Korean TV series: King of Peninsula 1997

Chapter 595 The second half of 2007

Since July, the subprime mortgage crisis that initially occurred in the United States has spread to Europe, forcing the European Central Bank to intervene.

Global metal crude oil futures and spot gold prices plunged sharply, but gold futures were not much affected.

By August 11, central banks around the world injected $326.2 billion to rescue the market in just 48 hours, and the Federal Reserve injected $38 billion into banks within 24 hours to stabilize the stock market.

But the 'prey' still suffered huge losses, including dozens of companies such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot, which were destabilized by the crisis.

U.S. stocks have fallen to their lowest point in months.

Just three days later, the three major central banks of the United States, Europe and Japan injected another US$72 billion to rescue the market.

But as the nation's largest commercial mortgage company's stock price plummeted, it faced bankruptcy.

On August 911, the crisis finally spread to the Asia-Pacific stock markets, which suffered the worst decline since /.

On August 21st, it has been nearly two months since Lee You returned to the Korean Peninsula.

During this period, the Kinmen Group was also operating at a booming pace, and the losses caused by the crisis on the industry were easily recovered in the financial market.

Li You went to the Blue House together with Zhu Mengyong and Jin Jianying.

The purpose is nothing else but to lobby the Bank of Korea to maintain its loose monetary policy.

Li You started preparing countermeasures at the beginning of the year, which gave him the upper hand. As the situation became clearer, the other two also came to their senses and realized the coming of the crisis.

The core logic behind maintaining an easy monetary policy is to take advantage of the "too big to fail" economic status of the Korean peninsula's chaebols and profit from the crisis.

Kinmen Group, Daying Group, and Tianxia Group are all large groups that have tied their own interests to the economic stability of the Korean Peninsula.
"Chairman Zhu," Li You and Zhu Mengyong met each other. There was nothing wrong between the two of them, but Jin Jianying and Zhu Mengyong were obviously not on good terms.

Jin Jianying is currently teaming up with Zhu Mengyuan to try to extend his reach into Daying Ocean, but was also counterattacked by Zhu Mengyong.

But no matter what the relationship between the three is now, they all need to do what they are doing now.

With the arrival of the crisis, Zhu Mengyong, who had originally planned to spend a year dealing with Daying Haiyang and take his time at the lowest price, is now in a difficult situation.

Jin Jianying also regretted getting involved. Now that the crisis has come, they are stuck in a quagmire.

"No need to say more," Li You took the lead and walked to the first position, "President Li is still waiting for us."

The two people who fell behind looked at each other briefly, then separated immediately. "President Jin is old, but he has a big heart."

Zhu Mengyong felt sick. This Jin Jianying had been showing weakness in every way since he fell ill two years ago. He not only bowed his head and surrendered to Li You, but also to him. Now that he is feeling better, he is showing up again and being disgusting.

"Let's talk business," Jin Jianying's skinny cheeks twitched with a forced smile, "But now is probably not the right time to discuss this matter."

Li You was walking in front and did not interrupt their conversation. Instead, he listened with great interest.

As for the Blue House Secretary-General who was leading the way, he also looked calm.

Zhu Mengyong curled his lips and mocked Jin Jianying, "I heard that the young master is very close to Councillor Zhao Taixie."

"Congressman Cho has been doing quite a lot recently. After quitting the Grand National Party," Zhu Mengyong glanced at Li You inconspicuously, "he joined the Grand Unified Democratic Party. He is also considered a prominent figure in the political world."

Li You's eyes moved slightly. He had been supporting Emperor Cui Chang's campaign these days, and of course he also understood the political affairs.

In March, Li You discussed the political turmoil with Li Lianchang.

The Open Kuomintang, which was extremely powerful in the middle of last year, is about to disappear into history.

Although the Grand National Party lost the parliamentary by-election in April, the Open National Party did not win a single seat.

Then in May, a faction of the Open Kuomintang broke away and announced the establishment of the "Central Reform United New Party", occupying 20 seats in the National Assembly.

In June and July, there was another large-scale withdrawal from the Open Kuomintang.

These people, together with a large number of other members of Congress, formed the "Grand Unified Democratic New Party".

Just yesterday, August 20, the Open Kuomintang completely merged with the Grand Unified Democratic New Party and now holds 143 seats in Congress.

However, Li You does not care, because the newly established Grand Unified Democratic Party is more like an electoral alliance hastily established to cope with this year's general election rather than a party established to unify the forces of the Democratic Party.

It inherited the fragmented and chaotic nature of the Open Kuomintang.

Such a party with no competitiveness at all will naturally not pose any effective threat to the Grand National Party and Emperor Choi Chang.

But Jin Jianying's eldest son, Jin Yongjun, was jumping around inside.

The key lies in Cho Tae-seop.

This ambitious congressman, seeing that he could only become a vassal of the Grand National Party, withdrew from the Grand National Party and joined the Grand Unified New Party of Democracy. With the funds provided by Kim Young-jun, the prodigal son of Kim Gun-young, and his own political ideas, he became the leader of a faction in the Grand Unified New Party of Democracy.

If nothing unexpected happens, after a few years of development, Cho Tae-sub will most likely take advantage of this favorable situation and look forward to the next general election.

Kim Gun-young doesn't have many years left to live, and it's possible that Cho Tae-seop will 'take advantage' to seize the heir Kim Yong-jun and control the Tianxia Group behind the scenes.

Zhu Mengyong said this naturally to provoke Li You's nerves.

After all, the name is the 'Grand Unified Democratic New Party', but it is more appropriate to call it the 'Anti-Grand National Party Alliance' and the 'Anti-Lee Woo Alliance'.

But he reminded Li You that this time
Zhao Tae-seop is on the rise, so the male protagonist in "My Life Again" whose soul returns to the present world from the future should have returned.

As they were thinking, the three of them came to the highest-level conference room of the Blue House. President Li Lianchang was already waiting inside. Upon seeing the three people arrive, he stood up and shook hands with them, saluting each other.

Normally, if it were just an ordinary matter, the three of them could have directly put pressure on the Governor of the Central Bank of the Korean Peninsula, but the impact of this crisis was too great, and appropriate concessions had to be made.

"Mr. President," Li You said calmly, "I believe you know what the three of us are here to suggest."

Li Lianchang straightened up and faced the three people, "Please speak."

They didn't say much, but emphasized the threat to exports and employment posed by the subprime mortgage crisis and even the possible financial crisis. They called for maintaining low interest rates to reduce financing costs and said high interest rates would aggravate the corporate liquidity crisis.

It seems that every word is true, but in fact it is a threat. Exports, employment, and corporate liquidity are all controlled by these three people.

It is true that Li You and Li Lianchang have a good personal relationship, but one is the commander-in-chief and the other is the chairman of the largest chaebol. In the face of such interests, personal relationships need to be put aside.

The three of them emphasized the status of the three major groups as the economic pillars of the Korean Peninsula, and hinted to Li Lianchang that if liquidity is broken, it will lead to the collapse of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises upstream and downstream, forcing the government and the central bank to compromise.

Zhu Mengyong also made an exorbitant request, wanting to ask the central bank to provide targeted re-lending support on the grounds that Daying Group's current supply chain and capital chain are tight.

However, before Li Lianchang could reject this request, it was rejected by Jin Jianying, who was on the same front as him.

"Since President Zhu is short of funds, why not stop the acquisition of Daying Ocean?"

Jin Jianying not only rejected Zhu Mengyong's words, but also pulled in Li You, using national strategic industries such as semiconductors and shipbuilding as bargaining chips, claiming that high interest rates would weaken international competitiveness, and demanding that policies be tilted towards Kinmen Electronics and Daying Marine.

Zhu Mengyong was unable to refute it with concrete words, because if Daying Haiyang went bankrupt in the crisis, it would no longer be a matter of manipulating public opinion.

Things are going to be really serious. Tens of thousands of people will be directly unemployed, plus those working in the industrial chain and their families. Hundreds of thousands of people will take to the streets to protest and demand explanations from the government and the chaebols.

They are not afraid of being made into a movie or TV series, where they can get a lot of money by being scolded by the public, but who knows what will happen with this kind of large-scale parade.
What Zhu Mengyong is unwilling to accept is that if Daying Haiyang gets this support loan and then the help from Tianxia Group, the battle line may be extended again, and he may not be able to take down Daying Haiyang for two years.

It is a question whether this year's subprime mortgage crisis can end next year, which really worries him.

The key is that Jin Jianying was cunning enough. He deliberately pulled the semiconductor industry and Li You into the picture, and even let Li You and Kinmen Electronics get the first piece of the pie. Li You had no reason to refuse this piece of meat in his mouth.

Li You would not stand on Zhu Mengyong's side and refute Jin Jianying's words.

The face of Daying Group is worth a few coins.

Ultimately, Kinmen Electronics will receive low-interest loan support from the central bank, while Daying Ocean has attached a number of new terms to the detailed cooperation due to its instability.

Looking at the backs of the three people leaving, Li Lianchang sighed faintly, "The chaebols are already rich enough, but they still want to pounce on us and bite the flesh of the Korean Peninsula fiercely."

The Secretary-General stood aside, silent.

After the meeting, the media and experts and scholars were the first to create momentum.

The media affiliated with the three major groups, led by Xiancheng Daily, began to intensively report on corporate bankruptcies and rising unemployment rates, creating an atmosphere of panic and strengthening the "rescue the market" public opinion.

This is not to create panic, but to set an example for the people before using loose monetary policy to avoid causing unrest.

For example, the front page of Xiancheng Daily stated that "high interest rates will lead to chain bankruptcies of small and medium-sized enterprises," directly pointing to the central bank's policy.

This is of course led by Li You. The level of panic should not be too high or too low. Nothing can really happen, but people cannot feel it either.

Economic research institutions on the Korean Peninsula, such as the Development Institute, have published research project reports that demonstrate the necessity of the current interest rate cut.

A professor at Seoul University also wrote that "the Korean Peninsula should follow the Federal Reserve's example and cut interest rates to stimulate domestic demand."

Although in August, the Bank of Korea kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 5 percent.

Immediately afterwards, the Korean Peninsula Federation of Trade Unions and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry issued a joint statement.

Exaggerate the risk of economic recession and push for the introduction of loose policies.

Under their pressure and after a wave of public opinion, the government began to slightly cut interest rates in September, first to 4.95 percent and then to 4.85 percent in November. At the same time, it also relaxed bank credit restrictions on enterprises.

This is because in September, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time, exceeding expectations by 0.5%, while the market expected only 0.25%. Although this attempt to save the market has triggered concerns about economic recession.
Because of this matter, even Bezos and Musk called and discussed with Li You for a long time.

But because of the interest rate cut, the S&P 500, a very important index, actually hit a record high.

As a result, interest rates in South Korea were cut.

then
As Li You expected, it collapsed.

This is the consequence of the serious disconnect between the market and the real economy. Real estate and finance in the United States are completely different concepts.

The real estate industry is thousands of times ahead of real estate finance.

It's not just the real estate industry. In fact, the US financial industry has over-expanded to the extreme this year. The scale of financial derivatives has even reached ten times the global GDP, almost completely detached from the real base such as manufacturing.

This also caused global trade to become unbalanced, with the United States relying on borrowing to maintain consumption, while Asian countries had excess savings.

The United States has formed a distorted cycle of 'debt-consumption-export', while Asian countries have another relative distortion.

But Li You looked at the world market and found that most people are still trapped in the subprime mortgage crisis, including Bezos and Musk.

Even the Federal Reserve was still underestimating the severity of the subprime mortgage crisis and did not take any effective intervention to prevent the global financial crisis that might have occurred the following year.

Crisis is crisis, and during the subprime mortgage crisis, the three major groups on the Korean Peninsula each had their own ways of making profits.

Although the other two companies still failed to realize the possible financial crisis that would occur the following year and only thought that there would be no problem with the Federal Reserve around, this did not affect their cautious efforts to make money and engage in low-price mergers and acquisitions during the subprime mortgage crisis.

The Golden Gate Group issued corporate bonds at an interest rate of three percent, two percentage points lower than before the crisis.

This is just a small matter, the bulk of the money belongs to Kinmen Securities.

Under the operation of the traders of Kinmen Securities, through leverage, Kinmen Securities has made at least 3 billion US dollars in this subprime mortgage crisis.

This is just the beginning, because there is still some funds circulating in it that have not been recovered.

Daying Group and Kinmen Group are not to be outdone, they are both engaged in bargain-hunting mergers and acquisitions.

When Tianxia Group acquired part of Daying Marine's shipbuilding assets at a low price, the attention of the middle and upper classes of the Korean Peninsula was focused on Busan, and they even forgot about the crisis.

Although Daying Group has successively acquired some of Daying Ocean's shipping and shipbuilding assets, those are their own business. Now Tianxia Group has made a move and taken away part of their assets in one go.

Fighting for life and death is normal.

(End of this chapter)