Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 983 Stirring the bubble again will ruin your credibility
……

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

So, the world's richest man and the world's second richest man stood next to the car and started chatting.

Tang Huan joked: "When I sold the shares of IT companies such as Fangyuan and Zheru Software, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch were the trustees, and they really made a lot of money, but I didn't see Henry Paulson and David Koman. Ski sent me out; old friend you sent out, aren't you afraid of being isolated?"

"I'm different from those people." Warren Buffett replied bluntly: "I'm the owner, and they are similar to your team's manager. After all, they will leave because of retirement, poor performance, etc. I Of course I care about you forever."

"Then thank you for your trust in me." The richest man laughed loudly, and at the same time muttered to himself that the other party could understand.

Indeed, those chief executives who sit like dogs in conference rooms on the tenth floor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York building will be lucky to retire fully within the next eight years.

Seeing that Tang Huan's posture at this time was not as strong as when he was besieged by Wall Street bosses, Warren Buffett continued to explain: "I think you two need a middleman, and I am willing to play this role." Role."

"I believe you." The richest man nodded in approval, "However, before the next negotiation comes, they can't continue to sleep on the truth."

Warren Buffett, who has many interests with Tang Huan, seriously reminded: "Since last year, the operation of the California high-speed rail has been seriously trapped by local negative factors such as the California power crisis and California's stringent environmental protection laws; Recently, those airlines that had been defeated have started to reopen routes between Southern California and Northern California, vying for customers at low prices. You have to see the subtleties in this.”

"Don't worry, I won't be the one who can't stand it first." Tang Huan waved his hand confidently, "I'm more interested in those possible small tricks than these upright schemes. Just now You have also seen that some people brought out old-fashioned things like 'Fu Manchu' and 'Yellow Peril' to attack me. If this continues, there may really be no room for maneuver in the future."

Warren Buffett took off his glasses and wiped them to hide his distress, and finally sighed: "I will warn these daredevils not to touch such a sensitive bottom line."

"I hope I don't end up dying forever." Tang Huan narrowed his eyes and looked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York building, waved goodbye to Warren Buffett, and got in the car to go to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel where he often stayed in New York .

……

Wall Street, who has been playing the game of "raising pigs and killing pigs" for many years, has been greedy and mean to the bone.

Take Merrill Lynch as an example, the richest man has taken care of its business, but today it behaves like a passerby, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is an unfamiliar white-eyed wolf.

Of course, Tang Huan was well prepared for Wall Street's pressing pressure, but he still needed to evaluate the timing of throwing the bomb.

For example, in. During the bursting of the COM bubble, many investors who were deceived by securities companies not to sell Internet stocks needed time to accumulate resentment against Wall Street.

For this reason, the richest man met with several media people who were concerned about the situation in the hotel, to find out the extent of the "boiling public grievances".

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

"The itinerary remains the same." The richest man nodded, "Since yesterday, this place has been regarded as someone else's home."

The assistant hurriedly went to inform Silicon Valley Unit [-], while Tang Huan took the time to wash up.

After returning to the living room, the richest man couldn't help but frowned, and saw a waitress cleaning.

When Tang Huan came out, the other party quickly apologized and said, "I'm sorry, sir, I thought this place was already checked out, so I came in to clean it."

The richest man said gently: "Then you can go work somewhere else first. I will use this room for a while."

The waitress raised her head, unexpectedly showing a pair of peach blossom eyes, and looked boldly at Tang Huan, "Sir, do you need any special service?"

"Don't insult my intelligence." The richest man raised his finger to the door and said flatly, "Go out."

The waitress turned around, but didn't move her footsteps. Instead, she shook her hips slightly, showed off her electric hip dance, and showed off: "Sir, I'm really good..."

Tang Huan, who was so harassed that he lost his patience, raised his foot and hit the trembling part.

The waitress who had rolled to the door got up in a panic, scolded "eunuch" angrily, and fled in despair.

……

In the traditional sense of the off-season for the box office in the United States in March this year, a hit movie appeared, that is "Never Compromise" starring Hollywood's highest-paid actress Julia Roberts.

This independently produced film, with a box office of more than 3000 million U.S. dollars in the first weekend after its release, topped the weekend box office rankings in North America and held this position for four consecutive weeks; Popular and acclaimed.

As a feature film that does not rely on special effects as a selling point but purely tells stories, the reason why "Never Compromise" has achieved such fame and fortune is naturally inseparable from its special social background.

The main reason is that last year’s large-scale power outages around the world were really impressive; especially the blackouts in the United States and Canada made Americans empathize with them, which in turn made everyone curious about the topic of electricity.

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

Who would have thought that such a state with an economy as developed as that of a big country would be tortured by a lack of electricity.

Of course, everyone’s depressed mood must be vented, criticizing California Governor Gray Davis’ incompetence, accusing Enron of hoarding, and scolding local energy companies in California such as Pacific Watts for being a helper...

In this way, in "Never Compromise", Pacific Watts, which caused the hexavalent chromium water pollution incident, was defeated by a single mother and a rookie in the legal field. How could it be unsatisfactory?

What's more, "Never Compromise" is also excellent in terms of the production level, artistic connotation, and performance of the leading actors of the film itself.

These voices of praise are not limited to the traditional film critics, they are already on the Internet. Platforms that developed during the COM bubble, such as the Internet Movie Database under Amazon, the Rotten Tomatoes website where "Tang Zhizi" plays tickets, and other platforms have also given positive reviews.

It can be said that in the invisible way, "Never Compromise" played the role of "weapon" entrusted to it by Daheng Tang, and widely aroused people's resentment against the lack of social morality of energy companies.

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

People who don't talk about it can easily find like-minded people in cyberspace and express their opinions heartily.A random blog post analyzing the pros and cons of California's electric reform can easily receive hundreds of likes.

Have to say, though. The COM bubble burst, but the blog was proved to be a successful way of technology application.The most convincing example is that traditional business marketing is increasingly turning to blogging platforms.

It's just that the inherent feature of blogging, that anyone can become a media publisher, is also a double-edged sword.Either good or evil depends entirely on how it is used.

Take Mr. Richest, the chief promoter of the blog, in turn, in the emerging media environment created by him, he has been attacked by all kinds of unimaginable and specious things, and he has a posture of "don't stop until you don't make it smelly". As a result, the traditional media, which has always been "stable", has also begun to pay attention to the dynamics in this regard.

Professional media such as the New York Post even excerpted and summarized such messy remarks, and then published them in newspapers that had long-term cognitive inertia and were considered more "authoritative".

His even more sensational views can be summed up as follows: Tang Huan, who has titles such as Tang's richest man, Tang IT, Tang Daheng, Tang Wenhao, Tang Jinzhou, Tang Shanren, Tang Dr., Tang Master, Tang Sheng, etc., is more powerful than novels and movies. , The "Fu Manchu" described in the comics is still terrifying. In a few years, it will be able to control the United States and even rule the world.

It seems to be adding fuel to the fire, and a big incident that may seriously hurt Tang Huan's "undefeated golden body" broke out recently.A waitress accused Mr. Richest Man, who was portrayed as an ambitious man trying to conspire to control the United States, and even the world, to sexually assault her while she was cleaning in a hotel room.

As soon as the news came out, a stone caused a thousand waves.

The questioner laughed out loud: Don't be funny, Daheng Tang has never seen anything in Hollywood for so many years. The possibility of getting tired of playing and turning around is hundreds of times greater than forcing such a vulgar fan...

The crusader dismissed it: What's so strange, people like Tang care about novelty, maybe a woman from a good family is more exciting to him.

It seemed to be a kind of proof that the words were poor. Tang Huan only made a statement through the office spokesman, "The clear will be clear, and the turbid will be turbid", and then he stopped talking.

Almost overnight, the "hotel door" of the richest man overshadowed the "zipper door" of US President Bick Clinton.

The paparazzi were like crazy, chasing Tang Huan everywhere in the hope of getting breaking news, but it was not until the California High Speed ​​Rail held a media briefing that they were able to see the richest man.

Due to negative factors such as California's power crisis, Enron's robbery, counterattacks by the civil aviation industry, and pressure on environmental protection in California, California's high-speed rail seems to be showing signs of turning from prosperity to decline. Even some internal employees of California's high-speed rail said that their Confidence can only be placed on the richest man with strong financial resources, who 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, clarified one by one the measures that the much-rumored California High-Speed ​​Rail may take to increase fares, furlough employees on a large scale, or even lay off employees.

Originally, Tang Huan, who was sitting on the sidelines calmly and helping the California high-speed rail stabilize its position, didn't want to participate, but he couldn't stand the reporter disrupting the rhythm of the media briefing several times, so he reluctantly agreed.

However, Mr. Richest Man was immediately angered by the issue of a carefully designed trap surrounding the so-called "hotel gate" that was first thrown out.

"Are you really too stupid to see that this is a series of dastardly plots against me?"

"You really don't have the patience to wait until the day after tomorrow when the court will reveal the truth to the world?"

Tang Huan said sullenly: "If people don't attack me, I won't attack; if people attack me, I will!"

The reporters in the audience shamelessly watched the richest man walk away while recording intensively.

Next, I couldn't wait until the next day, when there were reports like "Tang became angry because of the 'hotel door'" and rushed out.

Soon, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, one of the most influential courts in the United States and one of the largest courts in handling cases, opened a trial for "Hotel Gate".

Tang Huan disdained to be present, but many media interpreted this as: feel guilty and avoid embarrassment.After all, who wants to be tortured until now if they can get rid of the relationship earlier.

The lawyer on the richest man's side is George Conway, who once represented US President Bill Clinton in the "Zippergate" case.

It is self-evident how radiant George Conway is when he takes on the "hotel door" now.

However, George Conway did not respond to any questions from the swarming reporters and walked over with a serious face; on the other hand, the plaintiffs confidently put aside their harsh words and wanted to seek justice.

The subsequent development of events exceeded everyone's expectations.

This lawsuit, which was originally estimated to involve several rounds of pushing and shoving, took only one morning, so there was no need to waste any more time.

According to the summary of the media, 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, Mr. Richest's level of security protection is estimated to be inferior to that of the president of a country. He even installed a surveillance camera in the suite he stayed in.

Second, the waitress who sued, was very problematic, just entered the suite, took out a bottle of what appeared to be perfume and sprayed it on.

Third, the richest man really acted "intrusively" and kicked the waitress to the door. After cursing a few words, the waitress left angrily.

George Conway said with a serious face: If the other party has problems with bruises and injuries, his client is willing to compensate; but this kind of slander and the possible hidden conspiracy behind it will never be tolerated.

The waitress who played the image of a pitiful victim at the beginning cried and begged for mercy in court. It was only because she was facing bankruptcy and had nowhere to go that she came up with evil thoughts and wanted to blackmail Tang Huan for a windfall. .

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

As a result, an incredible scene happened.

A few days later, the waitress, who was rumored to be trying to write a book about her experience so that she could sell it off to pay off her debts, was found dead in her rented apartment.

The conclusion of the New York police is that it may be too much pressure, which led to a mental breakdown and finally hanged himself.

The media, which had been chasing after him fiercely, was like a deflated ball, talking about other things one after another.

……

Fortunately, another big event that happened immediately gave these people a chance to use their expertise.

Tried to unseat AT&T from its top position in a $1290 billion merger with Sprint, the third-largest long-distance phone company in the U.S., but is temporarily stuck with U.S. and EU regulators WorldCom was found to have heinously serious financial fraud.

The turmoil stemmed from WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers.The old man failed in his personal investment and his financial situation was on the verge of bankruptcy, so he asked the board of directors of WorldCom to help him get a loan of [-] million U.S. dollars, but the result was a collapse and internal strife.

Amongst the chicken feathers everywhere, someone disclosed two pieces of news on increasingly lively blogs: one is that in the past two years, WorldCom has falsely reported its operating income by billions of dollars; the other is that after WorldCom successfully acquired MCI, The book value of its fixed assets was reduced from US$141 billion to US$107 billion, and the difference of US$34 billion was used by WorldCom to fill other holes.

Furthermore, the top executives of WorldCom, from the CEO to the chief financial officer, auditor, chief accountant, etc., all knew and participated in this systematic financial fraud.

In this regard, WorldCom's first reaction was to categorically deny: Don't believe it!Along the way, we have acquired many companies, including MCI, to achieve today's achievements; now we are talking about merging with Sprint, so many people have been offended, maybe who is spreading the word with ulterior motives? rumor.

However, as soon as the word of WorldCom came to the fore, Arthur Andersen, the world's largest accounting firm, hastily withdrew the audit report on WorldCom.

This move was so meaningful that all investors were suddenly filled with doubts. They were already convinced. The stock market, dragged down by the bursting of the COM bubble, is in trouble again.

You know, WorldCom is also the "darling" of Wall Street. It often regards itself as a "star" in the securities market, with its stock price exceeding US$64 and its market value as high as US$1800 billion.

It is precisely because of this aura that WorldCom was able to raise US$370 billion, forcing the richest man to retreat and grabbing MCI.

But now, the marriage between WorldCom and Sprint is basically coming to nothing.

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

Before the two companies came to a conclusion, WorldCom's stock was sold off frantically, and its stock price went straight to single digits.

At this time, there are no securities analysts eloquently bewitching that the market is undergoing a normal correction.

Gein is already there. Investors who were deceived during the COM rupture are no longer willing to be fooled.

What's more, Wall Street itself is in a cocoon.

Take the banks as an example. JP Morgan and Citigroup both gave WorldCom loans, and the latter alone gave nearly [-] million US dollars. As a result, their respective stock prices and reputations fell.

Also unlucky are the pension funds of various states in the United States. For example, the New York State Pension Fund lost US$3 million, the Michigan Pension Fund lost US$1.16 million, and the Florida Pension Fund lost US$9000 million.

……

Warren Buffett, who came to "Chang'an City" to spread the word, said with lingering fear: "I finally understand why they were so focused on you before, and they already knew that they wanted to use real high-quality assets to offset own mistake."

The richest man asked calmly: "Old friend, have you been greatly affected?"

Warren Buffett replied happily: "I have never touched technology stocks, even IBM, which had the most stable performance at the beginning; later, I was influenced by you and got in touch, but it was limited to your companies."

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

Hearing this, Warren Buffett was taken aback, "It can't be so bad, right? How long has it been since the COM bubble burst, and the telecom industry will also collapse?"

"What's so strange about this?" The richest man analyzed naturally, "The .COM bubble encouraged the telecommunications industry to build lines crazily. Now that the bubble bursts, it leads to oversupply. Of course, the market needs to 'correct'."

"I'm afraid that this 'correction' came in such a hurry because of you." Warren Buffett said with a wry smile: "Right now, Wall Street's reputation is facing an unprecedented crisis. Everyone is even."

"They said to hit, just hit? They said stop, just stop?" Tang Huan, who did not deny that he had made a move, sneered: "Sorry, my punch only reached half the distance, and I really can't stop it !"

Warren Buffett asked in amazement: "What else but the collapse of the telecom industry that followed the bursting of the .COM bubble?"

The richest man shrugged, "I am only responsible for lighting the fuse. As for where it will burn and make an earth-shattering explosion, that is up to God."

Seeing the strange light in Tang Huan's eyes, Warren Buffett muttered to himself, "You mean, I can't hold back anymore?"

……

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

Alcatel, Vivendi, Vodafone, British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom in Europe... are not spared.

To give one of the most representative examples, Deutsche Telekom's stock price fell "elegantly" from more than 100 euros.

The Germans, who have always been conservative, didn't like stocks at first, that is, they were aroused by the wave of technology stocks sweeping the global capital market in the past few years, so they ended up; 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 COM bubble and the collapse of the telecommunications industry marked the end of the great bull market.

Those who feel the latter can only consider themselves unlucky; but those who mistakenly believe Wall Street intelligence must be full of complaints.

……

Just as the ups and downs were in a state of desperation, another major earthquake occurred.

Arthur Andersen, the world's largest accounting firm that once assisted the Ministry of Justice in auditing accounts in the United States of America v. Zheru Software Company monopoly case, was exposed after withdrawing its audit report on WorldCom. , there are also major problems.

Investors who had become frightened, fled immediately without asking what happened.

You know, the stock price of Enron, which manipulates electricity prices in California, has already been raised by Wall Street to more than $90 at this time; and its executives further promised investors that the stock price will rise to $140 a share; as for the basis, it is tacit, such as The fruits of California’s high-speed rail and other projects will soon be harvested.

As a result, Enron itself has been harvested.

In fact, as early as March this year, some experts in the economic field published an article analyzing that there were problems with Enron's profit model, which was not as clear as it advocated.

But this voice of doubt was quickly overwhelmed by the voices of analysts looking at the report.

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

Similar to the investigation process of WorldCom, some phenomena have already been reported to the outside world before the official results of the investigation of Enron by the US regulators, so don't take chances.

For example, Andersen himself disintegrated first.

The reason for this is that, on the one hand, it is rumored that the U.S. Department of Justice will sue the "recidivist" Andersen Accounting Firm in the name of obstructing justice. In this way, according to the federal law, Andersen can no longer conduct audits for other companies. On the other hand, I know what I have done, and the elites who see their jobs in jeopardy certainly know how to protect themselves.

To put it bluntly, the Andersen brand is hopeless, so let's find a way out quickly.

As a result, other accounting firms that were originally ranked behind Andersen began to carve up Andersen's resources frantically.After the Ministry of Justice officially launched the prosecution, Andersen seemed to have only a shell left.

Investors are crying: Liar!All special codes are liars!A world-class star enterprise, unbelievable!The world's number one accounting firm, can't believe it!
Invisibly, this resentment also affected the US election.

It is obvious that the performance of US President Bill Clinton in the "zipper door" is an outright liar.

Under such circumstances, voters tend to put morality first in their requirements for the next US president.

No wonder people have such simple thoughts. The Enron scandal is more complicated than the WorldCom scandal, because this energy company has also set foot in the political arena, providing millions of political donations to politicians in the United States and Britain.

It is no exaggeration to say that anyone who has anything to do with Enron now has no good results.

Those who took out their coffins and bought Enron's stock are the most pitiful, and they are doomed to lose all their money; institutions that have an affair with Enron will also pay an unimaginable price.

The "Wall Street Journal" strongly criticized Citigroup and JP Morgan, accusing them of being the accomplices behind the "Enron Incident", and now they deserve what they deserve.

This deserving of guilt does not just refer to the loss of savings, the imminent sky-high fines and compensation, and the loss of credit.

In the face of the media's questioning, Sanford Weir, the unavoidable 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 the Wall Street bosses at this stage.

At this moment, another strange scene appeared.

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

Pitkin's police, the conclusion given, was heart failure.

Four days later, Lay's ashes were buried in an undisclosed location on a local hill.

Such a once all-powerful business tycoon can't be compared with the waitress who can't be blackmailed and doesn't even bother to ask for her name.

Fortunately, the media has experience this time, so they don't lose their voices collectively in an instant, and turn to more representative topics one after another, which Gu Zuo said and ignored.

(End of this chapter)