The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Siheyuan.

Today the situation is quite tight inside but outside. Although the stores are still open, all the roads leading inside are closed.

At this moment, Liu Tao was entertaining guests.

This time, George Walton attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games against all odds and withstood tremendous pressure, making this the highest number of heads of state from various countries attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in history.

Heads of state and major figures from all over the world attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, which had never happened in any previous Olympic Games.

This was a favor, and Liu Tao appreciated it. Today, he played the role of host and entertained George Wharton, witnessing the friendship between the two sides that has lasted for more than 20 years.

However, due to their identities, they inevitably talked about serious matters and quarrels were inevitable.

"George, this is something that the United States did. You should pay for your mistakes!" Liu Tao did not back down. "If you want to help, I can. But what is the price you can pay?"

There are only eternal interests between countries, not eternal friendship!

This is the truest portrayal of international relations!
Even now, in modern international relations, it is difficult to deviate from this iron rule.

Liu Tao was not opposed to helping the Americans, but the question was what price the Americans could pay?
The subprime mortgage crisis was caused by the Americans. It was the greed of Wall Street that led to this huge crisis.

Also this year, the greedy Wall Street in the United States once again exploded with a huge bomb, which completely triggered the financial and economic crisis.

Lehman Brothers, an investment banking giant with a history of more than 150 years and considered too big to fail, officially declared bankruptcy, with public debts reaching $8000 billion, more than twenty times its own assets.

In the past, no one believed that Lehman Brothers would go bankrupt, not even their employees, because their company had survived a hundred years of turmoil and remained standing.

But Lehman Brothers still collapsed. After Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, the US government and Wall Street giants refused to lend a helping hand.

Because the US government and other Wall Street giants used Lehman Brothers as a sacrifice to scare the monkeys and appease public anger.

American public opinion and the American people are very dissatisfied with the government's rescue of the market rushing to Wall Street, so some Wall Street giants must become victims.

And the victim chosen was Lehman Brothers.

But Lehman collapsed and people panicked.

The trampling effect of the financial market was once again evident. The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers caused many people to lose all their money, which then affected other investment banks and banks. Many people transferred their assets or redeemed their principal in advance, causing the US stock market to fall sharply again. The Dow Jones Index, an economic indicator, fell below the psychological mark of 1 points in January.

In January and February, China was fighting snow disaster relief; in May, China was carrying out earthquake disaster relief!

But from January to now, the United States has only been doing one thing, which is to save the market!

As a capitalist country, finance has always been a top priority for the United States since it began to "de-industrialize" and transform into a financial capitalist country.

Compared with the industrial capital era, it is undoubtedly easier to make money and the profits are higher in the financial capital era.

Wall Street grew huge in a short period of time and became the most important force in the United States.

Financial capital represented by Wall Street is directly related to the national capital of the United States.

Saving finance means saving America!
I don’t know how many people regret not saving Lehman Brothers, but it’s no use regretting.

In just a few months, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, major investment banks and banks such as Goldman Sachs could no longer bear the pressure and filed for bankruptcy.

There are even more small and medium-sized investment banks and banks that have filed for bankruptcy. For the United States, the impact of this crisis is no less than the Great Depression of 1929.

The United States is in a miserable situation, and European and American countries, Japan and South Korea are naturally not much better off, as the financial and economic ties between them are too close.

Even many countries that implement high social welfare and have long been heavily in debt have also collapsed this time.

The United States and other countries have not been without the desire to engage in military adventures this year.

For example, at the Japanese Air Force Base, five F-5 Raptor fighter jets took off on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve for a test mission, but were intercepted by five J-22 fighter jets.

It was also at this time that the J-20 fighter was finally confirmed by the US military.

There was also a reconnaissance satellite that was used as a test subject and was directly destroyed during a laser anti-satellite experiment.

What the meaning of this is is naturally self-evident.

Before this, some people doubted why the laser anti-satellite experiment and intercontinental missile experiment were carried out again, and they did not know the inside story.

Even Russia tried it, but when faced with an exercise by a heavy combined force brigade, it backed down.

When George Wharton heard Liu Tao's words, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

The bailout plan of up to 7000 billion U.S. dollars was upgraded to 10 billion U.S. dollars in just 8500 days. In order to put out the fire from the source, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two major subprime mortgage instigators, received high-profile capital injections from the government.

When large investment banks and banks such as Goldman Sachs filed for bankruptcy protection, the US government also extended a helping hand to prevent them from actually going bankrupt.

At the same time, the Federal Reserve announced a substantial interest rate cut, implemented a quantitative easing policy, and increased the amount of money in the market to rescue the market. The scale of the first round was as high as over US$1 trillion.

This means that the US government has truly entered the battlefield and become the protagonist.

Who is the world's largest debtor country?
Of course it’s the United States!
The size of the U.S. national debt has exceeded 10 trillion U.S. dollars!

They owe so much money and yet they dare to implement quantitative easing policy, starting with a scale of trillions of dollars. Aren’t they afraid of inflation?

If you owe the bank 10,000 yuan, the bank is your uncle! But if you are qualified to owe 100 million yuan, you are the bank's uncle!
As the global hegemon, the United States has hijacked the world's economy and dominates the industrial landscape on the planet.

They can export their own country's inflation to countries all over the world and release US dollars globally!

This tactic has been tried and tested by the United States and has always worked!
As the saying goes: whoever controls the oil controls all countries; whoever controls the food controls humanity; whoever controls the currency controls the global economy.

But this time, the effect of this move by the United States was not as effective as the United States had imagined.

Oil and natural gas were burned down by Liu Tao. One of the important reasons for the sudden intensification of the US crisis is that the companies that auctioned off the oil fields before actually lost money after the energy prices fell.

And the United States has failed to control oil!
As for food, the United States has sufficient supplies, but it depends on who the food is for.
The effect of this move is also greatly reduced.

Even currency, as the dollar's share in world trade settlement has fallen to less than 35%, the effectiveness of monetary policy has also been less than expected.

At the China-US summit, economic issues were of paramount importance, but the United States wanted to get help without paying a price, and as a result, the cooperation between the two sides in rescuing the market had no effect at all.

Scholars who are paid to do so advocate that saving the United States is saving China. This argument has influenced many people, but it has no influence on the decision-makers at all. (End of this chapter)