Chapter 321: What audacity!

Meanwhile, in the Fanghuan Investment conference room, Su Hao was listening to a report.
“Chairman Su, the Huaxia Strategic Investment Fund has completely liquidated its positions as you instructed.”
“Hmm, very good. I was worried that the current market liquidity crunch would cause them trouble during the liquidation.”
Su Hao leaned back in his chair, his expression calm.
“Fortunately, from the moment they received the instructions, they strictly followed your orders to begin selling.
As you know, in this kind of market crash, some stubborn institutions always think they can buy at the bottom, playing the ‘be greedy when others are fearful’ trick, which conveniently allowed them to absorb our massive amount of shares.”
The subtext was that those self-righteous institutions were probably crying in the bathroom now.
Because after they liquidated and left the market, the entire financial market collapsed even more drastically, as if the sky had fallen.
"Following your instructions, after clearing out their positions, they immediately and quickly purchased some specific stocks through off-exchange trading.
But the problem is... currently only a small portion of their funds have been used; the vast majority remains idle, held in cash and waiting to see what happens."
Money, that's a living thing.
If you leave it lying around, it will rot and depreciate.
Only by making it circulate, by investing in places where it can appreciate in value, can it have a chance to live.
But the current problem is that the market situation is very bad; rashly investing a large sum of money will most likely result in being swallowed up completely.
But the real trouble isn't that.
"We tried to negotiate with various countries using vaccines, but the results were poor.
The Western world, led by the US, is watching Fang Huan and the national team too closely; it's like they're monitoring us with an eight-times-magnitude scope."
In waters surrounded by enemies, any large-scale movement of funds will attract sharks.
The safest approach is to do what the national team does: buy some government bonds, hold safe assets, and then do nothing.
However, Su Hao's intuition was frantically warning him.
He had already "seen" a glimpse of the future.
The market before him, though stagnant like a still pond, seemingly incapable of even a ripple, was beneath this stillness brewing an unprecedented, phenomenal bull market!
Missing this opportunity would be a complete waste!
Because it meant that as long as one seized the beginning of that golden age, any stock they bought would be a rocket to new heights!
"Right now, we still need to proceed cautiously," Lin Fan suggested.
"After all, we're still negotiating with various governments. There's no need to provoke them now. Let's wait and see..."
Su Hao nodded, picked up the pen on the table, and wrote two words on a piece of white paper: Buy.
"..."
The moment the pen tip touched the word "Buy," a faint, almost imperceptible signal emanated from it.
He frowned, then wrote two more words beside it: "Hold Position."
The pen moved over.
This time, the signal was noticeably stronger.
'This... does it mean I should buy, or wait?'
The stronger "Hold Position" signal seemed to mean...
'The time isn't right yet, should we wait and see?'
***
Across the ocean, Emily, in the Presidential Office.
The aides' voices buzzed like flies:
"Mr. President, there's a crisis everywhere, money is needed everywhere!
It's not just our domestic market, the external environment is a mess!
Especially unemployment benefits; if we don't keep issuing them, society will descend into chaos!"
The president felt a splitting headache, his head pounding.
With the outbreak of the pandemic, global trade came to a standstill, and America's economy was like a sinking ship, leaking frantically from all sides.
If these holes aren't plugged, everyone will drown!
"So, the stock market is the most dangerous place right now?"
"Yes. The Federal Reserve has decided to lower the benchmark interest rate by 0.5 to 1 percentage point, hoping to stabilize the collapsing market."
"Will it work?"
"Well, the effect is minimal.
So we need a coordinated effort between our government and the Fed!
The first round of $700 billion in quantitative easing didn't even make a ripple.
The think tank's view is that we must immediately announce unlimited QE; we need to print as much as we need!
Directly buying corporate bonds and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) is the only way to stabilize the situation."
In short, it's about using unlimited money printing to dilute risk and save market confidence.
But the amount of money needed is astronomical.
"That's not all!" The aide's face was more bitter than a bitter gourd.
"We also need to purchase corporate bonds, ETFs, local government bonds, expand credit support, and directly inject capital into businesses and local governments..."
"So the conclusion is," the president interrupted impatiently,
"We're throwing money at the nation's citizens, giving money to companies on the verge of bankruptcy, and pouring an astronomical sum into this damned stock market, right?"
"...Yes."
The president's head was throbbing.
This damned pandemic had made his hopes of remaining president dwindle.
That was already enough to worry him; now, to save this rotten economy, he had to empty the national treasury, even mortgaging the future!
"When will this hell end?"
"We need vaccines. Only with rapid vaccine rollout can we possibly end this within three years."
"Then what about the vaccines! When will they be available?!"
"We're negotiating with Fanghuan Investment...
They say that if we relax vaccine regulations, we can achieve universal vaccination levels within three to four months.
But the problem is..."
The aide suddenly became hesitant.
"Speak! What's the problem?!"
"They...they offered to supply vaccines at a low price and in a stable manner, but in exchange, they demanded that we...
cease all investigations and restrictions on their investment."
"What?!" The president slammed his fist on the table. "They're threatening us with vaccines? Threatening the United States of America?!"
"They didn't say it that explicitly, their wording was very euphemistic...
but the meaning was clear: they want vaccines in exchange for us stopping their troubles."
These sons of bitches!
How dare they threaten him, Emily?!