Chapter 325: Lamb to the Slaughter

(To express my gratitude to the following authors for their support and love: Teyvat Wisdom, Tall and Strong Rayquaza, Song Nancheng, Childlike Innocence, Dice That Can Dance, ^O Time O^, Jiang Heqing 99, Wang Kangleng Who Loves Grilled Cod with Sauce, Aiolos, Shi Wujie, and Lin Dong♬, I'm adding an extra chapter today!)
The ironclad law of the financial world, from the birth of Wall Street to today's digital age, has never changed.
The core of all the business secrets of the financial giants that stir up the world economy can be summarized in two words: information.
Whoever can foresee the future will be able to make a move without regret and dominate the rise and fall of dynasties!
At this moment, the pulse of the global economy is firmly grasped in the hands of those financial giants who can control everything.
Therefore, the top investment institutions are already well aware of the rescue plan that the US government has prepared to save the crumbling stock market.
It is a number that can shake the world.
"The government is preparing to inject a trillion dollars into the market in four tranches, is that right?"
"Yes, Mr. Bell.
Intelligence confirms that the White House plans to rapidly repair credit spreads by massively purchasing various types of stocks, corporate bonds, and ETFs, thus boosting the market in the most direct and effective way."
This is perhaps the best card the White House can play right now.
One trillion dollars.
An astronomical figure that would leave any country speechless, injected precisely in four tranches, each a single, devastating injection.
This move is truly earth-shattering!
One can imagine that on that day, the entire market will be engulfed in utter frenzy, like a heavy truck with its brakes removed, roaring into the sky!
And what these dormant financial giants need to do is seize the opportunity in this feast, elegantly slice off the fattest piece of meat, and then quickly exit before the next collapse.
This is a script that everyone tacitly understands.
A grand feast is about to begin!
However, just as all the hunters held their breath, awaiting the opening bell…
“Holy crap… what the hell is going on?!”
A thunderbolt struck without warning!
Everyone stared wide-eyed at the unbelievable anomaly on the trading screen, as if they had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
While the White House's bailout team remained inactive, a financial behemoth that no one had anticipated had brazenly entered this hunting ground!
And with a wild and incomprehensible force!
“This is fucking insane!! China Strategic Investment Fund and Fanghuan Investment?! Have they lost their minds?!”
They've gone mad!
This is absolutely madness!
The China Strategic Investment Fund, a behemoth that vanished not long ago after a resounding success in short selling, sits motionless like a hibernating bear, its existence almost forgotten, with hundreds of billions of dollars in cash tucked away in its accounts.
Logically, a fund of this size, even if not invested in the market, should at least be placed in the safest safe-haven assets for some small profits.
But now, like a thoroughly enraged lion, it has, without warning, dumped all those terrifying hundreds of billions of dollars into the turbulent US stock market!
"Report! China Strategic Investment Fund is on a buying spree!
They're buying everything in sight, regardless of cost!
Stocks, corporate bonds, ETFs, derivatives…
My God, they're like a runaway giant harvester, trying to buy up all of Wall Street!"
Given the size of China Strategic Investment Fund, such a buying frenzy is naturally not a problem.
The problem is the way they're spending their money.
"This scale of capital, injected so simply and brutally in a single day, is enough to constitute market manipulation, isn't it?!
Aren't they afraid of SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) sanctions?"
This is blatant rule-breaking!
It's behavior explicitly prohibited in any mature market, because it essentially constitutes market manipulation.
Even Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley would never do something so foolish as to give others a handle against them!
An institution of China Strategic Investment Fund's size couldn't possibly lack this basic common sense!
But they're doing it anyway!
“Mr. Bell… the strangest thing is, the SEC hasn’t done anything. No warnings or restrictions.”
“What?” Bell’s brow furrowed.
“The SEC, those watchdogs on Wall Street who are usually fiercer than anyone else, this time, they haven’t done anything at all, like they’re blind!”
What kind of people are those guys at the SEC? They’re the most ruthless hyenas in this financial jungle!
As long as they smell blood, even the slightest potential violation, they’ll pounce without hesitation, tearing up your trading license and freezing your account!
Whether it’s Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, in their eyes, they’re all lambs to the slaughter.
If you dare to resist, they’ll freeze your entire family’s accounts!
This group of lawless thugs is acting like cowards today?
“Those mad dogs, they just stand by and watch someone set fire to their own backyard, and they do nothing?”
Bell felt there was something sinister about this.
He even suspected that perhaps the China Strategic Investment Fund's move was so aggressive that it had completely overwhelmed the SEC bureaucrats, leaving them scrambling to hold meetings and analyze the situation.
"It doesn't seem like it, Mr. Bell. They really...didn't do anything," his subordinate dismissed his guess.
"Do you think...that intelligence we received earlier...could it be true?"
Bell's heart sank.
He recalled a piece of intelligence, so absurd it made him laugh out loud, that had recently been delivered to his desk.
The intelligence claimed that the conservative president, under the guise of national security, had blatantly threatened the China Strategic Investment Fund and Fanghuan Investment, forcing them to inject massive amounts of money to act as...cannon fodder for the US stock market bailout!
There were even rumors that it was because of this "sponsorship" that the White House reduced its original two trillion dollar bailout plan to one trillion.
At the time, Bell had dismissed it as a pipe dream.
What kind of international joke was this?
A sovereign nation outsourcing the responsibility of saving its own economy to another country and company?
What an utterly absurd idea!
It's an insult to the intelligence of the entire Wall Street!
"Could it be... that ridiculous intelligence report is actually true?"
Bell felt a chill run down his spine.
He had made a mistake after all; he had tried to understand a group of lunatics using the logic of a normal person!
One was a conservative president who acted completely unpredictably, and the other was even more insane than a lunatic… Fanghuan Investment!
Neither of these two could be understood with "common sense"!
"My God! They're letting the China Strategic Investment Fund handle financial aid for the US government?!
What are these people thinking?!"
"A conservative president is an unpredictable monster, isn't he?"
"And what about Fanghuan Investment and the China Strategic Investment Fund? They just accepted it like that??"
"Faced with the naked threat from the US, perhaps… they had no choice."
That seemed to be the only explanation. Who dared to confront the US government head-on?
But Bell shook his head. He thought for a moment, what would Goldman Sachs do if they received such an unfair contract?
Without a doubt, the Ministry of Justice will immediately launch an offensive, unleashing a global media war and legal battles that will turn the world upside down!
“But Fang Huan Investment… accepted it. Not even a decent resistance.”
Bell’s eyes suddenly sharpened. “What does that mean?”
“It means… even the powerful Fang Huan cannot stand against the US government?”
“No!” Bell enunciated each word clearly, his voice trembling slightly.
“Quite the opposite! It means… they have absolute confidence!
Even in this bloody hell where even gods and demons perish, they can earn back every penny, with interest, leaving nothing behind!”