Chapter 321 Blackburn's Daily Life
As soon as Ted Turner left, the video conference interface started at 10:00 a.m. New York time, 1:00 p.m. London time, and 11:00 p.m. Tokyo time.
Here in Manhattan, looking at the video interface.
Milo drank the black coffee in the bone china cup in one gulp. The cold light from the display screen reflected tiny spots of light on the floor-to-ceiling window behind him.
Ichiro Watanabe, head of Paladin Investment's Tokyo branch, is showing a close-up of a convenience store cash register slip: the price column for a 5kg bag of Koshihikari rice is clearly printed with 9,980 yen.
"This is the first time in 50 years since the Japanese war." Watanabe's voice was trembling with a high frequency. "Supermarkets have begun to implement purchase restrictions based on ID cards, and the Hokkaido Agricultural Cooperative Association has suspended brown rice futures quotations this morning."
There was a rustling sound of papers being flipped at the London trading desk, and Chief Economist Compass pushed his headphones:
"The inverted yield curve of U.S. Treasury bonds has deepened the pressure on the yen to depreciate, and Japan's imported wheat costs have soared 228% compared to the beginning of the year."
The huge LED screen behind him suddenly lit up, and three scarlet curves intertwined to form a death cross between Tokyo Electric Power Futures, Chicago Corn Futures and the US Dollar/Yen exchange rate.
George Parkley, risk control director of the London branch, enters the screen, and the Thames behind him is rippling with iron-gray waves.
"The Japanese Ministry of Finance secretly held a meeting with the four major trading companies this morning. We are..."
His deliberately lowered voice was interrupted by a sharp alarm, and a Bloomberg terminal news flash popped up simultaneously in the lower right corner of everyone's screen: The Neon Meteorological Agency issued a third path correction warning for Super Typhoon "Xingyan".
The weather in the North Pacific is a bit abnormal this year, and it's almost November.
There are typhoons forming. It's okay if there are typhoons, because sometimes there are some small typhoons even in December.
The problem is that this typhoon appeared in the North Pacific, very close to Neon.
And a super typhoon was formed!
"Chance."
Milo rapped his knuckles on the cherry wood tabletop, and the pen on the table shifted slightly from the vibration.
He pulled up the ten-year trend chart of the CRB Commodity Index. “When the slope of the spot price curve breaks through the upper track of historical volatility…” His slender fingers traced the trajectory. “Here is the critical point of futures market sentiment.”
Watanabe's camera suddenly shook, and protests were heard outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of his Tokyo office.
Watanabe Ichiro quickly asked his subordinates to switch the live broadcast screen:
It was already late at night, but there were still many imported beef wholesalers in Tsukiji Market holding up signs saying "Give me back my table", and refrigerated trucks were struggling to move through the market amid the sirens.
"The spot premium is eating into the cash flow of small and medium-sized enterprises," he said, projecting customs clearance data on a screen. "The inventory turnover days for frozen pork have been shortened to 1.4 days."
“Open interest in CME neon rice futures surged 37% in the past 24 hours.”
Born in Boston, he was originally a member of the Blackburn Foundation.
However, Compass, chief economist of London Paladin Investment, who was transferred to the London branch last year, checked the real-time data stream of CME and said, "Especially for the March contract next year, the short positions are concentrated in three mysterious institutions."
He suddenly paused and gave a meaningful look.
In Tokyo, Ichiro Watanabe also quickly said: "The credit default swap quotes of the Neon Agricultural Cooperative Association are changing. We can sell the Nikkei Agricultural Products Index ETF and buy at the same time..."
He suddenly fell silent, and the conference system emitted a notification tone indicating that the fifth party had accessed.
"Sorry everyone, I just received the minutes of the closed-door meeting of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries."
The chairman of Sumitomo United Entertainment Group and Andy Blackburn's mother, Sumitomo Junko, suddenly appeared. Behind her, the night sky of Tokyo Port was filled with purple clouds that indicated the approaching rainstorm. "They are preparing to use the national grain reserves to stabilize prices, but seven key data points have been blacked out."
Milo suddenly chuckled, his fingertips running across the gilded cracks on the edge of the bone china cup: "The blackened part is our Alpha."
He laughed and said, "Suppose the typhoon caused a 30% reduction in rice production in Kyushu, and then combined with the strike at the cold storage facility in the Tokyo Bay area. "
Compass suddenly gasped: "If you short the near-month contract and buy put options on the corn fields in Hokkaido, you can form a large new wave!"
"We need to be alert to unusual movements in aluminum futures on the London Metal Exchange," George Parkley said softly at this time.
“Neon can manufacturers are frantically hoarding raw materials, which may form a cross-market hedging gap.”
Ichiro Watanabe suddenly raised his hand, and his live broadcast switched to a helicopter aerial shot: dozens of bulk carriers lined up in a desperate matrix at the anchorage in Tokyo Bay. Mitsui & Co.'s Panamax cargo ship had been drifting on the sea for four weeks.
He plugged the AIS ship tracking data stream into the system. “For every day of delay, the soybean loss rate increased by 0.7 percent.”
The six screens in front of Milo flashed red warning lights at the same time. He turned the pen in his hand and said, "Then let's start the plan. The leverage ratio is set at 22.5 times, and the short-selling targets include but are not limited to..."
With his final order, the three departments of Paladin Investments began operating simultaneously.
At the same time, Milo is not the only one who is eyeing Neon’s small black swan event caused by high food prices.
Almost simultaneously, the sounds of keyboards rang out in twenty-three different time zones around the world, like heavy rain beating on the iron roof of the financial market.
Compared to the completely elitist look, the cold and ruthless style of financial videos.
Later, Milo's video with Yahoo and the programmers in Silicon Valley.
It will appear much gentler.
"Boss, we just won over the British royal family, and they have agreed to officially move into ITK..."
Milo, who had just finished a video conference with the financial branches in London and Tokyo and was taking a short break with a cup of coffee, received a call from ITK headquarters. As soon as the call was connected, he heard his subordinates reporting in a very excited voice.
Milo raised his eyebrows slightly, although he didn't mind the addition of a so-called 'Royal ITK' account.
However, this is the result of the subordinates' hard work in public relations.
It also marks a milestone in the promotion of ITK in Europe.
"Boss, this 'Royal ITK' account will be used by the network teams of Buckingham Palace and Clarence House in the UK. It has been open for 15 minutes and has attracted more than 2,000 followers."
Under the influence of Milo, the super space-time butterfly.
In a parallel universe, online mood wall products such as Twitter and INS will only appear a few years later.
Now, with the ITK instant messaging product, it is appearing in front of global Internet users in advance.
After all, apart from mobile Internet technology, other technologies including streaming media are readily available.
Since there is no difficulty in technical implementation, it is even easier to operate and control.
So they showed up.
With the cooperation of Paladin Media and Yahoo Group's own huge Internet influence.
Whether it is ITK with instant messaging function, or TIK wall with friend circle, Weibo and X functions, it can be said that they have become extremely popular since their launch.
It has spread rapidly from the United States to the whole world and even to Europe.
It's outrageous.
As of 1998, many places in China were still using 56k dial-up to access the Internet, and even broadband was not yet popular.
But the United States has already achieved the popularization of high-speed broadband Internet, and so have Europe and Japan.
All I can say is that in this era, the United States is truly the beacon of the earth in terms of technology and development.
"Haha, great job, keep up the good work. You can continue with the public relations for this step. It would be best if you could get the Queen to open a private account." Milo encouraged with a chuckle.
"..." After a brief silence on the other end of the phone, he quickly responded, "Okay, boss."
This is obviously difficult.
Milo shook his head and laughed as he hung up the phone. This was one of the few good news he had received since he made his phone numbers public to all employees of his companies.
In fact, since ITK was launched, Milo has used his influence to attract many celebrities to join the ITK family. With the gradual success of ITK, it has attracted many other celebrities to open accounts.
According to market research firm ComScore, as of August this year, ITK is expected to have 176 million users worldwide, an increase of more than 26 times over the same period last year.
Of course, ITK is still in the stage of promotion and market capture, and is spending a lot of money.
Originally, Milo was planning to throw it out for a round A financing.
However, he had a feeling that the Nasdaq bubble crisis, which would have occurred more than a year later in the parallel universe, seemed to be happening ahead of schedule.
There is no way, after all, it is because of his appearance.
The potential of the Internet can be said to have been greatly overdrawn.
At its peak in this parallel universe, Yahoo’s market value was only over 140 billion US dollars.
Now he has made nearly $500 billion...
Although his Yahoo is not comparable to the original Yahoo in terms of scale or technology.
But no matter what, Yahoo is ultimately an Internet company.
Simply put, there are no actual real products, and everything is on the Internet.
Moreover, its profitability is obviously asymmetrical compared with its terrifying market value.
With a market value of $489 billion, its profit so far this year is less than $3.5 billion.
The price-to-earnings ratio is nearly 140 times, which is still exaggerated even with the Internet's skin.
It can be said that it was under his leadership and with the concerted efforts of many American financial groups.
In a parallel universe, the Internet bubble crisis would not have broken out until March 2000.
There are already early signs that the market is getting crazier.
Many companies that just have Internet attributes and haven’t even launched their products, and are simply working in garages, are now able to go public.
Once listed, the market value can reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
The market has gone crazy beyond compare.
The collapse is not far away.
Milo has high hopes for ITK, which is the foundation of his envisioned future social empire.
He wants to maximize the benefits for ITK in all aspects.
Therefore, we are more cautious and will not act rashly even if we want to raise funds.
He plans to continue paying out of his own pocket for a while until the traffic data reaches a certain value.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
When the peak appears, take it out directly for financing.
Make a fortune, and then wait for the big jump to happen.
Wait until it hits bottom before trying again.
It's very simple to sell high and buy low, but the round trip can bring at least tens of billions of dollars in profits.
This is the charm of finance. You don’t have to do anything, just take advantage of some opportunities and information.
Profits are numbers that are unimaginable to those who work so hard and tirelessly in the manufacturing industry.
After finishing the video conference with ITK, the next one was the video conference with Yahoo, which went very smoothly and was very brief.
Yahoo no longer requires him to devote too much time and energy to its constant attention.
In addition to understanding the development and operation status of each project, this video conference also focused on the construction progress of the company's headquarters.
afternoon.
Milo just left Rockefeller Center and boarded a helicopter to meet with New York Mayor Giuliani.
Milo was not completely ignorant of the reason for Giuliani's invitation.
The sunshine in New York in October afternoon is like golden threads winding around the Hudson River Valley.
Milo's custom-made FootJoy sneakers rolled across the turf of the fifth green, leaving a serpentine trail on the perfectly manicured Bermuda grass.
Thirty yards away, New York Mayor Giuliani was repeatedly measuring the death putt line with a putter, and the collar of his polo shirt was stained with foundation from the noon press conference.
“Do you know why everyone loves golf?”
Milo used a cigar cutter to crack open a Cohiba Behek cigar, and the smoke condensed into a question mark in the humid air, "Because there are three secrets buried in every sand pit."
He actually didn't like to smoke this thing before, but he didn't know it was due to age.
I've been in the circle for too long.
Influenced by this group of people, he now gradually starts smoking some cigars in addition to whiskey.
In Giuliani's silence, Milo's right hand, wearing a meteorite dial, suddenly pointed to the East Coast, "Like the ballet teacher you took in on Long Island on Independence Day this year?"
Giuliani's putter trembled the moment it touched the ball, and the little white ball turned strangely to the right half an inch from the hole.
The club manager immediately trotted over and handed over a new towel, with a dark red badge flashing on his collar - that was the logo of United Global, Milo's security company.
“The Post needs some more exciting headlines.”
The mayor was a little afraid to look at Milo because this was the trouble he had caused this year.
It would have caused him great damage to his reputation, but because he made a decisive move, he is now a Blackburn player.
So that was the media storm that was suppressed.
When Giuliani heard Milo's restart, he felt very uncomfortable but he had to endure it.
At this time, a crane in the distance was lifting the podium for the media meeting.
The mayor never misses any opportunity to put himself before the public.
When this is over, he will continue to show his side as the mayor of New York City to the public.
"Citizens care more about subway fares than senators." Milo's voice was suddenly torn apart by the roar of a helicopter. His EC135 landed on the riverside apron, and the cabin door was printed with the gold-plated letters of "Blackburn Disaster Reconstruction Fund".
Helicopters are a frequently used means of transportation that require air routes.
Being affiliated with some foundations can make them more flexible in using flight routes.
You can even use it first and then report to the relevant authorities.
This is common knowledge. Most helicopters are registered under various disaster relief charitable foundations.
After all, what if a disaster really happens, such as a wildfire?
The helicopter can’t just wait stupidly for the route application to be completed before going to put out the fire, right?
Milo took the chrome-plated PXG putter from his caddie, and the clubface reflected the slums of Yonkers across the river.
"The hyenas of the Donkey Party are looking for your faults. You are exposed. You need to know who your competition will be in two years." He tapped the bronze plaque next to the green, which was engraved with the hole-in-one that Rockefeller Sr. made here in 1932. "That woman is as good as her husband, especially in performance."
When Giuliani heard the bad news, he walked with Milo to the tee box of the sixth hole with a gloomy face.
Over there, a waiter quietly appeared with an iced bottle of Woodford Reserve whisky.
Giuliani noticed a yellowed copy of the Daily News on the tray. On the front page was a photo of the first lady shaking hands with the president of the New York State firefighters union, with the Donkey Party logo on the latter's cuff circled in red pen.
"Even so, even though your enemies will be very powerful. But..." Milo suddenly swung the club, and the small white ball broke through the morning mist and smashed into the oak tree two hundred yards away, startling a group of starlings, "I will still support you. It's not that I believe you can win, but to be honest, her husband is okay. But I really don't like her very much."
Giuliani's Adam's apple moved up and down in the warm light, and an expression of surprise appeared on his face.
The mayor of New York originally thought that his proposal would be rejected.
More than a year after refusing, he supported his candidacy for New York State Senator.
Because everyone knows that Zipperton retired from the business that year.
But the wife of Zipperton, who was unwilling to be lonely, had already set her sights on the throne! It happened that at that time, Giuliani finished his second term as mayor of New York.
He can no longer run for re-election, but he doesn't want to retire.
Then we have no choice but to keep going up.
And New York State Senator is obviously a very suitable position.
In other words, Giuliani will face Hillary Clinton.
To be honest, Giuliani felt very insecure.
He needs support, the support of one of his biggest backers.
when they found the missing ball in the rough on the seventh hole.
The mayor's encrypted cell phone in his suit pocket suddenly vibrated - it was a call from his wife at her Hamptons villa.
Giuliani quickly hung up and answered the call from his wife, which was not as important as playing basketball with Milo.
"I heard that the New York Senate Judiciary Committee has recently shown interest in several mergers initiated by Charles Dolan? Are they too idle? Then they can grab their shotguns and go hunting deer in the mountains."
Milo used an iron club to push aside the ferns covered with dew, and the steel club head rubbed sparks on the sandstone. "They also said that Paladin Sports wanted to buy all the commercial sports companies in New York City, saying it was a monopoly. What a joke, then they can come out and compete with me? They are just unwilling to bid, what a joke!"
Milo's laughter startled the blue jays in the treetops. He took out a golf ball with the Massachusetts state seal printed on it and gently placed it on the mayor's ball position.
"My grandfather used this ball to win the Massachusetts Senate race in 1966."
He stroked the cracked seams of the club. "You know the secret? Never show your best club before teeing off."
That was also the most glorious time for old Blackburn.
At that time, old Blackburn was the whip of the Elephant Party, but he had a close relationship with Kennedy, the leader of the Donald Trump Party.
In Congress, he has the final say.
When the two arrived at the ninth hole, the setting sun shone on the foundation of the "Freedom Tower" under construction on the opposite bank.
Milo's caddy handed him a new club with diamonds, but he replaced it with a worn one. "Remember, Rudy," the little white ball drew a perfect parabola and fell into the green, "voters only care about where you hit the ball, not which club you used to hit it."
As the helicopter blades began to spin, Giuliani felt his heart finally settle.
(End of this chapter)