Chapter 196 Heading East

Chapter 196 Heading East

Chapter 196 Heading East
An Rushong's eyes swept over Luo Quanyi and Macaulay. Of course, he had heard of the name of Carlyle Group, which is a global asset management company and also a relatively alternative asset investment company. It has a profound influence in the United States and even around the world.

Not to mention anything else, the core founders of this company alone have experience working in the US government and military, such as former Secretary of Defense, former Secretary of State, former presidential assistant, etc. The most important thing is that the first pot of gold this company made came from the US Army.

But An Rusong didn't know who the "Michael" that Macaulay was talking about was, because in his impression, Carlyle Investment did not seem to implement the partnership system.

"Yes," Luo Quanyi nodded and said, "This is the news I just got in the United States."

"Don't believe any rumors of running away," Macaulay shook his head and said, "It's just a way to cover up the truth. At least that's what I think."

"Oh?" Luo Quanyi raised his eyebrows and looked at Macaulay with a questioning look.

"We can analyze the current reality," McCauley put his hands on the table with his palms facing up. "The clear fact right now is that America will definitely not be able to escape the subprime mortgage crisis. The White House can't save Wall Street, and the Federal Reserve can't do it either. Even if Japan and Europe are involved, it will still be the same."

His words caused Mike and Luo Quanyi to chuckle. An Rushong was not an American, so he didn't want to appear too gloating. Therefore, he picked up the teacup in front of him and took a sip of tea.

"I got the news that the Ministry of Commerce's import and export statistics for this year have been out for two weeks, but they haven't been announced to the public yet because they are worried that the economic situation will deteriorate further," Mike said with a smile. "The data I got is 7116 billion, which is the trade deficit data."

"More than a third of that, $2562 billion to be exact, is the trade deficit of the Chinese," McCauley said, taking over the topic. "In addition, in less than a year this year, the Chinese have earned nearly $1.5 billion in cash, and they have more than $ trillion in foreign exchange reserves. If we only talk about cash, the Chinese are..."

As he spoke, he gave a thumbs-up gesture.

"This reality is too shocking. Considering the reality of the Chinese economy and the current situation of continued interest rate cuts in the United States, I believe that anyone with enough capital will turn around and look east," Macaulay spread his hands again and said, "and this is also what those people in Washington and even New York are most worried about."

An Rushong was listening on the side. He could understand what Macaulay meant and could also sort out the logic.

Affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, the current economic environment in the United States is very bad. A large number of financial institutions are in trouble, leading to expectations of an economic winter. Americans have no money and dare not consume excessively, which is quite fatal for an economy like the United States that is mainly based on consumption.

In order to stimulate people's consumption and reduce the financial burden, the Federal Reserve has continuously lowered interest rates from more than 5%. But a very realistic problem is that the reason why the Federal Reserve kept the interest rate at a high level of more than 5% was to attract the return of US dollar capital and reduce domestic inflation pressure.

Now that interest rates have been lowered, it is still unknown whether consumption can be truly stimulated, but the outflow of US dollar capital has already been demonstrated and is becoming more and more serious.

The most terrible thing is that the United States is now in a sensitive period where the subprime mortgage crisis is deepening. At this time, the outflow of capital will inevitably cause panic in the market. Once this panic takes effect, it will inevitably lead to a second round of market collapse.

Look at the series of facts that have happened in the past period of time: First, the Federal Reserve announced a rate cut, and then the United States, Japan, and Europe jointly invested in supporting the market. During that period, the global stock market did prosper for a while, including the United States. But in this process, some well-informed and keen-nosed capital has begun to flee from the United States, and some people have even started short selling. As a result, as the four major Japanese brokerages announced loss information one after another, the panic effect appeared.

Of course, this is only the early stage of the second round of collapse, and a near-catastrophic situation has not yet occurred, but global asset management groups like Carlyle Investments must take action first. They need to do everything they can to avoid losses, and to avoid losses, they must find safer and more promising investment locations or investment projects.

At this time, Macaulay mentioned China's economic situation. There is no doubt that whether it is China's current rapidly growing GDP, or the annual surplus of up to 1.54 billion US dollars, or even the foreign exchange reserves of trillion US dollars, they all vividly show the capital of the world a living reality, that is, China's economy is prosperous, very stable and extremely promising.

"Going to China" is not just a move being made by South Korea's business and entertainment circles, but also something that global capital is operating on, and even what decision makers in Washington are considering. Faced with the surging subprime mortgage crisis, institutions like Carlyle Group will definitely regard China as the best place to invest, where they can not only hedge risks but also obtain huge returns.

But this reality is obviously what the US government is most reluctant to see and what it is most worried about. Therefore, "doing something" about China must be something that the decision makers in the White House are considering.

As a reborn person, although An Rushong lacks understanding of the current US policies, he is very clear about what will happen between China and the United States in the future.

Today, the United States is not very strong in manufacturing. The pillars supporting its economy are mainly three aspects: stocks, bonds and real estate. Of course, the hegemony of the US dollar is also a major aspect, but to be honest, if the United States does not want its credibility to collapse completely, the Federal Reserve will not dare to issue US dollars indiscriminately. In the final analysis, it still has to find a way to promote the return of US dollar capital. The Federal Reserve's interest rate cut policy has inevitably led to the flight of US dollar capital. At the same time, the threat of the subprime mortgage crisis has collapsed the US real estate economy. Coupled with the current stock market crash, it can be said that Washington can only rely on the issuance of bonds.

Therefore, what Washington is thinking about now must be to find a way to sell its bonds, and to sell a large amount of bonds at a good price when the world is not optimistic about the US economic prospects. In this way, it can not only bring a large amount of valuable cash to the United States, but also boost global confidence in the US economic prospects.

So, the question is, in the current dire economic situation, to whom can we sell bonds that are generally not favored by the world?
China!

China, with its foreign exchange reserves of 1.5 trillion, is the best buyer.

"Yes, Carlyle has already formulated a strategy to move eastward," Macaulay continued at the table. "Asia, especially the Chinese market, is their most promising target. However, Carlyle is somewhat sensitive. If it wants to enter Asia directly, especially the Chinese market, it will be subject to many restrictions. Therefore, setting up a new company is obviously the smartest and easiest way."

Macaulay smiled and concluded, spreading his hands, "So there was the news that six core members of Carlyle Investment had left. I was right to say that it was a cover-up."

"This is not much different from the information I got," Luo Quanyi nodded and said, "However, in my opinion, it is not important whether the core staff left or not. What is important is whether there is an opportunity to participate in the establishment of this new company."

"Why, you are optimistic about them?" Macaulay asked in surprise.

"Of course, I am optimistic about them," Luo Quanyi nodded and said without any concealment.

"You are very confident, Luo," Mike also said, "but I heard that their company has been established. It seems to be called MBK. It is currently operating Daewoo Precision Machinery and seems to have made some money from it. However, this company does not have the endorsement of Carlyle Investment, and it seems that there is no plan to enter the Chinese market for the time being."

"The MBK owned by Kim Byung-jo?" Macaulay asked curiously. "I haven't paid much attention to that, but wasn't MBK established two years ago? The $10 billion investment created a small sensation at the time."

Then he looked at An Rusong and said with a smile: "The momentum created by MBK at that time was much greater than that of An's NGN."

An Rushong smiled. He was just a bystander and did not participate much in the conversation because he did not know much about these things.

"It's MBK," Luo Quanyi said with a smile, "It's hard to say whether Carlyle Investment is planning to use MBK's shell, or whether they had already made the corresponding arrangements two years ago."

He paused and continued, "But that's not important. What's important is that I am indeed interested in MBK. No, to be more precise, I am more interested in Kim Byung-joo."

"Why, do you know him?" Mike and Macaulay asked at the same time.

"We worked together before, when we were at Solomon America," Luo Quanyi nodded and said.

"Are you going to invest in MBK?" Macaulay asked.

"Let's talk first," Luo Quanyi said with a smile, "make an appointment with him next week, we can sit together and chat."

After saying this, he swept his eyes across the faces of the three people one by one. Seeing that the other party also looked at him with inquiring eyes, An Rushong nodded along with Mike and the others.

(End of this chapter)