America: My Time

Chapter 788 Middle East Crisis
Chapter 778 Middle East Crisis

The spin-off of ASUS was no secret to Morgan Stanley, and it happened very quickly. The contract manufacturing was spun off directly, and ASUS also joined the R&D team. It is believed that it will not be long before it has strong R&D capabilities. Those peripheral parts should be spun off instead of being left behind and affecting its own development.

If ASUS continues its indefinite expansion, trying to grab everything and get involved in everything, it will gradually run into trouble. However, the spun-off factories are also a transfer of assets; those offshore companies and funds will become shareholders in these companies. As for going public, forget about it; John won't let them go public.

“John, you need to be careful too. Don’t go too far, or you’ll attract attention. Some people can’t accept your frantic asset transfers, especially your enemies. They’ll keep hounding you whenever they get the chance. They haven’t made a move yet because they don’t have any evidence.”

"I understand. I'm prepared for this issue and won't give them any chance. Besides, those companies are all overseas, so even if they wanted to investigate, they wouldn't have the capability. As for the US companies, they'll naturally go public and raise funds. What they think is their own business. Seagate is also preparing to go public soon, and if anyone is interested, you can participate in the first round of financing! However, production will be transferred overseas, so you need to be prepared for that in advance!"

With ASUS's rapid expansion in the personal computer industry, Seagate has also come into the spotlight and naturally attracted a lot of attention. With the rapid expansion of the internet cafe alliance, Seagate's profits have also made many people envious. It can be said that all the companies in the entire industry chain are enviable and have huge profits, so many people naturally have ideas.

“Morgan is naturally willing to participate, and I believe the old guys are no exception. I really can’t think of any reason why they would refuse. However, you should also pay attention to Gulfstream Space; many people there have their own ideas!”

"I know, but I don't think those guys will get involved. Don't be fooled by Gulfstream's current good situation; it's not actually that ideal. What's supporting Gulfstream's development right now is Middle Eastern tycoons, but that will eventually come to an end. And Gulfstream is getting fewer and fewer orders from Middle Eastern tycoons. If things go wrong in the US, the entire military industry will be in big trouble. Right now, Gulfstream is frantically shifting towards civilian applications."

Morgan is well aware of the current situation of US military industrial enterprises. If the Russians collapse, many projects will be cut. Unfortunately, the Russians are in a very bad situation now. Therefore, people with foresight understand that the tough days for military industrial enterprises are coming. Only a fool would think that military industrial enterprises can continue to be prosperous.

The reason those old guys sold so many state-owned enterprises to John was because they were worried that the military industry would fall into trouble. However, their deals with John did not bring any returns because they couldn't manage them. They almost ruined an industry giant, which shows that these guys had serious incompetence in these areas.

Although John and Morgan were discussing their collaboration, neither of them spoke about the financial aspects. Morgan didn't ask John about his plans for Japan, and John didn't explain. They maintained a tacit understanding, after all, the Japanese stock market had already started to fall and showed no signs of stopping, clearly indicating that the bubble in the Japanese stock market was beginning to burst.

Time flew by, and soon it was June. Berlin, with its 28-year history, was demolished. At that moment, the whole world realized that the Russians were truly on their last legs and couldn't hold on any longer; otherwise, they wouldn't have remained completely silent. By this time, the so-called Cold War structure was merely a shell of its former self. The Americans were also shocked, and they all remembered John's words: the Russians were destined to fail because their internal turmoil was too much.

If some people had previously questioned John's claims and didn't believe the Russians would fall, they now finally believe it. After so many years of fighting against the Russians, the fact that the Russians are finally finished is cause for celebration among these American leaders.

Oil prices are still falling, and many people are mocking John because his refineries in Asia are still buying crude oil. Many people are doing the math for John, thinking that his refineries have lost a lot of money just on crude oil reserves, and they are starting to look down on John's foresight.

These guys seemed to have forgotten that most of John's crude oil reserves came from Russia, acquired through barter, at prices far lower than they expected. Therefore, John's overall crude oil reserves weren't as unprofitable as they thought. Amidst their mockery, John's new round of actions began: massively buying crude oil on the futures market. Europe, Asia, and the United States were all involved, as this was all pre-planned and went unnoticed. Now, their attention was drawn to Japan. American financial groups and Wall Street figures sensed danger, or rather, they realized the Japanese central bank's plans.

As the bubble grew wildly, these Japanese made a crazy decision: they wanted to deliberately burst it. After all, if making a fortune through stocks and real estate speculation was the only way, who would want to run a real business or become an entrepreneur? Who could accept that people would work hard all year and then lose the appreciation of their company's real estate?

Most importantly, hardworking Japanese men earn less money than their wives make from stock trading. As a result, the atmosphere in Japan has changed. The idea of ​​getting something for nothing by investing in stocks and real estate has become the consensus in mainstream society. This is a big problem for the country. If this continues, no one in Japan will be willing to engage in real business.

The Japanese economy was already impacted by the appreciation of the yen, and now the mainstream societal attitudes have changed again, which is unacceptable to some people in Japan, especially those at the central bank. In their view, if things continue like this, the whole of Japan will be finished, so they decided to deliberately burst the bubble.

Although these Americans sensed the danger, it wasn't so easy for them to leave. They were too greedy; they had so many chips in their hands, and they couldn't just sell them off in a short time. They weren't like John, who had already sold off his Japanese stocks and real estate and escaped beforehand. Now John was shorting Japan.

It has to be said that Japan deserves its bad luck, perhaps it's their retribution, as problems also arise in the Middle East at this time. The US's suppression of oil prices is mainly aimed at Russia; they're sparing no effort to bring Russia down. Globally, only the Middle Eastern tycoons can sustain such low oil prices. However, not everyone can. Saddam Hussein couldn't hold on. The Iran-Iraq War caused them heavy losses, and it's extremely difficult to compensate for such low oil prices with increased production. For eight years, the entire country has been focused on the war; increasing oil production is simply impossible, at least in the short term. So, they started looking for other solutions.

Of course, it wasn't just Saddam Hussein who suffered; Rockefeller also came into the picture. Half of the oil companies in the United States belonged to his family, and with oil prices remaining low, they naturally suffered as well. Otherwise, this guy wouldn't have been so relentlessly targeting John, nor would he have set his sights on Western Energy and its power plants. After all, everyone knew how much money John made and how profitable his power plants were, and this directly alleviated Western Energy's financial problems.

Rockefeller couldn't stand seeing others prosper, and when he was down on his luck, he didn't want others to be either, especially with Western Energy. This led to the breakup of Western Energy. However, Rockefeller underestimated John's reaction and his control over energy. Although Rockefeller seemed unlucky and suffered huge losses in oil, those were only losses on paper. The oil fields wouldn't disappear; once the Russians collapsed, oil prices would rise again. Therefore, no matter how difficult things got, Rockefeller never considered selling the oil company and kept it firmly in his hands.

The situation in the Middle East is becoming increasingly dangerous, and John is considering leaving the United States for a vacation in Japan. Of course, the vacation is just a pretext; his real intention is to exploit Japan. Once Saddam Hussein makes his move, global oil prices will skyrocket, and the opportunity he's been waiting for will arrive. The Japanese will be eager to buy up crude oil, and John will become their target, given his astonishing reserves in refineries across Asia.

Of course, it wasn't just Japan that was anxious at this point; everyone was. In mid-July, John left California and went directly to Japan. However, not many people paid attention to John's whereabouts. After all, in many people's eyes, John always liked to go to Asia during the summer, so no one thought there was anything wrong with John's trip to Japan this time.

However, those guys didn't know that while John was leaving the US, Hurricane Investments was also making preparations, as was Jaguar Security, targeting crude oil and the Japanese stock market. It was time to wrap things up. It was time to deliver a blow to Japan, completely extricate himself from Japan, and shift his focus to Europe. After all, the Russians wouldn't be able to hold on much longer; German reunification was imminent. John needed to prepare in advance, concentrating his efforts on them. He had considerable assets in East Germany, and his European companies held a significant amount of East German marks.

(End of this chapter)