Chapter 407 July
Chapter 407 April
An Rushong's words were not spoken in anger, but his true feelings, because this was his overall plan for the future development of NGN.
From the outset, NGN was supposed to be a giant multinational Internet company, just like applications such as Google, X or Youtube. Its users should not be limited to a certain country, but should be worldwide.
In this case, as the chairman of NGN Company and the decision-maker of the entire company, An Rushong's vision will naturally not be limited to South Korea, and his career ambitions should not be confined to South Korea. Therefore, he and his NGN Company will not be controlled by South Korea's so-called three Internet service providers.
Of course, although the future of NGN should not be limited to South Korea, An Rusong himself has never thought about leaving the country and moving elsewhere, not for anything else, but because in this country, he can live a more comfortable and free life.
"Rusong, I understand your intention," Bai Jinjun finally spoke again on the phone. He seemed to sigh, and then said, "Believe me, Mr. Qingxi's position on issues related to the Internet industry is exactly the same as yours. Therefore, your performance tonight was very good, perfect, and everything you did was exactly what Mr. Qingxi wanted you to do."
"Haha," he chuckled and continued, "You don't have to worry too much about LG. Mr. Qingxi will naturally put pressure on Chairman Gu later. Don't forget that 'LG Telecom' is not qualified to join the game yet. Whether LG can get the operating license again depends on Mr. Qingxi's opinion."
"If that's the case, it couldn't be better," said An Rushong.
"However, even if Mr. Qingxi comes forward to put pressure on you, you'd better be cautious," Bai Jinjun continued, "I know exactly who Yin Zhen is. He has always been arrogant. You have humiliated him so much this time. With his personality, he will definitely not let it go. So... do you understand what I mean?"
"Hey, I understand, Brother Jin Jun," An Rusong sneered and said, "But I'm not a coward. A gigolo like Yin Zhen, even if he's arrogant and domineering, can he be better than those American drug dealers?"
On the phone, Bai Jinjun laughed and said nothing more.
This is indeed the case. In the past period of time, An Rushong has been facing those drug-trafficking American officers and soldiers. In a sense, those Americans are desperate criminals with a golden medal of immunity from death. Facing these people, An Rushong has been able to live safely until now. In comparison, who is Yin Zhen?
When the call ended, the Chevrolet just drove into the courtyard of Renwangshan Villa. Jenny parked the car in front of the main entrance of the villa. While An Rusong was getting out of the car, she said, "I'm staying here tonight too. Wait for me for a while. I'll park the car and we can go up together."
An Rushong was just about to walk upstairs, but after hearing this, he stopped and turned to watch Jenny drive the car towards a small parking lot not far away.
The weather tonight is quite good. Although the shadow of the moon cannot be seen in the sky, the brilliant starry sky looks unusually clear.
An Rushong stood on the steps in front of the villa, watching the Chevrolet park in the small parking lot, and then watching Jenny get out of the car, but what he was thinking about was his current situation.
South Korea is such a small country. Although its economic development has been very rapid in the past few decades, its development potential is ultimately limited due to the reality of its small country and small population. Under its limited national strength, the number of beneficiaries it can accommodate is also quite limited.
In the world of An Rushong's previous life, even in China, the existence of Korean chaebols was almost known to everyone, and the same was true in South Korea.
According to last year's data, the wealth and assets owned by South Korea's top ten chaebols now account for 70 percent of South Korea's total GDP. The remaining 30 percent is occupied by foreign companies and so-called "small, medium and micro" enterprises.
During the presidential election at the end of last year, conservatives criticized progressives for their "economic incompetence" in response to the slow economic development in the past few years. This statement makes sense in a sense, but it is not objective to put all the blame on the incompetence of progressives.
Why has the Korean economy been sluggish over the past decade? Why has the once glorious so-called Han River Miracle disappeared? In An Rusong's opinion, a large part of the reason is that the top chaebols, including Samsung, have monopolized the entire Korean economy.
During the Han River Miracle more than 10 or 20 years ago, the vigorous development of small and medium-sized enterprises in South Korea provided a great impetus for the economic development of the entire country. The existence of these small and medium-sized enterprises not only provided a large number of jobs for South Korea, but also injected sufficient vitality into the market.
And what about now? As the chaebols’ business tentacles spread throughout the country, the small and medium-sized enterprises that once drove the country’s economy forward have been killed and wounded in the chaebols’ monopoly on operations.
After draining the nutrients of the Korean domestic market, the chaebols turned their attention to overseas, to areas with lower labor costs. So, they began to transfer jobs that originally belonged to the bottom of the Korean people to overseas in pursuit of lower costs and higher profits. As for the domestic employment problem, it was not something they wanted to consider. Well, this situation is not unique to Korea, but will exist in any country in the world. As the saying goes, capital is always flowing, but its flow direction is not like water, flowing to where the low-lying areas are, but on the contrary, flowing to where the high areas are.
Of course, the reason why An Rusong had such feelings was not because he had any idea of building the Republic of Korea, but because he saw through the nature of this world.
"What are you thinking about?" In a trance, Jenny had walked to An Rushong's side. She put her arm around the man, looked at him curiously, and asked.
"Oh," An Rusong came back to his senses, glanced at Jenny, and smiled casually, "Nothing, I was just thinking, um. General Thurman will be in Seoul next week. Should I prepare a gift for him?"
"Shouldn't you discuss this matter with Colonel Leonard?" Jenny said as she took his arm and walked into the villa.
"I don't trust that guy," An Rusong curled his lips and said, "Compared to Leonard, I would rather trust Senator Elijah. Yes, maybe I can ask him later."
"Whatever you want," Jenny moved closer to him and said in a low voice, "Let's go take a shower together. I'm leaving here tomorrow, so you are mine tonight!"
As April arrived, the weather in Seoul warmed up rapidly. On the city streets, there were visibly more people wearing skirts and shirts. The trees that had been withered and yellow for the entire winter also turned completely green again. Occasionally, for a day or two, people could even feel the breath of summer.
However, corresponding to the warming weather is the increasingly cold economic situation.
Facts have proved that "StockMavericks"'s forecast of the prospects of the subprime mortgage crisis was too optimistic. After entering April, the bad news about Bear Stearns had not yet spread in the United States, but the two largest real estate mortgage giants in the United States, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were the first to be reported to have suffered huge losses.
On April 300, the day of Qingming Festival in the northern country, the international rating giant Standard & Poor's suddenly drastically downgraded the credit ratings of the two housing agencies. Soon after, there were reports that Freddie Mac was facing a huge loss of up to billion US dollars due to the current crisis.
If this news is true, the bonds guaranteed by Freddie Mac will depreciate significantly in the short term, and investors and financial institutions holding these bonds will inevitably suffer heavy losses.
As the news spread, investors in the two housing companies were frightened and left the market one after another, some even cutting their losses to flee. This situation further drained the market's confidence in the two housing companies, which was already almost exhausted.
Although the two housing agencies quickly issued statements claiming that their operations and financial conditions were good, they even brought in the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight to claim that the company's capital was 15% higher than the federal minimum limit.
But market confidence is a very mysterious thing. When it exists, even if a listed company has no good news, its stock price will continue to rise. But on the other hand, if it is gone, no matter what anyone says, it will not have much effect.
The reality that the two housing agencies were in trouble dealt a heavy blow to the already extremely fragile market, and people's panic became even more intense.
It was at this time that Lee Min-bo, who had just taken office as South Korean President for less than two months, officially launched his first round of foreign diplomatic visits after taking office, and the first country he chose to visit was naturally the United States.
On the second day after Lee Min-bo left for the United States, the U.S. Department of Defense released a low-key message on its official website, which roughly meant that in view of the current complex situation between North Korea and South Korea, the U.S. Department of Defense decided to replace the commander-in-chief of US forces in South Korea. At this point, General Thurman officially took office.
Before the news was released on the official website of the U.S. Department of Defense, to be precise, in the early morning of the same day, the impatient General Thurman had already arrived in Seoul on a connecting flight. In other words, he left the United States for South Korea before the appointment notice was officially issued.
(End of this chapter)