money player

Passing by a fruit stall, Sin Yiu-man stopped and asked, "California peaches?"

When the vendor saw a customer, he greeted them warmly, "Georgia, just arrived today, very fresh."

Xian Yaowen picked up a peach and looked at it. "How much?"

"15 cents a pound."

Sin Yiu-man picked up a few peaches and put them into the weighing pan, then raised his left hand and shook it from side to side. "Sir, I make weights at the balance factory so we can keep our dignity intact, OK?"

The vendor glanced at him, then lowered his right hand from his belt. "Everyone here knows that I, Ali, am the most honest person when it comes to doing business."

Sin Yiu-man did not respond, but glanced at the vendor's belt, wondering how heavy the magnet hidden inside must be.

Jewish vendors who don't cheat on weights and measures are extremely rare; when dealing with unfamiliar customers, it's common practice to shortchange them by two ounces per pound.

Weighed it, paid 22 cents, checked the weight again, felt it was about right, and left with the paper bag.

After finishing his bagel, he passed a pool, washed a peach, and continued strolling while still munching on it. Before he knew it, he was near the Ganina Synagogue. He felt as if he were in the back alley of Xidan Shopping Mall in 1977, as described by the old man. The old man crept up to a man and asked in a lewd manner, "Comrade, want some pigeons?"

The old man once said that he made his first fortune by scalping tickets and antiques. It was an unoriginal start, and the same scenario was already playing out on the streets of New York in 1951.

Since the outbreak of the Korean War last year, the United States has restarted wartime economic measures, controlling the allocation of key materials through a quota system to ensure priority supply of military supplies, from food and fuel to cloth and rubber.

Each family received a ration booklet similar to a food ration book every month, which contained cloth coupons, oil coupons, sugar coupons, etc. Each person had only 11 yards of cloth quota per year, enough to make only one suit and one skirt. Sugar was 1 pound per month. When buying sugar, not only did you have to pay in cash, but you also had to show your sugar coupons. You needed oil coupons to fill up your gas station, and you could only buy gas according to the odd or even number of your license plate.

However, cloth ration coupons were not very meaningful. The United States only lacked some special fabrics, but had no shortage of common fabrics. Controlling the supply of cloth was to force clothing manufacturers into the military supply system. As a result, the prices of cloth and ready-made clothing soared, and ordinary families spent more on clothing, which was extremely unfriendly to poor families.

The United States has no shortage of land suitable for growing sugar crops. Florida is very suitable for growing sugarcane and has no shortage of sugar production capacity. It only takes one year to go from being an import supplement to a production surplus. However, sugarcane is not ranked among the cash crops and is quite hard to grow, so few farmers choose to grow sugarcane.

Once the rationing system was implemented and imports from Cuba were reduced, a black market for sugar naturally formed. The official price was 10 cents per pound, while the black market price was 50 cents per pound—a fourfold difference. How could the farms not be tempted?

Washington neither mandates nor encourages nor subsidizes the production of sugar, but rather promotes self-sufficiency in American sugar by adjusting supply and demand. This is a proactive measure to prepare for the possibility of the war escalating.

On the other hand, with sweets already everywhere, the addition of quota-based scarcity marketing means that even people who don't usually eat sweets will become sweet lovers after being tempted like this.

Sin Yiu-man strongly suspected that pharmaceutical groups were behind the sugar quota, but unfortunately he was not clear about the release dates of various diabetes-related drugs, otherwise he could have made a deduction.

Get closer and listen for a couple of sentences. The language you hear is Yiddish, spoken rather quickly. It's mostly Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, from the Jewish Autonomous Oblast of the Soviet Union, Ukraine, or Poland.

Beginning in the 1920s, a large number of Eastern European Jewish refugees migrated to the United States. Many of them were already hungry before even disembarking. The first thing they did upon landing was to find a way to fill their stomachs, and they had to do it quickly. Jewish foundations provided limited assistance, which could only provide temporary relief and not solve their long-term problems.

Because of the influence of anti-Semitic sentiment in Europe on American society, and also because of the element of speed, Jews injected even stronger involution into American society, doing more work for less money, which seriously affected the job security of native-born white people. Based on the experience accumulated in the early anti-Chinese campaign, native-born white people quickly came up with a systematic anti-Semitic plan:

Wall Street investment banks and commercial banks restrict Jewish employees. There are very few new Jews working on Wall Street, but they are all very capable. If you are not a super elite, you can't even think about getting into Wall Street.

Top law firms are refusing to hire Jewish graduates, and Harvard Law School is even advising Jewish students to "change their surnames" to apply for jobs.

Hospitals restrict Jewish doctor positions and practice anti-Semitism. In recent years, Jewish students have made up 25% of all medical students in the United States, but only 5% of internships at top hospitals are open to Jews, and very few of them are ultimately able to stay in the hospital.

After going through three unfair screening processes—admission, internship, and hospitalization—it would be strange if Jewish doctors weren't elite.

Top universities restrict the admission of Jewish students, with Harvard, Yale and other schools limiting the proportion of Jewish students to less than 10%.

Many properties in New York City are explicitly prohibited from being sold or rented to Jews, and even if they are, they face various difficulties; Jewish families need Christian guarantors when applying for mortgages.

University fraternities, sorority clubs, golf clubs, yacht clubs and other social circles exclude Jews. The media almost always vilifies Jews. In Hollywood movies, Jews are always portrayed as villains.

Geographically, Manhattan’s Chinatown and Little Italy share streets, and Little Italy and the Jewish community are separated by only one street, forming a tripartite balance of power. Is this a coincidence?

No, this is a three-tiered group, from the Irish to the Chinese and Italians, and then to the Jews, all of whom were successively excluded.

Irish people don't have very obvious bloodline characteristics, and after one blood mix, they can basically integrate into the local population and are scattered throughout the United States. The other three groups don't have very obvious characteristics, so they can only first form small groups within their own ethnic group, and then seek warmth and support from their own kind.

Because they all faced discrimination and were unable to find normal employment, the Chinese found two paths: laundries and Chinese restaurants. The Italians became bricklayers and tailors, while the Jews became street vendors on a large scale. The great god Adam took pity on them and granted them a quota system. The parchment scrolls of the great-great-great-great-grandfathers were put to use again. Don't just stand there, hurry up and join in the speculation.

After listening for a couple more minutes, and realizing that they were a bunch of nylon dealers, Sin Yiu-man quickly made his escape. He couldn't listen anymore; if he aroused their suspicion, he might get a sack over his head and get a severe beating. As he was being beaten, he kept muttering, "Jews don't beat Jews."

Pushing through the crowd, I encountered a woman pushing a stroller selling buttons. She sold counterfeit Chanel buttons, as well as space buttons made from parachute snaps, vintage brooches made from ammunition box copper sheets, and French lace made from bandages and gauze. Her imagination and creativity were extraordinary.

Sin Yiu-man spent $10 to buy a bag of "high-end French imported buttons" produced by a small factory not far from his home in Sham Shui Po. He chatted with the woman for a while, learned about the market price of clothing accessories, and also learned that the woman's name was Rebecca Solomon, the same name as a Jewish female painter in London in the last century. She was from Lithuania and had been in New York for less than two years.

Hong Kong, the Sin family.

In Xian Yaowen's study, Cen Peipei pressed the call button, "Come here for a moment."

In Building 3, Su Lizhen hung up the phone and said to Dong Chuning, "Can you play a few rounds for me? I'll come over for a bit."

Two minutes later, Su Lizhen and Cen Peipei sat facing each other.

"The master just sent a fax saying that the black market price for a regular button in New York has risen to 8 cents a piece. What's the price in Hong Kong?"

“Celluloid products sell for 8 cents a dozen, but if I order from a plastics factory, I can get a price of 6 cents.”

“About nine times the price difference.” Cen Peipei pondered. “The master wants buttons, zippers, sewing thread, and wool fabric. He will contact the client as soon as possible. You should contact the plastics factory first. Once the drawings arrive, we will start production immediately.”

"Did the master say how many buttons are needed?"

"Prepare 10 units as inventory first."

"After deducting several times, you don't earn much."

"The master said that the main purpose of this business trip was to make connections, and making money was just a side effect."

"understood."

Sin Yiu-man went downstairs from his home and walked to Tongqu's office.

It was just past eight o'clock, an hour before he had to go to work. He walked at a leisurely pace, looking around to see if there was any open space nearby.

Tongqu's office is in Greenwich Village. If the children in the village lack toys, it's not a good thing. So he plans to build a Tongqu Park where any child can enter and play with the toys issued by Tongqu for free.

The small park is essentially a disguised experience store, but it still needs the prestige; how can a toy store not show humanistic care for children?

After reviewing the budget in my mind, I decided to keep the construction budget for the small park under $50,000, ideally to $10,000 or $20,000. However, since the reporter spontaneously praised the park's humanistic spirit, the budget could be higher, as it was an expense with long-term benefits, and even $500,000 wouldn't be too much.

The office was nearby; I arrived at the door in less than five minutes and saw a young man wearing glasses pacing in front of the office.

He walked over and greeted them, "Good morning."

"Good morning," the young man replied. "Sir, are you an employee of Tongqu?"

Yes, how can I help you?

“Great!” the young man said excitedly. “I’m Charles Lazarus from Washington. I run a children’s supermarket in Adams Morgan (neighborhood), which mainly sells strollers and cribs. Recently, I’ve had a lot of customers asking if we sell Rubik’s Cubes. I’d like to discuss the distribution rights for Rubik’s Cubes in Washington.”

Sin Yiu-man chewed on the name "Charles Lazarus" a few times, then said with a smile, "You want to sell children's furniture and toys at the same time?"

"No, I think toys are more profitable than children's furniture. If the toy business goes well, I'm planning to turn the children's supermarket into a toy store, 'Toys Are Us.' What do you think of that name? I just came up with it."

“It’s great, but there’s one problem.”

"What's the problem?" Lazarus asked quickly.

Sin Yiu-man pointed to the playful logo by the office door, "Have you noticed anything?"

Lazarus turned to look. "I already noticed that the 'D' in Childlike is reversed."

“Yeah, it’s reversed on purpose. Childlike is a common word. You can use it, and so can I. If other companies name their brands ‘Childlike A’ or ‘Childlike B’, it will be difficult for them to win an infringement lawsuit. But it’s different if you reverse the ‘D’. This is unique to us.”

Sin Yiu-man shrugged. “'Toys Are Us' is the same. I named it 'Toy Are Us' because if you have a good lawyer, you might not win the case.”

Lazarus thought for a moment, "Would it be better if I replaced Are with R and wrote it in reverse?"

“Very good. Are and R are pronounced the same, so changing them won't affect the meaning.” Sin Yiu-man nodded. “Charles, do you speak Hebrew?”

"I learned a little when I was a child, but I don't know much."

Sin Yiu-man pointed to the Tongqu logo again, saying, "The 'D' is written backwards not only to prevent infringement, but also to guide people to understand the word backwards, 'Like a Child.' Tongqu toys are not only sold to children, but also to adults, so that adults can forget their troubles and play like children."

Lazarus's eyes lit up; he really liked this explanation.

"Children aged six or seven are still developing their brains and their spatial perception is not mature. They have a weaker ability to distinguish between left and right mirror images and are prone to confusing b with d, p with q. This is especially true for Jewish children who are learning Hebrew and English at the same time. Hebrew is read and written from right to left, while English is written from left to right, making it easier for them to write the letters backwards."

Therefore, in a child's world, some letters should be reversed.

Childlike wonder: the world as seen through a child's eyes.

Lazarus couldn't help but clap his hands and said, "That's fantastic! After your explanation, I'm even more interested in childlike fun."

"Adam..."

Before Sin Yiu-man could finish speaking, a car drove up and stopped in front of him.

A moment later, Jessica got out of the driver's seat. "Adam, you're here so early?"

"You arrived very early too."

“I got up early to come because I knew you were coming.” Jessica took a sip of the coffee in her hand. “I’m participating in the school’s research project ‘Business Cycle and Economic Growth’, and I was discussing it with Professor Arthur Burns until very late last night.”

Upon hearing the name "Arthur Burns," information immediately popped into Sin Yiu-man's mind—Arthur Burns, an economics luminary, the research director of the National Bureau of Economic Research, who would soon become the third chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, followed by Nixon's advisor, the tenth chairman of the Federal Reserve, and the West German ambassador during Reagan's era.

He also has a hidden identity: a key member of a Jewish foundation and an Israeli nationalist.

“Very good. Parents will love a young, beautiful, and highly educated entrepreneur. It would be even better if you could become a member of the National Academy of Sciences.”

Jessica gave Sin Yiu-man a hug, saying, "Being an academician is too far away. I'll consider whether to pursue a doctorate after I graduate with my master's degree."

"So, you got the recommendation letter?"

Jessica chuckled, "I don't need a letter of recommendation anymore."

“Wow, congratulations.” Xian Yaowen gestured to Lazarus, “Charles, you’ve come from Washington to talk to you about the Washington agency.”

Jessica looked at Lazarus. "Charles, hello."

"Hello, Ms. Clark."

Lazarus was slightly excited. He had seen the conversation between Sin Yiu-man and Jessica. It was clear that Sin Yiu-man was no ordinary employee, and he was likely to return with a great deal of success.

Knowing that Rubik's Cubes are selling like hotcakes and there's no worry about sales, as long as he secures the Washington distributorship, a huge amount of profit will be waiting for him.

Sin Yiu-man asked Jessica for the key, then tossed it to Lazarus, saying, "Charles, make yourself at home. I'm going to chat with Jessica for a bit, and I'll come find you in ten minutes."

"OK."

After Lazarus left, Sin Yiu-man said, "Charles is going to open a toy store."

"You want to invest in him?"

Some time ago, Sin Yiu-man had already discussed with Jessica and Milton Kushner the matter of expanding sales channels for children's toys. In addition to consolidating and expanding the existing department store channels, they would add the already very mature mail order channels, as well as expand the toy specialty store channels similar to "FAO Schwarz".

“Yes.” Xian Yaowen nodded and said, “Register an independent company CHK, which will be your personal company in name. I will invest $50, you will hold 5% of the shares and Milton will hold 2%.

CHK's main business is investing in companies that only sell toys and don't develop them. Specialty stores and mail order are among our investment and support targets.

"Should we keep the relationship between CHK and Tongqu from the outside world?"

"We don't proactively disclose it to the public, but it doesn't matter if someone finds out."

"uh-huh."

"Go inside and find Charles. I'm going to the Dragon Society. I'll be here at ten o'clock sharp for the meeting."

"OK."

Xian Yaowen went to the restaurant downstairs from the Flower Society, ordered a coffee, sat at an outdoor table, held up a newspaper to read, and used it to cover his face, trying to avoid being seen by the Flower Society staff and having them chat with him. He wanted to sit quietly for a while.

When it was 9:20, he went upstairs to the Dragon Society's office and had a short meeting with Joe Simon and Jack Kirby to learn about the Dragon Society's affairs.

Because Joe Simon went to Hong Kong to direct superheroes and Jack Kirby went to Tokyo to direct Ichiban, Dragon Society's affairs were delayed. Only after the two returned did they restart the pre-release preparations for the bi-monthly comic "Dragon Way". Now the release date for the first issue has been set for the 15th of this month. The manuscript needs to be finalized before the end of the workday on the 7th, and printing will begin that night. The distribution will be completed within five days.

With the distribution channels established by Playboy, the first printing of Dragon Road was 30 copies, which was quite a challenge.

Fortunately, the story of Mr. Luck is very exciting, and Jack Kirby conceived a new comic book character, "Tony Stark," based on Howard Hughes, making Iron Man's dazzling debut.

After quickly flipping through the draft, Sin Yiu-man felt that selling 30 copies wouldn't be a problem. To reward Joe Simon and the other person, he placed a commission on behalf of Tongqu to create a story about dinosaurs in the Jurassic period. The dinosaurs were divided into combat and defensive forms. The combat form was the normal appearance of the dinosaurs, and the defensive form was a dinosaur egg.

The requirements were that simple, but the reward was quite generous: Tongqu paid $10 to buy out the copyright to make the toys.

The next major toy that Tongqu will be launching is an egg-shaped transforming toy.

ten o'clock.

Sin Yiu-man sat in the whimsical meeting room to hold a meeting, with attendees including Milton Kushner, Jessica, and Lee Iacocca.

After a brief introduction, Sin Yiu-man said, "Milton, tell us about the sales of the Rubik's Cube."

"Boss, as of yesterday, our total orders were 59 units, including 49 units of the $5 standard version and 10 units of the $10 deluxe version. We have received a total of $74 in payments and deposits."

To solidify its sales channels, Tongqu (a company name) leaves the bulk of its profits to distributors. The standard version of the Rubik's Cube costs $5, but the factory price is $2, while the deluxe version costs $10, but the factory price is $5.

"Good results, this is a great start. Once sales volume increases, we can further reduce production costs and lower the selling price accordingly, which will greatly boost sales. Jessica, how much cash does the company have in its accounts?"

Jessica blurted out, "6,970,824.27 dollars."

"How much funding can be used?"

"Long-term or short-term?"

"Long-term, at least one and a half years."

Jessica thought for a moment, "$500 million is the limit. We need to set aside enough money to pay this year's taxes."

"If we don't consider taxes?"

"650."

“OK, let’s settle on 600 million.” Sin Yiu-man’s gaze swept across everyone’s faces. “In order to pay less tax, I’ve decided to register a subsidiary and transfer the 600 million to the subsidiary to buy Boeing stock in the subsidiary’s name.”

“Boss,” Lee Iacocca interrupted, “Boeing has a total of 1200 million shares outstanding, with 900 million shares in circulation. At the current share price of $18, $600 million could buy 2.77% of the shares, but given Boeing’s current market conditions, it’s unlikely that you could buy that many shares.”

"I know it will be difficult. I will buy as much as I can, and the remaining funds will be used to buy shares of Lockheed Martin, Douglas Airways, North American Airlines, General Motors, and Coca-Cola."

That's what he said, but what Sin Yiu-man really wanted was to buy as many Boeing shares as possible, even though Boeing's outstanding shares were no longer 900 million, because he already held 25.6 shares, making him a major shareholder of Boeing with a 2.13% stake.

However, he would never cross the 5% threshold, nor would he consider joining the board of directors. Boeing is a military-industrial company, and given his current status, if he were to be investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, he would most likely be crossing the national security red line. The joint investigation team of the FBI and CIA would expose his past, and he would either be deported or imprisoned for several years.

Simply put, he can currently make money by buying and selling Boeing stock, but wanting to become a "shareholder" is because he finds life too comfortable and wants to find some excitement for himself.

As for why they're so fixated on Boeing stock, it's because for the next twenty years, Boeing can point its finger at other aircraft manufacturers and ridicule them, saying, "If I say everyone here is trash, who agrees? Who disagrees?"

The B-47 bomber contract is already in effect, the B-52 Stratofortress bomber will have its maiden flight next year, and the KC-135 tanker will be available in a few years. Each of these models is likely to secure a large military contract.

In the civil aviation sector, the first successful jet airliner 707, the short-to-medium-range narrow-body aircraft 727, and the 747 that rewrote civil aviation history—each model will be reflected in the stock price, so holding Boeing stock will not result in a loss.

Of course, if he's only after making money, there are many better options than Boeing. To put it bluntly, he's aiming to join the Boeing board of directors. Just because he's not qualified now doesn't mean he won't be in the future. He'll eventually get his chance.

Lee Iacocca then said, "Is the boss very bullish on defense stocks?"

“I am optimistic about military stocks for at least the next few years.” Xian Yaowen didn’t explain much, and immediately added, “At the end of the year, we will calculate the dividends that each of you is entitled to, but the company will not distribute dividends this year. I will lend each of you cash equivalent to the dividends in my personal name, and you can pay me back after you receive the dividends.”

Jessica laughed and asked, "Before tax or after tax?"

"Of course, it's before tax."

The three understood immediately, and bright smiles appeared on their faces.

How could you not be happy? The difference between pre-tax and post-tax is at least half. In the most extreme case, you have to pay 98% tax. Of the 10 dividend, you only actually get 8000. What's worse is that the 10 is in your own hands first. If you can't resist spending it, you can only cry to Nicolas Cage when you go to file your taxes.

"That's all for the profit sharing. I just went to the Dragon Society and brought up the creation of 'Jurassic Park.' The general direction is to publish the comic first, and then produce an animated film to be broadcast on television. Li, you follow up on the subsequent communication."

"OK."

“Jessica, if possible, add a gimmick to the egg-shaped transforming toy.”

"what?"

"It was invented by a child."

"Set up a role model, and then hold a toy invention competition that only children participate in?"

“Excellent.” Xian Yaowen praised, and said, “Cooperate with the TV network to produce a new program called ‘Little Inventors.’ Before inventions with the potential to be turned into products appear on TV, Tongqu will sign them. Note that this is not a buyout of the invention, but a revenue-sharing agreement.”

"Can a child really come up with an invention that can be turned into a product?" Jessica was a little skeptical.

"Don't underestimate children's imagination. They just lack hands-on skills. Therefore, the show needs a Dr. Clark or Uncle Clark who is very hands-on, an adult figure that children will like, to be responsible for turning children's imaginations into real objects."

Of course, it doesn't necessarily mean he has to make them himself. It's time to establish a toy research and development lab. We must always maintain our enthusiasm for launching new toys, letting children know that the most fun toy is always the next one.

As he spoke, Xian Yaowen took out a blueprint and showed it to the three of them. "This is a spinning rod that I transformed from the bamboo dragonfly, a traditional toy from East Asia. You just need to hold this stick with your hand and transfer the rotational force to it, and it will fly."

How do helicopter propellers work?

"Bingo!" (End of Chapter)