American Medicine God: Starting by Inheriting a Pharmaceutical Company and Selling Medicine

"This is a draft internal memo."

Victor pushed the file to the center of the table.

"The Bank of Japan's new governor, Yasushi Mieno, just took office this week. Wall Street may not have noticed him yet, thinking he's just another obedient bureaucrat."

"But my intelligence indicates that he is a thorough hawk. He calls the current bubble 'sinful,' a 'filth that must be cleansed.' He is prepared to raise interest rates. And aggressively, without any room for retreat."

The three vultures immediately swooped down on the document. Although they couldn't read Japanese, the charts and red stamps on it gave them a whiff of blood.

"Sol, translate the key paragraphs."

"To curb overheated asset prices, the liquidity of land financing must be cut off... even at the cost of economic recession, the bubble must be burst..." Saul read.

Stanley looked up, his expression changing.

"If interest rates rise, the stock market will crash first, and then it will spread to the housing market," he muttered to himself, his mind racing with calculations. "The value of Sakura Pharmaceuticals' cross-shareholdings will shrink. Once it falls below the bank's collateral warning line, the bank will issue a margin call notice."

"And Tanaka has no cash left," Victor added. "His cash is all in a custodian account in the United States, frozen by CFIUS. He can't access it."

"Once the banks withdraw their loans, he'll have no choice but to sell his stocks and real estate. And that sell-off will trigger an even more dramatic crash. A death spiral." Chanos's partner licked his lips excitedly.

Tanaka thought he was hunting Walter's pharmaceuticals, unaware that he had already put his neck in the noose. He had staked his life on the foam, while Victor held the needle in his hand.

"What should we do?" the Tiger Fund representative asked.

"Short it," Victor uttered. "Not just short Sakura Pharmaceuticals, we're going to hunt down the entire Japanese market."

"Specific tools?"

"We can use the Nikkei 225 Futures on the Singapore Exchange (SGX)," Saul immediately suggested. "It's an offshore market, not regulated by the Japanese Ministry of Finance. We can establish a huge short position."

"At the same time, buy deep out-of-the-money put options. Volatility is very low right now, and options are cheap as paper. Once the market crashes, these pieces of paper will turn into gold."

"This requires a huge amount of money," Stanley said. "And it's very risky. What if the Japanese government uses its foreign exchange reserves to bail out the market? That's hundreds of billions of dollars in firepower."

"Good question."

Victor took another document out of his briefcase, a draft memorandum stamped with the seal of the U.S. Treasury Department.

"That's why I need you. Not just the money, but also your influence in Washington."

"This is the diplomatic note that will soon be sent to the Japanese Ministry of Finance," Victor said in a low voice. "The content is simple: based on the Super 301 clause of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, the United States warns the Japanese government that any artificial administrative intervention in the stock market will be considered a non-tariff trade barrier, and the United States will immediately initiate retaliatory tariffs."

"My God..." Stanley gasped, dropping his pen to the table. "You even managed this? That's like tying the Japanese government's hands and feet so we can beat them."

"It's mutually beneficial." Victor shrugged. "The White House wants to put pressure on Japan to reduce the trade deficit; I want to crush Sakura Pharmaceuticals. Our interests are aligned."

The three fund managers exchanged glances.

If they were still hesitant just now, their last bit of concern has disappeared.

With the fundamental factor of "bursting the bubble," the technical factor of "the fatal flaw of high leverage," and the political factor of "the US government's support," the situation has become increasingly complex.

This is a massacre that is bound to be won.

"Wat Pharmaceuticals contributed $200 million as subordinated capital," Victor said.

Tiger Fund also invested 500 million.

"The Quantum Fund will invest another 500 million." Stanley's eyes gleamed. "And we'll utilize all of Mr. Soros's media channels in Tokyo. We'll create momentum for President Mieno Yasuyuki, letting every Japanese housewife know—the party's over."

"make a deal."

Victor stood up and shook their hands.

"Kenji Tanaka wants to buy America."

Victor looked at the world map on the wall, his gaze settling on that long, narrow island nation.

"Then let's show him what a real capitalist meat grinder is."

Give them a push.

"Let the bubble burst."

The surface was calm, but undercurrents were surging; a month had passed in the blink of an eye.

Tokyo Stock Exchange.

On the huge electronic display screen, glaring red numbers filled every corner.

"The Nikkei index has fallen below 35000 points! And it's still declining!"

Mitsubishi Estate's stock price hit the daily limit down!

"Sumitomo Corporation triggers circuit breaker!"

Inside the trading hall, the red-vested traders roared and waved their sell orders. But the buy orders had vanished without a trace; the buy price column on the right side of the screen was empty, as if the entire market had evaporated.

"Sakura Pharmaceuticals... Oh my god, Sakura Pharmaceuticals has dropped 15%!"

Vice President Yamamoto stood on the VIP viewing platform on the second floor of the lobby, his hand tightly gripping the phone.

"President... can't hold on any longer." Yamamoto had completely lost the composure he displayed at the Washington hearing. "Just now, Quantum Fund and several unknown offshore accounts suddenly dumped a total of $30 billion in short positions in Nikkei futures through the Singapore Exchange! That's an enormous amount of selling pressure! It's like a waterfall!"

"Adding to this, Reuters and Bloomberg had been heavily reporting on the imminent aggressive interest rate hike by Bank of Japan Governor Yasutoshi Mieno. The market panicked, and retail investors were fleeing in a stampede! Housewives were frantically redeeming their investment trusts!"

"Wall Street vultures are frantically tearing at our wounds. The central bank just held an emergency press conference and announced that it would raise the discount rate by 0.5 percentage points, which is essentially weaning the market off its subsidies! Our stock price has halved in three days, and our market value has evaporated by 400 billion yen."

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

"What about Sumitomo Bank?" Kenji Tanaka's voice rang out. "Where are the Mitsui Group people? They promised to support us in this crisis! We're cross-shareholding allies!"

"The bank manager refused to answer the phone." Yamamoto looked at the frenzied crowd downstairs in despair. "As for the Mitsui Group... their representative just sent a fax, the wording of which was very official."

Yamamoto took a deep breath and repeated:

"Given that Sakura Pharmaceuticals' current leverage ratio is severely excessive and it faces significant legal risks from a review by the U.S. CFIUS, in accordance with the Basel Accords regarding risk-weighted assets, we have decided to suspend all new credit lines and initiate asset preservation procedures."

"These opportunistic bastards! Baka!" Tanaka roared on the other end of the phone.

"President, it's not over yet..." Yamamoto glanced at the notification slip that had just been handed to him, his hands trembling even more violently. "Sumitomo Bank's credit department just sent an official letter. Due to the stock price crash, the collateral value is insufficient, triggering Article 14 of the loan agreement—the 'Additional Margin' clause."

"They demanded that we replenish $500 million in cash or equivalent highly liquid assets (such as U.S. Treasury bonds) within 24 hours, otherwise..."

"Otherwise what?"

"Otherwise, they will force liquidation. They will initiate foreclosure proceedings and auction off our headquarters building in Chiyoda Ward, as well as... the founder's shares held by your family."

"That's our family's ancestral property! It's the culmination of three generations of the Tanaka family's hard work! They can't do this!"

"They can." Yamamoto leaned weakly against the railing. "We signed an unlimited joint and several liability guarantee contract. The law is on their side."