America: My Time

Chapter 747 DuPont's Concerns

Chapter 737 DuPont's Concerns
“Morgan is right. We should part ways with these guys sooner rather than later, lest we be dragged down by them. These bastards don’t take John’s forbearance seriously at all. If we continue to cooperate with them, the DuPont family will be implicated. Rockefeller has gone a bit crazy, and there are also guys like Mellon. The First Citibank Group, the California Group, and the Texas Group are just sitting on the sidelines watching the tigers fight, letting these guys target John and profiting from the situation!” At this point, DuPont was already considering leaving. Being with these guys made him feel out of place, because these old guys were still living in their past glory and didn’t understand that times had changed. This was no longer their era.

Shorting the yen quickly gained acceptance on Wall Street, but DuPont, like Morgan, remained cautious and observed the situation. They held their tongues, not believing John would act so easily; there must be more to it than met the eye. While everyone was learning about Japan, no one dared claim to know much about it. They preferred to say they knew about the Middle East, but none dared confidently assert that they understood the situation in Japan or Russia.

It was precisely because no one could see through him that John's barter trade with the Russians was tolerated. John wanted to learn more about the Russians, which gave him the opportunity to frantically seize profits and obtain a lot of technology from the Russians. This led to more changes, which was something many people did not expect.

The same goes for Japan. Despite the Americans' constant scheming against Japan, they are still completely baffled by the current situation in Japan and dare not make any decisions easily. After all, Japan's economic strength is still very strong, and they can't quite figure out Japan's series of mysterious actions.

If anyone can see through everything in Japan, it's John. He's always hit the nail on the head and profited immensely from Japan's financial changes. So even though Wall Street guys want to dethrone John, many still believe that John has the best understanding of Japan. Opposing John would probably not be a good decision. But their team is quite interesting.

Morgan never sided with them from the beginning, and there were many conflicts and cliques among them. Mellon clearly gradually aligned himself with Rockefeller, as did the Chicago and Cleveland financial groups, given their greater intertwined interests and extensive collaborations in steel, oil, banking, and other sectors. By this time, the power of these financial groups was deeply intertwined; many companies were jointly controlled, meaning it was a matter of one group encroaching on another's business while the other was being encroached upon.

In contrast, Morgan had a good relationship with First Citibank, but First Citibank remained silent and did not participate in the operation against John. Their group was now led by Rockefeller.

After a heated discussion, a result was finally reached, but DuPont was not optimistic. However, since everyone else had agreed, there was no point in opposing it. He could only give up and let these guys do it.

"Morgan, we need to sit down and talk. Those Rockefeller guys are going a bit too crazy!" After the meeting, DuPont chose to communicate with Morgan, not wanting to continue to go along with these guys' madness. These guys had no regard for rules. As beneficiaries of the rules, these guys were breaking the rules for their own benefit, which was a very scary thing.

If even the beneficiaries don't follow the rules, how can others be expected to? This alone made DuPont uneasy, fearing that the situation would return to that chaotic era. Yet, Rockefeller and his ilk possessed a mysterious confidence, the source of which was unknown to DuPont, which he found unacceptable.

"Yes, we should definitely talk. First Citigroup is also willing to discuss the current situation. The situation on Wall Street is too chaotic right now. If this continues, it might get out of control, which is something no one wants to see. To be honest, if those guys keep going like this, the White House might even get involved. They've already gone too far!"

When DuPont heard Morgan's answer, he sighed. Things were just as he had guessed. Morgan dared to stay outside the group because they were confident and because they were very clear about everything that happened in the group. Perhaps it wasn't just First Citibank that was involved, but there were other people involved. After all, Morgan's connections were too strong back then, and the old Morgan's personal charisma was too strong!
While the White House has agreed in principle to relinquish control, it can't simply relinquish it because of the manipulation by those old guys. Surely the White House's think tank isn't just for show; they can see its enormous potential and power. If they can't even grasp this, they're utterly incompetent. The main reason no one has stepped forward to accept is the high price to pay. Significant annual investments are required before the system is fully operational, something Congress is extremely reluctant to see. The Donald is also hindering progress. With those old guys instigating the Donald and Congress's influence, the White House is naturally incurring their displeasure.

Rockefeller was well aware of this, so he didn't participate himself, but instead let others participate. These guys naturally offended the White House, and even the Elephant. It can be said that these guys interfered with the White House's decision, which is not something that can be easily dismissed. It would be a lie to say that the White House didn't have some bad impressions of them. If these guys gave the White House enough reasons and excuses, they certainly wouldn't let them off easily.

First-tier Citibank naturally understood this, and DuPont was also aware of it. Therefore, they were very dissatisfied with Rockefeller's self-serving methods and, naturally, wanted to protect themselves, so they thought of Morgan. Rockefeller was involved in many US decisions; he had done a great deal in the past. However, Morgan had always avoided this, perhaps because Morgan's influence was too great. After Morgan's death, they became much more restrained and focused their energy on their own development.

"Since you're both here, please have a seat. There's no need for formalities between us!" Morgan smiled calmly. This was a private, confidential meeting, so Morgan was very cautious. Stillman and DuPont were also very cautious, after all, the matter they were going to discuss this time was quite unusual, and they needed to be careful.

“Morgan, you know why we’re here. Those guys have gone mad. We’re worried they’ll lose their temper and escalate things. I’m sure you understand the danger behind this. The White House can compromise, but they can’t compromise forever. They’re slapping the White House in the face.” Stillman sighed as he spoke. The First Citizen was powerful, but they couldn’t afford to offend people so recklessly.

"The White House issue is manageable, since they won't make a big fuss. But it's different with John. Their blatant disregard for his principles is just asking for trouble. Do you think John will continue to compromise? I don't know what those guys are thinking, but based on my understanding of John, he won't back down. I don't know what you two think, but in my opinion, John doesn't care about joining the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. He has enormous gold reserves, more than any of our banks combined. Do you think he still needs to become a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and a member of its board of directors? For other banks, that's something they desperately want, but John doesn't need to. That little bit of income is nothing to him, and I don't think John's Honest Bank and East West Bank need the Federal Reserve Bank's help."

“I understand, but it’s not up to us to decide. After all, someone has been playing the good cop/bad cop game all along. On the surface, everything seems to have nothing to do with them, but in reality, they’re the ones pulling the strings. If they keep doing this, something will eventually go wrong. I’m feeling uneasy now, and I believe DuPont feels the same way.”

“Yes, if we continue like this, it’s easy for things to collapse. John is young, but that doesn’t mean he’s incompetent or unaware of the problems behind this. He’s already been very restrained, but some people don’t know when to back down. This makes us very uneasy. They’re protected by the rules and have benefited from them, yet they want to trample on them. This makes us very uneasy and we don’t want to see this happen. If we let them continue, is there any point in having the rules? Are we going to go back to that chaotic era?”

DuPont nodded and said, “That’s right, we really can’t tolerate this any longer. This also makes me very uneasy. I’ve spoken with him, but he didn’t give a direct response, just empty words. I believe you two are both aware of what happened during the San Francisco earthquake, so we can’t let them continue like this, at least we can’t ruin our opportunity. We don’t want to interfere with their thoughts, but we can’t let them affect our interests either. If we provoke John to retaliate again, the consequences will be serious, and it will be really hard to handle then!”

(End of this chapter)