Chapter 41 Looking up at the same blue sky
At noon, Zhou Ming took a bus to South Brighton District, which is the political and economic center of Brighton City. The most important institutions in Brighton City will set their headquarters here, and Tangren Bank is no exception.
Tangren Bank Financial Building is a tall building with classical characteristics. It is located opposite Brighton Bank and is also a landmark building in Brighton City.
This is actually a relatively interesting situation, because you should know that Brighton Bank is the core of Brighton Consortium, and Brighton Consortium is one of the top ten consortiums that control the lifeline of the United States. Although Americans may not be so concerned, Tangren Bank stands directly opposite Brighton Bank. This situation itself is enough to prove the strength of Tangren Bank. However, when Zhou Ming came here, he saw the dilemma of Tangren Bank.
There was a financial organization at the entrance of the building holding a rally. Just as the news played, they held banners, some people took the lead in shouting slogans, constantly putting promotional materials to pedestrians passing by, asking Tangren Bank to disclose its confidence in the accounts and give an explanation to all depositors and investors. Beside them were the Brighton police who were paying close attention to the situation.
On the other side, many depositors were crowded at the door of Tangren Bank. They held up their certificates of deposit and asked Tangren Bank to return the money to them immediately.
Zhou Ming saw this situation. He knew very well that this situation was called a bank run. Simply put, when the bank's credit declined, depositors went to the bank to withdraw cash in order to avoid losses from the money they had in the bank.
Generally speaking, such things will not happen, and once they are born, it will cause a fatal blow to the bank.
The reason is very simple. If the depositors store the money in the bank, the bank needs to pay the depositor's interest, pay shareholder dividends, and maintain its own operations and expansion, it must invest the depositor's funds, leaving only a small part of the funds to deal with the depositor's cash withdrawal. At this time, once the depositor's centralized run is caused, it will cause the bank's reserves to be insufficient and the bank's credit becomes worse. If the bank cannot get through this level, then the only way to wait for him is bankruptcy.
However, this kind of bank run was either born in the financial crisis, and people blindly ran the bank due to the impact of the crisis, or they were born in some small banks; but according to Zhou Ming, Tangren Bank is also a large bank with strong capital, and it should not be the case in this situation. It seems that Tangren Bank is really in big trouble.
Zhou Ming thought this in his mind, and then asked ** to drive back into the underground parking lot of Tangren Bank, and finally went upstairs to find Hoover.
Since Tangren Bank is in big trouble, Hoover, as the president of the Brighton branch of Tangren Bank, naturally won’t feel good. When Zhou Ming came to his office, he found that there were many people waiting for him. No need to think that the people here must be the same as those below, except that those below are small depositors, while these are large customers, or there is a better name called investors.
But no matter how different the name is, the result is the same when trouble comes.
Zhou Ming looked around, but suddenly he found that there was an acquaintance inside, which was Mark, chairman of Deep Blue Airlines.
Mark was also a little embarrassed when he saw Zhou Ming. He explained to Zhou Ming: "I actually want to help Tangren Bank, but Deep Blue Airlines is not in good condition now, so I still have to withdraw my money to be on the safe side."
"Mr. Mark, you can save your money if you want to withdraw it. You don't need to explain anything to me." Zhou Ming said that he didn't expect that he had just cooperated with him once, and he was so polite to him. And according to his own understanding, he didn't seem to have any cooperation with Tangren Bank before. Is it because of his own relationship?
Zhou Ming didn't know, and of course this didn't matter: "I have other things to ask Mr. Hoover, and we'll talk about it later."
After Zhou Ming finished speaking, he was about to walk in, but immediately a tall white man stood up and blocked Zhou Ming's path, saying unfriendly: "Chinese, are you blind? I haven't seen so many people waiting here, so you'd better go back to the back and wait!"
After the white man said this, everyone else agreed: "That's right, damn Chinese, you have to know that this is the United States, pay attention to the influence of your own quality!"
Faced with this chaotic scene, before Zhou Ming could speak, he heard Hoover's secretary come out and shout: "Is Mr. Zhou Ming here? Mr. Hoover asked you to talk to the office."
As the secretary said this, the office outside suddenly became quiet, because it undoubtedly gave them a heavy slap.
Zhou Ming responded and then strode through the office, and said to everyone: "I'm sorry, everyone, it seems that I didn't go to the line, but Mr. Hoover and I have more important things to talk about."
After saying that, Zhou Ming followed the secretary and walked into Hoover's office in the inner room. After hearing Zhou Ming's words, others outside cursed. There was no need to think that they were complaining about their behavior in line-up. However, with the office door being closed, the things outside were not what Zhou Ming cared about. In contrast, the situation in front of him surprised Zhou Ming even more.
In front of Zhou Ming, Hoover was sitting on his office chair, and a nurse was standing next to him, helping him change his little things.
"There are a lot of things recently. I happened to have a problem with my old habits again, so that's all I can do."
Hoover took the initiative to explain his surprise to Zhou Ming, and he continued to ask: "But Zhou Ming, you came here today to withdraw cash, it would really make us worse."
"If anyone is willing to give me a million dollars, I would like to think, but unfortunately no one did it, and I don't have that much deposit at Tangren Bank."
Zhou Ming used a joke to reply to Hoover's joke, and then Zhou Ming sat in front of Hoover, and the secretary brought Zhou Ming a cup of tea. Zhou Ming thanked him before saying that, "But then, the purpose of my visit today is indeed related to the current situation of Tangren Bank. If I remember correctly, Tangren Bank's capital should be at least more than 10 billion US dollars, not a small bank, how could it be such a run?"
"You think it's very unscientific. In fact, it's not just you, but everyone, including shareholders and senior bank executives, thinks it's very unscientific, but he actually gave birth to it. The reason is very simple. The capital of Tangren Bank has shrunk significantly. Since the Black Monday in 1987, many of Tangren Bank's investments have suffered a huge blow." Hoover said.
"So the last time, Manager Hu, you found me and asked me to repay the loan in advance, right?" Zhou Ming asked.
Hoover nodded and said, "Due to the failure of investment, there has always been a shortage of funds at Tangren Bank. The senior executives are worried that someone will take the opportunity to spread rumors, or sell bank stocks and generate bank runs, so we managers are asked to persuade big customers and ask big customers to repay their loans and deposits in advance, and prepare in advance to deal with the runs reserve."
"It seems that you have known that someone is targeting you for a long time. Is it a grudge between the consortiums? Which consortium does Tangren Bank belong to?" Zhou Ming asked again.
Faced with Zhou Ming's question, Hoover looked at Zhou Ming for a while and shook his head helplessly and said, "Zhou Ming, you have been wandering around for a long time and finally got to the topic. I think this is your main purpose today, right?"
Zhou Ming nodded without denying this: "I really want to know, because someone had pretended to be Mr. Nordriman and told me some interesting situations, including the situation of the Bay and Tangren Bank."
Hearing Zhou Ming's statement, Hoover was stunned at first and then smiled: "If I guessed correctly, he must have said that he was from Chicago. He said that the Gulf War will definitely break out. That is because the Tangren Bank and the consortium behind the Tangren Bank invested in Iraq and controlled the oil in the Persian Gulf, so the consortium that was hostile to us needed a war to stop all this."
At the end of the talk, Hoover looked at Zhou Ming and asked, "Am I right?"
Zhou Ming asked without changing his face: "Isn't this the real situation?"
Hoover thought for a while and replied: "It's true from the surface, but in fact it's much more complicated than you think."
"How complicated is it? Are there several consortiums controlled by Tangren Bank? Or is it that the consortium itself has split?" Zhou Ming asked three questions in one breath.
Hoover did not answer this directly, but asked Zhou Ming first: "Why are you obsessed with this question? Why do you think I will answer you? Do you know that there are so many customers outside waiting for me to deal with it, why do you think I will waste all my time on you?"
"I didn't say you must answer me, but I think since you took me to find Uncle Hu, Uncle Hu also asked me to find you if I had any difficulties. Now that I come here, you can't be so stingy, right?" Zhou Ming said.
"That was Mr. Tiger valued you at the time, but what you did later disappointed him, did you forget?" Hoover said.
"It seems that's the case." Zhou Ming changed his mind suddenly, "But President Hu, are you sure your Mr. Tiger is really disappointed with me?"
Hoover was stunned when Zhou Ming's last question, and after a long time, he laughed: "No wonder Mr. Tiger valued you so much. You really have the capital to make him pay attention to it. Indeed, after you did that, Mr. Tiger not only did not disappoint you, but instead valued you more, because you were better than he thought. He believed that you would definitely do better than he thought."
Hoover's answer made Zhou Ming feel relieved. In fact, of course he wouldn't know what Uncle Hu thought, and he couldn't know whether his intentional weakness would really make Uncle Hu angry, or whether Uncle Hu would have the same habit of controlling like some big names. However, in the end, Zhou Ming still thought that since Uncle Hu could be more powerful than Hoover, he would definitely not be a person without vision.
As a result, Zhou Ming guessed correctly. Uncle Hu really understood what he thought and cooperated with him to act in a play.
However, the topic has not ended here. Zhou Ming asked Hoover: "So can Mr. Hoover answer my question now?"
"Of course, but I'm just a little person and don't know much." Hoover reminded Zhou Ming.
Zhou Ming nodded and expressed his understanding. Perhaps in the eyes of ordinary people, Hoover is already the president of the Brighton branch of Tangren Bank, and must be a very powerful big shot. But you should know that there are regional branches and head offices above him, and there are larger consortiums behind Tangren Bank. Above the consortium, there are organizations such as Kang Caien, which are united by several major chaebols. In this way, Hoover is indeed just a small person.
"But the little people are also looking up at the same blue sky as those big people, right?" Zhou Ming said.
Chapter completed!