Korean TV series: King of Peninsula 1997

Chapter 629 Crisis, Contradiction

Although the affairs of Daeyoung Marine, Daeyoung Group, and the city councilors under the Grand National Party are very attractive, on September 15th, the top leaders of the Korean Peninsula also turned their attention to the United States across the ocean.

Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank in the United States, suffered huge losses due to the severe impact of the subprime mortgage crisis and filed for bankruptcy protection.

They invested heavily in an overheated real estate market, used large amounts of borrowing to increase returns, and realized their losses later than other companies, and did not take the time to raise funds when their investments went wrong.

Even because they are so deep in the crisis that finding willing buyers has become a daunting task, the Fed and federal officials are largely powerless to do anything except pay a huge price.

The 'US subprime mortgage crisis' that some people still insisted would soon pass, from this moment on, officially became a global financial crisis.

The internal conflicts on the Korean Peninsula have been temporarily put aside, and everyone has begun to focus on adjusting their own businesses to avoid suffering huge losses and getting into trouble.

In just a few days, the chaos caused by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers also plunged Wall Street mainstays Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley into the chaos.

The collapse of market confidence was unstoppable and the stock market was in a state of turmoil.

Faced with a debt of $613 billion and the collapse of Lehman Brothers overnight, more than 20,000 employees had no choice but to leave. They will face unemployment and re-employment.

As they watched, the top politicians on the Korean Peninsula, including Cho Tae-sub, suddenly shuddered.

If Kinmen had not spent so much money to acquire all of Shunyang Group when it collapsed, but had only picked out the valuable industries,
If Daying Ocean can't hold on, it will go bankrupt.
In the Korean Peninsula's uniquely structured society, there will be nearly 100,000 or even more unemployed people. What should the politicians do then?

It was also on this day that Bank of America announced that it had acquired Merrill Lynch, the third largest investment bank in the United States, for a total price of US$50 billion.

The 'world's largest securities broker' has become another victim of the global financial crisis.

In less than a year, the landscape of the five largest investment banks on Wall Street has been turned upside down.

Merrill Lynch was acquired on the same day that Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, and Bear Stearns was acquired in May.

However, this incident only calmed the Korean Peninsula for half a month. As soon as October arrived, the Korean Peninsula became turbulent again.

There is no way. If you don't make trouble, you will suffer.

In this once-in-a-century global financial crisis, the impact on the real economy of the Korean Peninsula is not insignificant.

The crisis shifted directly from the financial level to the economic level, weakening US consumption. In this regard, Daeyoung Motor was of course the company that was most affected on the Korean Peninsula.

Different from the future cars that Li You is planning to develop in poor South American countries, Daying Motors attaches great importance to the U.S. market, and it also needs to rely on exports to the U.S. to make money.

At the same time, global shipping demand fell sharply in half a month, and Daying Ocean encountered a wave of order cancellations, with the amount of cancellations even estimated to be as high as hundreds of millions of US dollars.

This is also the reason why, even if Daying Automobile suffered losses, Zhu Mengyong had to make a concerted effort to take over Daying Ocean, because Daying Ocean suffered greater losses.

Daying Haiyang, which had been in a relatively stable situation, can no longer be said to be on the verge of collapse after the recent public opinion attacks and the current real financial crisis.

They also thought about using the large amount of empty space in the dock to quickly take on new orders to make up for the losses from order cancellations, but who would place new orders at this time?

Daying Ocean is still able to hold on now, purely because the Tianxia Group, which has a strong foundation, has been spending money to snatch Daying Ocean from Daying Group. Layoffs in many companies have intensified, especially in the construction industry and small and medium-sized manufacturing industries.

In other words, people working in the Kinmen Group feel that they have not been affected much.

Although there was also a decline and contraction in business, the lost profits were not as much as the money that Kinmen Securities earned in the financial market.

"Chairman Lee," Kang Man-chul, leader of the Progressive Labor Party, has started to lead unemployed workers in a march again in the past half month. He has been in the spotlight recently because of one incident after another, and his reputation in the eyes of the people is almost catching up with that of the 'modest gentleman' Cho Tae-seop.

"Councilor Jiang, are you not busy anymore?" Li You smiled.

"Thanks to Chairman Li's care for my son, I can serve the people wholeheartedly," Jiang Wanzhe said with a smile. "The situation in the United States is not peaceful, so he needs the chairman's care."

"No problem," Li You agreed, "Just study hard at Harvard, and I'll take care of the rest. You don't have to worry about your safety."

"That's good, that's good," Jiang Wanzhe saw that Li You agreed to the conditions, and then he began to inform Li You, "Today, a familiar member of the Grand Unified Democratic Party told me that Zhao Taixie wanted to hold a party meeting of the Grand Unified Democratic Party this afternoon to deal with some recent events and remarks within the Grand Unified Democratic Party."

"okay, I get it."

Jiang Wanzhe hung up the phone, but did not put it down. Instead, he waited for a while.

When Jiang Wanzhe saw the number marked with "son" calling, he quickly picked up the phone and said, "Did you call? One billion won?"

"Okay, okay," Jiang Wanzhe received the exact news, then he put away his phone, walked out whistling, and prepared to continue leading the citizens of the peninsula in marches and demonstrations.

Cho Tae-seop arrived early at the Grand Unified Democratic New Party meeting in the afternoon.

But as soon as the meeting started, some members of Congress immediately started to make sarcastic remarks, "Everyone has seen the courage and ability of party leader Nim in the first half of the year, and we must be united in supporting you."

"But ever since the Grand National Party city councillor incident, various incidents have occurred one after another. Shouldn't you explain this to us?"

Cho Tae-seop looked at the congressman coldly and asked calmly, "So what accident did Congressman Liu ask me to explain first?"

"The matter of DH Financial Holdings and Peninsula Bank."

"It has nothing to do with me," Zhao Taixie said without changing his expression.

"It has nothing to do with Councillor Cho?" Councillor Liu stopped calling the party leader. "Then the incident against the Grand National Party city councillor has nothing to do with Councillor Cho?"

“The Grand National Party has always been our enemy.”

Councillor Liu looked over with wide eyes and remained silent for a moment.

DH Financial Holdings and Peninsula Bank were targeted by the Kinmen Group because they were implicated in the Grand National Party's affairs, but in Cho Tae-seop's words, it was as if they had nothing to do with it.

"I heard some comments recently," Zhao Taixie leaned back on the chair at the back and said calmly, "It is said that I, Zhao Taixie, am not doing a good job as the party leader. Is there any other congressman who thinks so?"

(End of this chapter)