Chapter 331

Chapter 331

Chapter 331

I said muttering.

“It’s a financial crisis… … .”

The moment I heard Yuri’s words, I felt something creepy. That’s why the word has so much weight.

But why is it a financial crisis and not an economic crisis? The reason is that the world economy is built to run on endless monetary expansion and debt.

In the case of the 2008 global financial crisis, the problem started with real estate. However, a real estate crisis does not mean that buildings or houses collapse. Before and after the crisis, buildings and houses remain as they are.

However, the number representing its value has changed.

As real estate prices plummeted, people failed to repay their loans on time, and commercial banks that loaned them and investment banks that issued and bought related derivatives went bankrupt.

Thousands of people have lost their homes, lost their jobs, and have been on the streets. The factory stopped and the things in the shops were not sold. A long line of people lined up in front of the food court.

Even though I was young, the news I saw at the time remained vivid in my mind. What did those people do wrong? I would have just worked hard for my family.

“The financial crisis will come one day.”

In a market economy system, booms and depressions are inevitably repeated. Numerous economists have studied how the boom could last forever, but no such method has yet been found.

For now, it is best to manage a crisis before it occurs and to come up with a quick response plan when a crisis occurs.

The famous economist Alan Greenspan, who served as the chairman of the Federal Reserve, famously said, “Remove the plate when the party is in full swing.”

This means the central bank must prevent the economy from overheating.

A colorful and wonderful party makes everyone happy. But the party is sure to end someday. The later the party ends, the greater the sequelae the next day.

Someone has to step out and clear the champagne glasses and plates from the guests, and let them know that the party is over and it’s time to go home.

The problem is that no one wants the party to end. Everyone likes booms rather than recessions, expansions rather than tightening, and rises rather than declines.

Even Alan Greenspan, who said that, failed to remove the plate in time.

Yuri pushed his body forward and asked.

“When do you think you will come?”

I laughed bitterly.

“Well. Wouldn’t anyone be able to make money if they knew that?”

The real rich are born after a famine.

When a crisis comes, everyone, big or small, suffers a loss. The common people have no choice but to sell their assets to survive the immediate crisis. However, the rich can afford to survive even in the face of a crisis.

The rich buy stocks and real estate that are pouring in at bargain prices. When the recession ends and recovery begins, the plunging asset returns to its original value. So the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

In fact, after the IMF, the middle class collapsed, but the number of the rich increased significantly. This is why the financial crisis is more terrible for the common people.

Unlike in the past, financial crises in modern society appear in a more complex form.

In the case of the global financial crisis, if only loans were the problem, the crisis would not have occurred. However, investment companies created and sold derivatives such as ABS (asset-backed securities), MBS (housing mortgage securities), and CDOs (debt-backed securities) in order to obtain greater profits, which eventually acted as a bomb in the financial system.

Humans, as always, create things that they do not understand or handle well.

The way the United States solved the crisis was to get more money. So, we lowered the real interest rate to 0 percent, and when that didn’t work, we implemented quantitative easing to release the dollar at random.

When the money supply increases, prices rise. However, the dollar is the reserve currency. Dollars printed by the United States spread all over the world, and inflation was exported abroad.

Emerging countries have been partying with the dollars the US has sown. We know the party will be over someday, but everyone panicked when America suddenly started clearing the plates.

China’s economic growth rate has fallen seriously, Argentina’s bankruptcy again, and it has been forced to open its hands with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Turkey is experiencing a severe foreign exchange crisis.

The currency values ​​of some emerging countries have plummeted in half, and to prevent this, the key interest rate has been raised to 4 or 50 percent.

“Some people see that as a precursor to the financial crisis.”

“I don’t care too much. Extreme crisis theory is bound to attract people’s attention.”

When the financial crisis comes, it seems as if everything is over. At the time of the IMF, I thought Korea was going to collapse, and during the global financial crisis, it seemed that the financial system would come to an end.

However, all the crises have been overcome, and the global economy has continued to grow.

Ellie smiled and said.

“In the end, positivity wins over pessimism.”

Yuri nodded his head.

“That’s right, sister.”

I drank beer and thought.

People have a firm belief that the national system and economic system will not collapse. So they are willing to take out a loan to buy a house and a car.

If you live in a developed country, you wouldn’t live worrying that one day there will be a world war-class war and your life will be destroyed. However, it is possible that a financial crisis will destroy our daily life.

Whereas war is an abstract and disappearing threat, the financial crisis is a clear and real threat.

How robust is a system that we believe is okay?

* * *

Several months have passed since Carlos released AD3 and AD4.

In the meantime, self-driving electric vehicles have changed the world. A notable change is a reduction in the accident rate.

Ninety percent of accidents that occur in the Caros are caused by collisions with other vehicles, and the remaining 10% are due to external factors.

There were no accidents due to system errors. If something goes wrong, stop the car before that, or pass control to the driver.

In addition, performance was improved through periodic software updates.

In the past, when AD1 and AD2 were released, there were many articles warning of the dangers of autonomous driving technology, but there was no such talk anymore.

While ramping up production capacity to handle the influx of orders, Karos introduced another new car.

This is the self-driving truck T1.

Strictly speaking, it is not a new car, and the self-driving system has been installed in the car that has been produced by Eunsung Truck, which was acquired by Karos.

It has already successfully completed several unmanned driving and platooning experiments.

The basic system is the same as the AD series, but there are some differences in the modules as the vehicle is large and has a different shape. Due to its size, if an accident occurs once, the safety device has been strengthened as much as it leads to a major accident.

Even before the launch, companies such as AMZ, Walmart, and Fedex pre-ordered hundreds of units and were willing to pay a down payment.

Due to economic development and the growth of e-commerce, the demand for logistics continued to increase.

However, the logistics industry is experiencing a serious manpower shortage due to poor working conditions and low income, and the aging and overwork of drivers is a serious problem.

In fact, major accidents due to drinking and drowsiness occurred frequently. There was even a sense of crisis that the logistics could be cut off at any time.

As autonomous trucks can solve such problems at once, it deserves to be called a logistics revolution.

The trucks moved in line like a train, just in case there was only one driver on the lead truck.

Labor costs account for the largest share of trucking. Although it varies slightly from company to company, the proportion of labor costs is 40%, and the proportion of fuel costs is about 20%.

It has been confirmed that labor costs can be reduced by one-fifth, and fuel efficiency can be increased by more than 20 percent through air resistance and constant speed driving.

Daryl said confidently.

“Caros’ T1 will significantly reduce logistics costs and reduce accidents dramatically.”

Karos worked with Tenway to create a subsidiary, jump into a logistics brokerage service, and hire a driver himself.

In addition to improving the treatment of truck drivers, it was agreed with the Drivers’ Union to re-educate the unemployed and give priority to hiring.

The share price of related companies rose sharply as it was judged that profitability would improve due to labor cost reduction.

As always, change comes faster than people think. And it is so easy to adapt to that change.

When I was using a film camera, I didn’t realize that it was inconvenient to be able to check the results right away, or to have to leave the prints to a photo studio. Because that was the normal procedure.

However, the advent of digital cameras made the natural procedure to be inconvenient. As such, once a person adapts to a change, it is difficult to go back to the previous one.

Until Karos launched the AD series, the prevailing expectation was that self-driving electric vehicles would be difficult to completely replace existing vehicles. But now it is clear.

Just as cars made wagons disappear, self-driving electric vehicles will make conventional internal combustion locomotives extinct.

Another newly opened market is Cainfotainment.

Driving is a task that requires a lot of concentration. This is because even a second or two glance can lead to a fatal accident. However, self-driving cars do not need to worry about the driver. All you have to do is just sit there just in case.

Unlike before, it was possible to do business, study, or watch movies and TV shows while the car was moving.

Related start-ups are popping up one after another, and existing companies have also jumped in.

Faceit made use of its experience in the pornography market to enter the market. Contents used by customers were collected as big data in Karos and analyzed through Faceit’s algorithm and recommended again.

Just like the OS installed on computers or smartphones, the way to earn money through content sales has been opened. If you raise it well, it will become another cash cow.

Seosung Electronics was active in linking its smartphone with the vehicle. By using the smartphone as a remote control to start the engine, warm up, and input the driving route (all other automakers do this), it is connected so that various tasks previously performed with the smartphone can be performed in the vehicle.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

Gubble and Microsoft announced that they would actively cooperate to build an ecosystem, and Disney agreed to provide its own content.

In the meantime, the world’s largest market cap has been occupied by IT companies. Gubble, NPL, AMZ, MS, Face Note, etc.

In terms of the speed of technological development and operating profit, automobile companies did not compete with IT companies.

The barriers between the engine and the mission have disappeared, and the self-driving electric vehicle, which runs on electricity and is equipped with various electronic equipment, existed at the point where IT companies and automobile companies met.

Therefore, IT companies have been trying to enter the automobile market based on their enormous financial power. But now the opposite has happened.

A good company should have a clear business objective.

CEO Daryl said in an email to his employees.

“Our goal is one thing. It’s about giving people the convenience and pleasure of moving.”

This meant limiting the business area to mobility and at the same time taking over the entire mobility market.

There was a lot of work to be done in the future, such as targeting overseas markets, launching electric trucks, and advancing into ride-sharing.

Good companies attract good people, and good people attract better people.

Various talents flocked to Karos. There were a lot of people who moved from NPL, Gubble, and Nikola.

Karos, which started as a small startup, has grown into a mega-company standing shoulder to shoulder with the IT dinosaurs.

* * *

Apart from Karos’s success, not a single dollar fell into the hands of OTK Company.

In fact, Karos has never paid a dividend since our acquisition. It was the same when the money was good or bad.

Daryl and I agreed that we should continue to expand our business even if we give up immediate profits.

As one expert said, there is no competitor as terrifying as a large corporation that has decided not to make a profit.

In this case, he had to continue to receive investment through bonds or issuance of new shares, but Karos did not have to worry about that. This is because the holding company can provide any amount of financial support.

New technologies create new demands and opportunities. In the process, some companies grow anew, while others go out of business.

South Korea, like the United States, decided to allow autonomous driving within a limited range, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport revised related laws. And it approved the import of Carlos’ AD series.

There are two practical reasons for this.

First, because they saw that China and Japan were beaten by the United States in turn over the automobile problem, they crawl on their own. Second, Eunsung Motors is working with Karos.

As they are already building an electric vehicle industry complex in Korea, and Eunsung Motors is also making a major transition to self-driving electric vehicles, there is no reason to step out.

300 primary imports came to Korea through the port of Pyeongtaek. The first buyer of AD3 was Seosung Group Chairman Im Jin-yong.