America’s Road To Wealth

  Chapter 521 California situation rises

   A few days later, on August 20th.

  In downtown Los Angeles, in the branch of Smith Financial Group.

  Abel is in a video conference.

  The British Raiders have now come to an end. Abel's plan to land on the British Isle has been sniped, and he has not fully achieved the result he wanted.

   But about 1/3 of it was completed, and Abel felt that it was better than nothing.

   The communication with Morgan is still going on. If the negotiation between the two sides can pass, the result will be more successful.

  As an investment bank, Smith Capital has now focused its predatory attention and main force on the Canadian dollar.

  After the video conference, Abel held another meeting within the group about the arrangement of the commercial bank.

  His U.S. Pacific Bank of Commerce, after merging four Texas banks, now has nearly a thousand branches across the United States.

  Although most of these branches are small branches, the main force is still in the Texas area.

  Some branches even have only three or five staff members, one ATM machine, and one counter. The scale is very small.

  But on the east coast and west coast, mainly the Greater Los Angeles area, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater New York area, relying on the previous crazy annexation, they still have good strength.

   “…let’s advertise.”

  In the video conference, he made such a decision.

  "Smith Bank is not well-known yet. We need to let more Americans know about it and know that it is my bank. Encourage and support everyone to deposit money in. Only in this way can Smith Bank's business be expanded."

  Abel’s working mode is like this. Once he is willing to work, he will have endless jobs that he can’t finish every day.

  When he wants to be lazy or take a break, no matter how big or important the matter is, he can leave it to his subordinates to do it.

  This style of work is completely different from other rich people.

  After a few years, a corporate ethos adapted to his work style has been formed within the Smith Department.

   It wasn't until after 4 o'clock in the afternoon that Abel was reminded by his assistant Lydia Hearst that he needed to prepare for the evening dinner.

  Walking to the floor-to-ceiling windows on the entire wall facing the street, I stretched my waist, moved my sedentary body, and looked at the few vehicles on the wide road. After all, although the leased office building of the branch of Smith Finance is in the center of Los Angeles, it is located in a relatively remote area. In the downtown area of ​​Los Angeles where traffic jams are very serious, this is a good advantage.

  Looking at the large number of buildings outside the building, Abel has the mentality of building buildings again.

  It's a pity that the lowest point of US real estate prices has passed, and it has risen for two consecutive years. If you make a move now, it is already a high-level pick-up, although there is still money to be made, after all, the real high-level position has not yet come.

   Fortunately, before this, Abel had already bought and hoarded a large amount of real estate and land.

  He just waited around 2006 for the new starting point real estate company to clear all the properties in his hands.

  According to his estimation, doing so can at least bring a profit of at least 40 billion U.S. dollars to New Start Real Estate Company.

  Compared with the more than 20 billion US dollars he invested, the rate of return is more than 200%.

   Over the five years, the average annual share is more than 40%, which can be said to be very good.

  The premise is not to compare with his monster annualized rate of return on financial investment.

  In 2006, at the peak of real estate in the United States, all these properties were sold.

   Wait another year, when the real estate crisis and the subprime mortgage crisis break out, and the financial crisis sweeps the world.

  New Start Real Estate Company can stand up again, act as the savior of high-end real estate in the United States, and continue to buy and buy all over the United States.

  You can even buy the house that was sold at a high price and buy it back at a low price.

  At that time, a house sold for about 10 million U.S. dollars could be bought back for 3 to 4 million U.S. dollars.

  The crisis will not last long. After the subprime mortgage crisis, under various measures, the economy of the whole United States began to recover. During the long flooding process, real estate prices will generally rise across the United States.

  One up and one down, the scale and assets of New Starting Real Estate Company will more than triple or quadruple at least in ten years.

  By around 2016, it will be easy to double five or six times.

   This effortless way of making money that completely follows the laws of economics is not profitable for nothing.

   At 4:30 in the afternoon, Abel's motorcade left downtown Los Angeles and headed for Beverly Hills.

  But the convoy did not go to the villa where Charlize and others lived, but went to villa DR10066 on Siello Road in Beverly Hills.

  The people living in this villa are Ikana, Paris, and their children who followed him from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles these days.

   Two New York socialite daughters, they mainly raise babies and give birth in Santa Barbara.

   Now that the children are out, the peaceful life in Santa Barbara has obviously lost its appeal to them.

  As the most prosperous Beverly Hills on the west coast, it is naturally the best choice for the two.

  Ciero DR10066, a Beverly Hilltop room with a super terrace, is the first mansion in Beverly in Ikana's mind.

   is also what Ikana considers herself, the most important stronghold on the west coast.

  Backing back to Siero DR10066, Abel didn't see Ikana in the living room, so he frowned slightly and asked the housekeeper.

   Only then did I know that she was doing makeup in the room, and it will take a while, and she is doing hairstyle.

  For the banquet tonight, Abel plans to take Ikana, who is recovering well, with him.

  Paris is not good enough. She has just given birth to a baby for less than a week, and according to the concept of Chinese people, she is still in the confinement period.

  Ordinary Americans do not have the habit and tradition of confinement, that is because ordinary Americans generally do not have maternity leave.

  The upper class of the elite class is different. They can be free in time, and they also know that women do need a period of recovery after giving birth.

  So Abel's women all have a long recovery period to cultivate their bodies.

  Ikana is still putting on makeup, and Abel knows that it won't be finished in one to two hours. Paris is resting and the child is sleeping.

  He will not bother.

  Abel walked into the master bedroom, took out a white bathrobe from the closet, and went into the bathroom.

  In the luxurious white porcelain surf bathtub with a square marble platform, the water was tumbling and splashing from time to time. Abel took off his clothes, soaked himself in the warm bath water, reached out and took the remote control from the side, and began to search for TV programs.

When he came out of the bathroom with a relaxed body and a little laziness, Ikana, who had finished her hairstyle, put on makeup, and perfect manicure, had already put on a dark red sequined vest-style puff. A small dress with a skirt appeared in the living room, accompanied by two unknown women.

   "Honey, this is the hair stylist Jenny and her assistant, let her help you trim your hair. They are the best makeup artists and stylists in your film company."

   Ikana said happily.

  She feels that one of the advantages of living in Beverly Hills is that she can enjoy the various benefits and benefits brought by Abelna's powerful media company nearby.

   Like these most powerful image design teams in the United States, originally only serving superstars.

  Originally, she planned to go to the San Francisco Bay Area when she really wanted to start the new company called "New Era Blog" that Abel mentioned, because Silicon Valley is right there.

   But now, Ikana is considering whether it is possible to open this new company near the greater Los Angeles area.

  Anyway, IT companies don't care where their headquarters are. The reason why Silicon Valley can become Silicon Valley is that the housing prices near Silicon Valley are cheap at the beginning, which is suitable for Internet entrepreneurs who were poor and white at the beginning.

   Didn’t see it Later, as the rent and land prices in Silicon Valley became higher and higher, Internet entrepreneurs began to choose to stay away from Silicon Valley?

   But mainly because of this Beverly Hills, Ikana is really happy to live.

  She feels that this place cannot compare with New York in terms of traditional luxury.

   But in terms of comfort and luxury, it is not inferior to New York at all, even better than New York.

  Living here, without having to face the gazes of all kinds of high society in New York, is much more comfortable for her.

  American elites pay great attention to personal image.

  Families above the middle class often use stylists and hair stylists when they attend various banquets.

  The wealthy class even has their own private image team to help them design and organize images suitable for various occasions.

  This is a country that puts on shows to the core, from the grand commander to the common people, everyone likes to put on a show.

   And to put on a show, naturally you need all kinds of suitable images.

   For this kind of ethos, Abel has long since gone to do as the Romans do. Even with his natural appearance, even if he doesn't need to take care of it, he is far superior to normal people.

"kindness."

   Abel, who was wearing a bathrobe, nodded, walked to the chair that had been set up and sat down. His hair didn't need to be too troublesome to clean up, but he just trimmed the ends of his hair a little, and then dried it to shape it.

   There is absolutely no need for makeup or anything like that, even the best makeup artists and plastic surgeons can't make out his face.

   As night fell, Abel took Ikana to the place where the reception was held in a car.

  The venue was held in a hotel, but when it was almost at the door, the car stopped, and there were several cars in front of it, all of them were guests who came to tonight's reception.

Abel glanced sideways at Ikana, who was taking a deep breath and flushed with excitement. He couldn't help chuckling, and looked down, watching the pair of tight-fitting bibs squeezed towards the middle. .

   "I said, isn't it uncomfortable for you to be so crowded?"

   It's that big after all.

   "That's what makes it look good. The front is a U-shaped collar, and it will hang a little bit if you don't squeeze it. It will look very ugly. The collar at the back is big, and it's an open back. Don't you like it?"

  Ikanapu fanned her long eyelashes and explained with a guilty conscience.

  She is a man who knows herself, and has an unreasonable possessive Y in a certain way.

  If it is too dewy, he will be unhappy.

  Because in his view, his woman is his private property, and only he can fully possess it.

  Other people can only look at those normal places.

   Such as face, arms and so on.

   Still within the acceptable range, Abel said casually: "It's okay, you don't feel uncomfortable, as long as you like it, don't be nervous for a while."

  Ikana thought how could she not be nervous, the banquet tonight was the first one she attended after giving birth.

   More importantly, the level of this banquet is extremely high! It was a party where the donkey party in California invited some of the donkey party leaders in the United States, and then invited celebrities from all over California and even the west coast.

   It is said that there will even be one or two former leaders of the Donkey Party attending. She has never participated in a banquet of this level!

   This is a huge party for a party creature like her.

  Of course, she knew that the only reason she could participate was because she was his woman.

The car moved slowly, and Abel saw reporters crowded on both sides of the hotel entrance. Opposite the main entrance of the hotel was a large group of men and women holding up various homemade signs. Many people raised their arms very high and shouted anxiously. Protesting for something, there were still a few police cars parked by the side of the road, and more than a dozen policemen with potbellies and uniforms spread out not far apart.

Abel is not interested in knowing what these people are against. Anyway, there are a lot of idlers in the United States, and the protest crowd is very easy to gather. Tonight's reception is held by the Donkey Party, and many big bosses of the Donkey Party will come, so these people Just got wind of it.

   Seeing this scene, he secretly laughed in his heart.

  Actually, this banquet was originally private and not open to the public.

   What programs will be played inside, outsiders will never know. And this banquet, he was not invited at the beginning.

   It was Abel who expressed his desire to participate in the banquet after hearing Neil Shrub mentioning it.

   This made the donkey party's banquet suddenly deteriorate.

   First, it changed from private to public, and then it was only an internal gathering of the California Donkey Party, and it became a gathering of the donkey party's all-American bigwigs.

  The participating guests have also changed from simple important members of the donkey party to a big gathering of upper-class figures from the entire west coast.

  The reason for this change is mostly because of Abel.

   Who is Abel, the richest man in the world, has always rarely participated in high society social occasions on the west coast.

   The few times, it was a private party that was not open to the public.

  Abel's main social activities are in Texas, Washington and New York.

   Now that the Abels are in California, they are still willing to attend the banquet held by the donkey party.

  In order to take the opportunity to increase their influence and allow the upper class on the west coast to get in touch with Abel, the Donkey Party decided to make the banquet public and large-scale.

  Actually speaking from his heart, Abel has no interest in the dispute between the Elephant Party and the Donkey Party.

  Besides the unchangeable factor of his birth, he has never clearly stood up for any party.

   It doesn't make sense to him, well, after all, it is a hard-core Xiangdang family, and Xiangdang's behavior style is more in line with his wishes. Generally speaking, he still prefers Xiangdang in his heart.

   But if you have to say what kind of party he is, then Abel thinks he is an "interested party".

  Whoever benefits him more, and who can better help him obtain greater benefits, then he belongs to that faction.

   Like now, what he wants to do most in California is to push Neil Shrub up.

  Neill's campaign team has been established and has submitted applications for the election to California and the federal government.

   In a few months, when this year’s mid-term elections begin, Neil will officially announce his candidacy, and then he will start fighting.

  Many people think that with Abel's current financial resources, the best way for him to support someone to come to power is to donate money.

   The question is whether it is now or 2002, and there are still many restrictions in this regard.

  Federal law stipulates that the total amount of personal donations in each election shall not exceed 2,500 US dollars, so personal donations are really tasteless projects.

A better way is to set up an organization or directly donate money to support an organization, which is a political organization initiated by a company, individual or institution. For example, a certain company announces the establishment of such a group, injects a sum of money, and accepts donations at the same time .

   This group cannot cooperate with the candidates it supports, but the law allows it to advertise, can praise the candidates it supports, and can also derogate the candidates it does not like.

  Since advertising expenditure is the largest expenditure in each general election, companies can directly affect the results of the general election in this way.

  Organizations such as the National Rifle Association rely on this method to achieve the fourth pole.

   If you want your father-in-law to succeed in California, it is obviously difficult to rely on money alone.

  Combining money and power makes it easy.

  Through the car window, Abel glanced at the protest signs held up high, well, there are more signs protesting against the current governor of California.

  Governor Davis, who is currently a member of the Donkey Party, ushered in the collapse of the Nasdaq bubble during his tenure, which greatly affected the California economy.

  In addition, during his tenure, the law and order in California deteriorated severely, and the number of gangs in Los Angeles and San Francisco doubled.

  He himself became the first governor of California to be impeached. Among those who held protest signs outside, the one who protested the most was Governor Davis.

   But it’s not just Davis. There are actually all kinds of signs of protest, except for Mr. Governor’s.

  Abel can only say that this group of people is purely idle, as if their protest would really make these serious people compromise.

The car door opened, and Abel got off the red carpet. He turned around and stretched out his hand to hold Ikana's little hand. When the two of them stood still on the red carpet and were recognized by the reporters, the whole venue was filled with white light, one after another. shouts, wanting Abel to cooperate and take a few photos.

  How could Abel talk to them? Ikana, who was very happy and smiling at the moment, wanted to cooperate. But she also knew that the scene was inappropriate, so she just held Abel's arm tightly and walked towards the hotel gate in a leisurely manner, without any intention of staying at all.

In the resplendent hall of the reception, the initiator of the reception, Jerry Brown, and his wife, Helen Brown, greeted them with a smile on their fronts. They were dressed in a neat suit with a bow tie. They were chic and calm, and very talkative. Bigger New York senator wife.

A person walked quickly to Jerry Brown, and reported a few words softly beside him, making Jerry Brown's eyes light up slightly, and a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "Sorry, two, I may have to Excuse me. An important guest has arrived, and I need to greet you..."

"Hehe, is that Smith? I'll go with you. Don't worry, Jerry, for God's sake, we have no conflict with him." Zipperton's eyes shone brightly, with a happy smile on his face. Said with a smile.

   "Yes. We are not his enemies." Sirani also hurriedly said with a smile beside her.

  In fact, she is not so generous, not so ungrateful.

  The problem is that now she and her husband are not the same in the donkey party as they will be in the future.

   The couple can only be said to be princes of one party in today's donkey party.

  When other big donkey gangsters wanted to win over Abel Smith. The benefactor behind her and his wife also told them not to conflict with Abel Smith.

  Even if she was upset, Sirani had no choice but to swallow her breath.

   This is going to be replaced by an ordinary rich man, offending this couple... They really dare to kill people!

  (end of this chapter)