After finishing her phone call with the princess, Xing Baohua felt no more guilty.
Perhaps this secret friendship will continue, or perhaps it will come to an end.
The two of them were from two completely different worlds.
After hanging up the phone, Xing Baohua had a vague feeling that Samsung seemed to know he was the mastermind behind Huaba, but he wasn't sure.
Xing Baohua was still somewhat suspicious. How did they know? Did they think he had become an expert and that people genuinely wanted to consult him?
I'm not sure, but I feel that the Li family wants to replicate the Huaba model. I guess there are some people who understand the rules and model, but they don't dare to get involved.
If Samsung dares to use the Samsung name and play the "flower shop" game.
In the early stages, they will amass a huge fortune; the tax revenue of the entire South Korean country for several years cannot match their ability to attract wealth.
But what will the consequences be?
Whatever amount is taken in, it must be returned at double the rate. Add to that various labor costs and interest, and the return is close to two times the amount.
It's not that one Samsung can afford to lose money, but rather that it's equivalent to the scale of a dozen or more Samsungs.
Those who do this kind of thing are basically one-off deals; they do it and run. If they get caught, whether they lose their heads or not is another matter, but they can live off the royal family for the rest of their lives.
The popularity of the "flower bar" in Japan is unbelievable. It's a bizarre belief that money spent can be returned.
It's because they see the account receiving money regularly and on time, according to the contract.
If you say Huaba is a scam, why would they send money to them?
This is a classic case of throwing away the watermelon to pick up a sesame seed. It's about being greedy for such petty gains.
Of course, consumers also say that they spend money on shopping, but they don't get a refund. But if they spend money on Huaba, they can get a refund, so why not use Huaba?
That makes a lot of sense; anyone with a brain would consume rationally.
Xing Baohua used this consumption model to stimulate consumers, and originally he needed to put in a lot of effort to promote it.
Who knew that the Bank of Japan's continued interest rate cuts would force consumers to spend money?
It is precisely because of this factor that Huaba became so popular.
But what about South Korea? It may succeed and become popular, but the economic damage it leaves behind will be enormous, and its economy could regress by more than a decade.
Excessive consumption will only increase the burden of debt.
The Japanese have become so fashionable that they've gone overboard with their spending, and all sorts of loans are available.
If you can't get a loan through formal channels, there's also private lending, which is also very popular.
No collateral is required, just a name on the document is enough, the only downside is the higher interest rate. And the IOU has the whole family's fingerprints on it; if the head of the household can't pay it back, the wife will; if the wife can't pay it back, will the children have to pay it back when they're adults?
As time goes on and interest rates rise, how can the debt ever be fully repaid if it's passed down from generation to generation? Each generation will be burdened with endless interest payments.
One person's debt leads to the entire family's debts spanning generations.
When Japanese credit cards became available, it marked the beginning of consumer finance, and there has always been a market for it. However, due to the barriers to entry associated with credit cards, consumer finance has not yet fully taken off.
Moreover, the Japanese have an excellent credit history; no matter how poor a borrower is, they will always think about repaying the loan.
This is precisely what the Japanese private financial sector seized upon, and began to lend money recklessly.
One of these organizations is called Takefuji, and its CEO is Takei Yasuo.
He was a ruthless and powerful figure with his own gang. Besides being a middleman, he also dealt in small loans.
He later discovered that lending to businesses was less effective than lending to individuals in urgent need of funds. These were small loans, which didn't place a heavy burden on the public in terms of repayment.
Seeing the potential in this market, and given the good credit of the Japanese, who were all working hard to repay their debts, Takei Yasuo's wealth expanded rapidly in a short period.
Yasuo Takei has a strong sense of market sensitivity. He conducts research and has even established a dedicated research department. He himself goes to the market to study and analyze the situation.
Sometimes, as he strolled through the streets and alleys, he would secretly observe and compile statistics on the lives of Japanese housewives. Perhaps he secretly enjoyed things like the JD.com craze, but it was through this kind of observation that he felt that housewives had better personal credit than men.
Some even have the bizarre belief that a housewife who washes clothes very clean is trustworthy. Sometimes, he would knock on strangers' doors and ask to use their toilets to observe whether the toilets were clean; if they were, the housewife was also trustworthy.
Is it scientific? Where did the theory come from?
But Yasuo Takei was completely fooled; his theory was proven correct through practice.
Isn't that bizarre?
Moreover, he used his wit in the early stages of private lending. One reason was that he was afraid of multiple loans, meaning that a customer could take out loans from multiple institutions.
To avoid being overcharged and losing business, he formed an alliance with several credit companies and private lending platforms to share data and prevent customers from taking out multiple loans, forcing them to choose only one of them.
It's easy to lend money, but it's difficult to collect it.
When life is good, who wants to borrow money? So his gang started hiring professional debt collectors.
Professional debt collection agencies typically use a simple and brutal approach.
Can debtors have a good life? They live in constant fear. Family pressure, mental pressure, multiple pressures—people will break down when pushed to the edge.
According to statistics from relevant Japanese departments, 15,000 people break their bank accounts each year due to irresponsible consumer finance loans.
Every year, some Japanese people have things they can't do, but debt problems only account for about one-third of them.
People back then weren't as crazy as they are now, and there was a strong concept of advance consumption. Many people were advocating that in a market economy, no one forces you to borrow money; it's your own desire to consume. If you can resist the urge to consume, no one will force you to repay the money.
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