Happy Tycoon

The night of September 7, 1998, Eastern Time in the United States, was destined to be a sleepless night.

Because of the time difference, it was September 8 on Hong Kong Island on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Just yesterday, the Hong Kong Island government promulgated a series of new financial policies, which greatly increased the restrictions on speculation by international speculators. Many were on August 28. The international speculators who lost their money on the daily settlement day originally wanted to make a comeback this week, but after the promulgation of this series of policies, their way was immediately blocked.

Therefore, these international speculators represented by major investment behaviors can only watch with tears and hatred that their own money is firmly trapped by the stock market and stock index futures on Hong Kong Island, as well as the foreign exchange market.

On the west side of West Street in New York, there is a building whose house number is No. 200, so this building is the 200 West Street in New York.

This building also has a famous name, Goldman Sachs Building. This 228-meter-high, 44-story building is the global headquarters of the Goldman Sachs Group.

And just across the street from the southeast of the Goldman Sachs Building are the two tallest buildings in New York, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The straight line distance between the North Tower and the Goldman Sachs Building is less than 250 meters.

At this moment, in a huge and luxurious office on the top floor of the Goldman Sachs Building, several old men in suits and leather shoes were sitting together looking at each other with their brows.

"Mr. Collins, we lost more than 700 million U.S. dollars in Hong Kong Island’s action to block the Hong Kong dollar. How would you tell me to tell our partners about this incident? Don’t forget, on the 19th of next month, our Goldman Sachs The 189 partners of 1989 are about to gather together to hold the biennial Goldman Sachs partner award ceremony. This is a major event for Goldman Sachs. However, the action you presided over encountered Waterloo. How did you ask me to explain to the partners? "

The speaker was a white man in his fifties. He was Henry Paulson, who became the CEO and COO of Goldman Sachs last year, and he was speaking to Goldman Sachs Chief Investment Officer Rod Collins. An old man who is nearly sixty years old.

After a pause, Paulson continued: “Don’t forget, we at Goldman Sachs are preparing for a public offering recently, but if our losses from this operation are exposed, it will be a fatal blow to the public offering, our partners Let us all go away!"

Collins, who was sitting across from Paulson, shrugged, "What can I do? Everything was fine before. Even on that day, the situation was excellent at the beginning. Although the Hong Kong Island and China Governments took out A huge amount of money comes to the market, but we also have a lot of money. If we didn't have the huge amount of long money that suddenly entered the market in the afternoon, even if we could not win this battle, we would never lose so much. 700 million US dollars, Do you think I am willing to keep the money on the other side of the Pacific? This is an accident, or a premeditated blockade, but it is us, not the Hong Kong Island government!"

Paulson's face gradually turned red, and he was obviously angry at this shirk of responsibility, "Then why did you not monitor the entry of this fund? What about your surveillance network? What about your trader? This amount of funds is as high as More than 20 billion Hong Kong dollars, not hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars. Such a huge sum of money is like an aircraft carrier in New York Harbor. It is impossible to see it. But why didn't your people see it?"

"What can I do? The flow of the funds is extremely weird. We spent ten days inquiring about it, but we can only find out that the funds came from Europe that day, not Japan or our federation. That is Europe, we don’t have the ability to monitor the entire Europe..."

A chubby old man sitting on the other side knocked on the table with his hand and interrupted Collins. This old man was the current CEO of Goldman Sachs, Kosai.

"Henry and Rod, you two should stop arguing. We are here to discuss how to solve this matter, not to blame each other." In the absence of the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Kosai was the on-site administrative officer. The highest level.

Although Henry Paulson is brilliant, he will not become the new president of Goldman Sachs until next year, and then he will not be the Secretary of the Treasury of the Bush administration until 2006. But at this time Paulson faced Kosai's speech, he could only endure his dissatisfaction.

Kosai continued to knock on the table, "First of all, we must figure out the origin of the funds, otherwise we can not explain to the partners. Rod, you said that the funds came from Europe, so is there any specific situation? "

Rod Collins shook his head and said: "Sorry, so far we have only found out that this fund comes from Europe, but who it belongs to. We are currently unable to do anything about this. Our strength in Europe is still relatively weak. , Especially some banks are not very friendly to us."

Paulson interrupted and said, "Cosai, did Soros do the trick? But I heard that his funds only turned a circle in the morning, so I quickly withdrew. I think he clearly got some news. , This was the only way to cut the meat with pain. Moreover, in terms of the character of this guy, it is not impossible for him to cut us back and make up for his loss in the morning."

Kosai shook his head and said, "It shouldn't be Soros. This guy's background is a bit deep. There are several congressmen and senior officials in Washington behind him. It is his initiative to target Hong Kong Island. If he dares to turn back that day. , The people behind him will not let him go, and I have checked that Soros’ Quantum Fund also lost more than 800 million US dollars in the morning of that day. He just saw the opportunity to cut the flesh and fled early, otherwise he will lose even more. many!"

"Is that Robertson? His Tiger Fund is deeply mired in the devaluation of the ruble. Under this circumstance, will he get back some of the profits on the Hong Kong Island market?" Paulson asked.

Collins, who had been arguing with Paulson just now, shook his head and said: "It's not Robertson. His Tiger Fund and the Jaguar Fund did not make any big moves on that day, and most of his funds are run through federal banks. If he has If you make a big move, you can't hide it from us."

Kosai nodded and said: "Yes, Robertson has invested all his funds in Russia and Japan. He has no extra funds to attack Hong Kong Island, so he does not have the ability to come up with 20 billion Hong Kong dollars."

"Who else can it be? Our old friend Morgan Stanley or Merrill Lynch?"

The two investment banks that Paulson asked about are both extremely well-known large multinational investment banks in the United States. Needless to say, Morgan Stanley, backed by the Morgan family and the **** bank, its strength is now well-deserved. The world's No. 1 investment bank, Goldman Sachs at this time cannot be compared with Morgan Stanley.

Although Merrill Lynch is a newly emerging large investment bank, this investment bank is backed by a California consortium, and Bank of America is its biggest backer, so its strength cannot be underestimated.

The Salomon Brothers, who used to be arrogant in investment banks, are no longer able to do so, and they are about to be finished. Therefore, Paulson did not mention this once the world's number one investment bank at all.

Kosai shook his head and said: "Henry, it is not Morgan Stanley, nor Merrill Lynch, nor the investment banks that have been damaged with us. I have called Ronald Morgan of Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch before. Mr. Douglas Pullman, they all denied the long-term behavior that day, and they are also looking for the source of the mysterious funds that day."

Hearing Cosay say this, even Paulson didn't say anything else. The two people mentioned by Kosai are well-known figures. One is a core member of the Morgan family and the other is a core member of the California consortium. With their identities and status, they disdain for hundreds of millions of dollars. Lying for loss.

"Who else could it be? Could it be those old-fashioned families in Europe? Or the Mitsui or Mitsubishi of Japan?" Paulson murmured.

Kosai said: "Henry, judging from the current clues, the old-fashioned families in Europe are the most likely. I don’t have the courage to do more that day. However, let’s not forget that there is another one in our federation. Those who have the ability to do this."

Hearing Cosay's words, Paulson, Collins and several others turned their eyes to Cosay.

These few people present are the core personnel of Goldman Sachs, but apart from Kosay, even Henry Paulson, who ranked second, only reached the top of Goldman Sachs after the 1990s. For some of the previous ones, They don’t know much about the situation. Therefore, after hearing Ko Sai's words, they all wanted to know who this colleague Ko Sai said was.

The United States is very large, but also very small. There are not many banks like this that can mobilize US$3 billion in cash anytime and anywhere to operate across continents, but after denying some peers capable of doing this, few of them are I really can't think of another colleague who can do this.

Although super banks such as Citi, ****, Chase Manhattan, and New York Mellon want to do this easily, these banks will not easily participate in speculative actions such as financial crises, except for these. Outside of super banks, who else can do this?

Ko Sai took a deep breath, seeming to be worried about something, but in the end he sighed and said: "I don't know if you still remember that in the stock market crash ten years ago, an investment fund suddenly shined. The entire United States..."

When Kosai said this, the faces of several people changed. Paulson asked, "But, didn't that fund disappear afterwards? Sometimes people outside the world mentioned that fund, but they all said that the fund was early. It went bankrupt."

"Closing?" Kosai snorted disdainfully~How could it be possible to close www.readwn.com? That fund still exists, but it's very low-key. At the very least, as far as I know, the shares of the 27 companies held by this fund back then, oh, later there were 25 companies left, and they still held them, but they held them in a different name. And even at Goldman Sachs, there are at least seven or more partners, I am afraid they all have inextricable relationships with this fund, and it is not even ruled out that they are the agents of that fund! "

Hearing these words, everyone took a deep breath, their expressions changed several times in a very short period of time, but in the end no one dared to speak any more.

In the end, Paulson couldn't help but said, "Kosai, if it is really that fund, what should we do? Do you want to continue the investigation?"

Kosai glared at Paulson, and then slowly tapped his fingers on the table for a long time before slowly saying: "First of all, we don't have definitive evidence that it was done by that fund. Secondly, it was the most important thing. The important point is that even if we have definite evidence to prove that the fund did it, then we should not continue to investigate, let alone publish the evidence! Because doing so will kill us. If I am not wrong in my estimation In front of that fund, our Goldman Sachs is fragile like a little BABY..."

Everyone took a breath again...