Darkstone Code
Chapter 153 - 0152 The Last Straw

Chapter 153: 0152 The Last Straw

The high society parties are just so dull and tedious. Lynch, while chatting with others and building his social network, also saw some local "female celebrities," including two famous female hosts from Sabin City’s TV station.

Young and beautiful, they always appear in a positive light in public. But now, the ages of the men accompanying them were enough to be their fathers. However, maybe it’s just Lynch’s thoughts are too evil; perhaps they really are their fathers.

He turned his attention back to the short man in front of him, who was enthusiastically talking about some of his ideas, his company, and the inevitably glorious future.

As long as Lynch was willing to join his plan, the future would definitely bring in a lot of money. Many people had already decided to invest in his project; he just happened to take a liking to Lynch, so he reserved an investment spot just for him.

"Maybe the bank would be interested in your project..." Lynch took a sip from his glass, and the short man’s expression immediately froze.

If the bank’s risk control could pass, why would he need to go around pulling investments from people? It’s precisely because the bank thinks he might be scamming money that they refuse to loan him money.

Lynch looked at him, and under Lynch’s gaze, the short man seemed to squirm uncomfortably as if he had thorns growing on his back, apologized, and quickly left.

Having just donated a hundred thousand, he had become the focal point, drawing many people’s curiosity; some with good intentions, but others with ill intent.

Some people wanted to get to know this young tycoon, especially since he seemed to have good personal relations with the mayor, making him even more noteworthy.

Not all wealthy people maintain good relations with the mayor. The market in the whole of Sabin City is only so big; it’s impossible for every industry to be monopolized by just one person or one company. The Federation’s laws wouldn’t permit them to do so.

Where there is competition, there will be conflicts. Some people rely on their relationship with the mayor to get certain orders or policies, inevitably arousing dissatisfaction from others.

But generally speaking, everyone wants to have good relations with the mayor. After all, the mayor is the highest leader and architect of a city; he can plan a city according to his preferences. With the mayor’s help, everyone’s business can become easier and more profitable.

People continuously exchanged business cards with Lynch and casually talked about some of their own businesses. The first meeting wouldn’t discuss anything too in-depth; mostly just a simple understanding of each other’s identities and the nature of their businesses.

In the future, when they need such an "acquaintance," they might think of Lynch.

Of course, what people talked about the most was financial topics, a phenomenon that no tycoon or socialite could avoid.

After the initial exchanges, people formed one circle after another, where members discussed their impressive exploits in the stock and securities markets, constantly exclaiming in surprise over those numerical myths, deeply engrossed in them.

Lynch watched from outside the crowd, amused. In reality, most people in society who participate in financial games have no real understanding of finance, stocks, securities, or futures.

Take, for example, Fox and his son. Not long ago, they were chatting with Lynch about this. Since they are now part of the wealthy, the bank had upgraded their client status and assigned a service manager to handle their financial operations.

This manager first told them how foolish it was to keep money in the bank. Perhaps this female bank manager had no idea what business the father and son were in, nor did she know how much money they had in their accounts, as she didn’t have the authority to directly view depositor information outside work.

She gave some examples of people achieving financial freedom and creating wealth myths quickly by investing in the financial market, which moved Fox and his son.

Since getting to know Lynch, this father-and-son duo developed a strong interest in making legal money. The bank also expressed that they could use the bank’s money to make money for themselves. They only needed one dollar of principal to receive as little as five or ten dollars, and at most dozens or hundreds, of "additional funds" to trade.

Just one correct bet could turn one dollar into a hundred or even several hundred dollars overnight. This enormous potential profit instantly captured the hearts of the father and son; they almost opened an account.

However, Fox’s caution led him to contact Lynch, who he thought might be the only one who knew the inside story. Lynch’s answer was simple: if they wanted to go bankrupt, now was the time to enter the financial market.

Leverage, or "financing," is a banking business designed to make a sure profit without loss, though not entirely absolute, as sometimes risk control can exceed bank estimates. They might expect a rainstorm and instead get a meteorite, but most of the time, they make a sure profit without loss.

Suppose someone has a hundred dollars and buys a stock; if this stock increases by ten percent, he makes ten dollars.

However, if he applies for financing and the bank gives him a credit limit of ten thousand dollars, and his stock still earns ten percent, he’d instantly earn a thousand dollars this time.

His principal remains the same, a hundred dollars, but without financing, he only made ten dollars. Leverage introduced a hundredfold funds, and he could instantly earn a thousand dollars, a whole hundredfold profit!

And he’d only need to pay a few tens of dollars for it. The stark contrast between a few tens of dollars paid and a thousand dollars earned leaves many lost in the comparison, eventually becoming cannon fodder.

(The above is just an example for simple explanation; actual financing situations require additional verification and calculations.)

For the banks, no matter how much the financier earns, they always make a sure profit without loss. But what if the financier’s stocks or futures fall?

At this point, the bank’s risk control system comes into play. As soon as fluctuations approach or exceed their safety indicator, they immediately forcibly request the exchange to close positions.

Most of the time, it’s too late, since so far, transactions on the three major exchanges are still handled with manual order forms and automatic phone allocations, causing some delay.

If after closing positions the bank finds that their financing is intact and they’ve recouped their rightful profit, then that’s the end of it, regardless of how much the customer loses.

But if, after closing positions, the bank discovers they haven’t even recouped their rightful share and lost part of the allocated funds, they begin the process.

They start by freezing the financier’s bank accounts. If savings are insufficient to cover the bank’s losses, they begin auctioning the financier’s real estate, cars, and anything potentially valuable.

If that still isn’t enough, the financier can only declare personal bankruptcy, after which the bank offers a job where every penny beyond necessary living expenses goes directly into the bank’s account.

As long as one doesn’t die, this debt never disappears—but this doesn’t apply to family repayment standards since it’s personal investment behavior. The financier’s family hasn’t enjoyed the resulting benefits, so they don’t have to inherit the debt.

This is why there’s always someone who jumps off a building; at least one death is better than dragging the family into hell.

But the people in front of them are actually unaware of this. Their stock, futures accounts are managed by their financial managers or brokers, naturally involving various financing activities.

For these managers, they receive commissions for financing their clients; the bank gives them some kickback. All they need to do is have their clients sign their names on a financing application.

As to whether the clients might jump off a building later, they don’t care at all; they’ve made their money and become reliable partners of the bank.

Watching those boastful people, Lynch simply found them pathetic. They might not even know why they jumped off the building roof when they end their short and tortuous lives.

After the party ended, Lynch went home with a pocket full of business cards. In the next couple of days, he still had to sign agreements with other investors to sell his company for a good price.

In the meantime, it was already late at night, and the President and Cabinet members hadn’t slept yet, nor had they appeared at parties. They were in a meeting room next to the President’s office.

They were facing a major problem. Bail Federal had remained neutral in the international war, not dragged in by anyone, perhaps because they paid protection money or effectively bought their safety.

Bail Federal purchased war bonds from the core countries of the two main camps in the name of the nation, along with an isolation policy, allowing them to escape the world war.

But now, neither the victorious countries nor the defeated countries are willing to honor the bonds under the agreement, leaving them with headaches.

If this had been a few years ago, non-redemption wouldn’t have mattered as Bail’s economy and finance were thriving, not caring about that small change. But now the situation is different.

Massive capital flight caused the economic development speed to slow down abruptly. Even scarier, capital flight led the real market to decline - many factories closed, workers lost jobs; without income, consumption capacity declined, more factories couldn’t sell products and had to close, forming a vicious cycle.

People had no choice but to put money into the financial market to escape losses in real operations; at least the financial market was still somewhat prosperous.

If they could redeem these bonds, it might stimulate some domestic economic development. Even if it couldn’t change the current situation, it would prevent further decline.

But whether proposed in individual names or nationally, the international community hasn’t responded positively; they refuse communication!

The bonds, numbered in tens and hundreds of billions, now piled up like waste paper in their vaults. The President, who hadn’t appeared on screens for days, had developed several blisters at the corner of his mouth.

"We have to do something, gentlemen!"