index is estimated to be unstoppable at 10%." He Haifeng continued.

"Isn't this just inflation?" He Lan asked in surprise.

Lin Zhenhua looked at her curiously, and said, "That's right, I already know about inflation at such a young age."

He Lan retorted dissatisfiedly: "What is a young age? I am already 16 years old, okay? No one knows about inflation. We have also studied political economy. However, it does not mean that inflation occurs only in capitalist countries. Why, why is there inflation in our country?"

Lin Zhenhua didn't know how to answer her, so he had to kick the ball to He Haifeng: "Ask your father, he is in economics. I only understand industry, not economics."

In fact, Lin Zhenhua did not understand economics, but he did not know how to explain to high school students in 1985 that inflation would also occur in a socialist country.In the planned economy era, all prices were controlled by the state, so there was no price increase, which gave people the impression that inflation would not occur in a socialist country.In fact, economists have said and analyzed that all commodities use bills to maintain supply, which itself is a manifestation of hidden inflation.

After the reform and opening up, the state gradually loosened control over the market and gradually adjusted the prices of some commodities, resulting in an increase in the price level.Among them, the price adjustment was the largest in 1980. The consumer price index in that year, that is, the CPI increase that people used to say reached a level of 7%. However, the state also issued price subsidies to urban residents, so this price increase brought The impact is not obvious.In the ensuing years, prices rose at an annual rate of about 2%, while workers' wages rose even more during the same period, thus diluting the impact of price increases.

By 1985, due to overheated investment, prices rose sharply, and the CPI suddenly reached a high of 9.3% in this year, which had a very strong impact on the entire society.When middle school students like He Lan knew that inflation would also occur in China, their confidence in the original social system collapsed.

In fact, the 1985 price increase was just the beginning.From then on, until 1996, the average annual growth rate of China's CPI reached 12%, and the CPI was higher than 11.2% in 5 years, among which 10 reached a historical high of 1994%.

These 12 years can be said to be the most difficult 12 years for China's economy, and also the most impetuous and turbulent 12 years for Chinese society.Today's Lin Zhenhua is standing on the threshold of these 12 years.

If you can't understand the meaning of this group of numbers, you might as well travel back to later generations to take a look at the scene in 2011.This year, in the mouths of brickmen, is a year when prices are soaring and the economy is on the verge of collapse. In fact, China's CPI in 2011 only increased by 5.5%.If a CPI of 5.5% means that the economy is on the verge of collapse, then an average annual increase of CPI of 12% over the past 11.2 years is enough for China to collapse 24 times.

"The price problem is a very serious problem." He Haifeng said, "Our country's price system is unreasonable, especially the low price of heavy industry products, which has seriously affected the development of the commodity economy. Now the black market price of a ton of steel is as high as 5000 yuan, while the factory can only get 1000 yuan. The steel factory cannot get enough profit from product sales to expand reproduction, but the market has to pay a high price due to the shortage of steel.”

"How does the country think about it?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

He Haifeng said: "There are now two views in the theoretical circles. One is that the state should strengthen planning control to avoid excessive price growth. The other is that the state should completely give up control, cancel tickets, and allow prices to float freely. Sheng Dazhi. Don’t tell me, the latter view still has the upper hand.”

"Old He, I really don't understand these things." Lin Zhenhua said, "However, I have a little doubt. When we talk about reforms, how can the reforms become more and more chaotic? This problem is not just me. Commissioner Zhu also said the same thing. He even said that it would be better to go back to the era of planned economy.”

He Haifeng nodded and said: "We have heard countless complaints like Director Zhu's. However, everyone is just complaining. They know the shortcomings of the planned economy better than anyone else. Commodity economy is also the most vocal voice of comrades in these practical departments. The current chaos, in general, is an inevitable phenomenon that occurs when the old and new systems are transitioning.

In the era of planned economy, we controlled the economy through state administrative orders.A pure market economy manages the economy through economic means.Now that our country has loosened planning control, economic constraints have not kept up with it in time, which has led to a loss of control in management, and chaos is inevitable. "

He Lan frowned and said, "Dad, isn't what you said too complicated? Also, I remember that you studied industry, so why are you talking about economics now?"

He Haifeng said with a smile: "I can't help it, this is what I do now, what kind of business do I not know?"

With that said, he went back to the study and brought some books, handed them to Lin Zhenhua and said, "Xiao Lin, here are some new books published by domestic scholars, which analyze the current and future economic situation very well, please take a look. Now you are also the leader of a large enterprise group, and you can't just focus on technology, you have to focus on the macro situation."

"Let me see." He Lan snatched the book from his father before Lin Zhenhua could pick it up.He Haifeng glared at her, but he had nothing to do with this daughter.He Lan is the only girl in the family. She was spoiled by He Haifeng since she was a child, and she is not afraid of him as a father at all.

Lin Zhenhua said: "Thank you, Lao He. I will definitely take a good look at these books when I go back. However, Lao He, what I am most concerned about now is how the policy will change in the next step. Should it be recycled or continue to be released? Hmm... …Ask you this, isn’t it considered asking for state secrets?”

He Haifeng said: "This matter has a certain level of confidentiality, but you can listen to it. As I said before, there are several opinions in the theoretical circles on the next economic policy, and the opinions of the central government are not unified. However, at present Everyone is more inclined to choose a compromise path, that is, neither release too much nor harvest too much. Next month, the State Planning Commission will convene a meeting of the leaders of the provincial and municipal planning commissions. The main spirit is to give everyone Blow a cold wind, let everyone reduce the scale of investment appropriately, and let the economy come down from an overly high position relatively smoothly. By the way, an economist calls this policy a soft landing.”

"I know, it's the way the American space shuttle lands, right?" He Lan interrupted while reading the few obscure economics books at hand.

He Haifeng said: "Lan Lan is really right, everyone got the inspiration from the landing of the space shuttle."

"The core of a soft landing is landing. So, the whole policy should be inclined to shrink?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

He Haifeng looked at Lin Zhenhua, shook his head helplessly and said: "Xiao Lin, I found that you can always grasp the core of the problem at once. That's right, the general goal is to shrink, because it's no longer possible without shrinking, and the entire macro economy cannot It is always floating in the sky. In fact, we are now preparing with both hands. If a soft landing is not possible, we can only have a hard landing. However, if we have to make a hard landing, it is estimated that many bottles and cans will be broken."

"Then I understand." Lin Zhenhua said, "I have to plan ahead when I go back."

"Come on, Brother Xiao Hua, I'll give you these books. Go back and study hard." He Lan closed the book in her hand and handed it to Lin Zhenhua.

Lin Zhenhua put away the book, and asked with a smile: "How is it, Lan Lan, do you understand?"

"I understand a little bit." He Lan said.After finishing speaking, she left her seat, walked to the sofa where He Haifeng was sitting, sat on the armrest of the sofa, and said to He Haifeng, "Dad, I want to discuss something with you."

"What's the matter, so serious?" He Haifeng looked at her and asked.He knew that once this daughter started acting like a baby, she must have some unreasonable demands.

He Lan said: "We will divide subjects next semester, and I want to study liberal arts."

Hearing what He Lan said, before He Haifeng could say anything, Lin Fanghua jumped up first: "I object, Lan Lan, your grades are so good, isn't it a waste to study liberal arts?"

"Yeah, your grades are so good, why do you want to study liberal arts?" He Haifeng asked the same way, but he didn't refuse directly, but wanted to listen to his daughter's opinion.From the bottom of his heart, his views were consistent with Lin Fanghua's. Studying liberal arts is the choice of students with poor grades. This daughter's grades are quite top-notch. Why would he want to study liberal arts?
"What do you mean it's a waste to study liberal arts?" He Lan protested loudly, "Liberal arts is also very important! Look at my dad, he used to study science and engineering, but now he has switched to liberal arts? By the way, Brother Xiaohua , why don't you express your opinion?"

Lin Zhenhua's thoughts are somewhat different from those of He Haifeng and Lin Fanghua.In later generations, the status of liberal arts students has been greatly improved, and studying liberal arts is no longer just a choice for poor students.

Hearing He Lan's question on his head, Lin Zhenhua said with a smile: "Liberal arts and science are both good, but there are many majors in liberal arts. What major do you want to study specifically? Chinese, history, law, economics, you have to name one. Come in the direction, and everyone can help you judge."

"Of course I'm studying economics!" He Lan said, "Look, what you just said is not all about economics? How important is it to study economics now? I have already decided that I will study economics when I go to college. In the future, I will come out as the director of the Planning Commission and help you deal with these annoying economic problems."

Lin Zhenhua said to He Haifeng: "Old He, it seems that there are successors."

He Haifeng stroked his daughter's head caressingly, and said, "Well, if you really think about it, go learn it. But, you'd better ask your teacher for advice."

"Our teacher agreed a long time ago. He said that as long as the parents agree, he will agree." He Lan said triumphantly. After finishing speaking, she turned her head and said to Lin Zhenhua: "Comrade Lin Zhenhua, you have to be careful, wait for me After graduating from university, he will be your leader."

"Resolutely obey the command of the leader!" Lin Zhenhua said jokingly.

　I want to get to 5000 words before posting. After thinking about it, I still forget it. Now it is 4650 words.Some economic historical data, for everyone to recall that period of time.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)