Free Web Novel“Wall Street’s moral hazard has reached its peak. The way you all seem to be trying to avoid taking any responsibility is not a good look.”
Hillary swept a sharp gaze over the CEOs.
“You should all use this opportunity to reflect and reform.”
Everyone at the table fell silent.
Alan Schwartz, in particular, stood before Hillary without being able to say a word.
I did not know whether he was still unused to the way politicians spoke, or whether he was acting so submissive because he was in a desperate position, but he looked far too low-profile.
After a brief silence, Lloyd stood up and spoke to Hillary.
“Senator Hillary. I do agree with some of your points. Bear Stearns’ liquidity crisis was ultimately brought about by their greed. It was the result of taking on excessive risk while obsessing only over short-term profits.”
Hillary focused on Lloyd’s words without refuting them.
“But allowing Bear Stearns to collapse will never be a good choice for the American economy.”
After letting out a low hum as though thinking for a moment, she asked Lloyd,
“How does Goldman Sachs view this crisis?”
“We are responding by mobilizing every resource we can draw on. But our losses are also at a serious level.”
“Are you saying Goldman Sachs is in danger too?”
Lloyd slowly shook his head.
“We are still fine. Even if an emergency comes, we will not go bankrupt like Bear Stearns.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. I am certain.”
Lloyd said it to Hillary with eyes full of conviction.
Then Hillary lifted one corner of her mouth and said,
“Then that means Goldman Sachs can overcome this crisis without help from the government or the Fed, correct?”
“...That is not what I mean. With government help, we can get through this crisis faster.”
Hillary nodded, then asked the other CEOs the same question.
All of them said they were still safe, and all of them answered that they needed government help.
“Except for JPMorgan, I am hearing that all of you may be at risk. Is that an excessive interpretation?”
Hillary turned toward Han Kyungyeong.
“James.”
“Yes, Senator.”
“What do you think?”
“What kind of answer do you want? A rosy future? Or the bleak reality?”
“...This is not the mood for jokes, James.”
“Do I look like I’m joking right now? From where I stand, it looks like everyone gathered here has their head full of flowers.”
The CEOs, excluding Jamie, glared at Han Kyungyeong.
Han Kyungyeong continued without caring.
“We do not believe this crisis will pass easily. If the government steps in, Bear Stearns can be saved. But what comes next? If another bank is in danger after that, will the government step in and bail them out every single time?”
“What are you trying to say, James?”
“Before bailing out the banks, Wall Street should be held responsible first.”
“Wall Street’s responsibility?”
Han Kyungyeong looked at me and said,
“Charlie here told me several times, starting years ago, about the danger of mortgage-backed securities, the related MBS, and the CDOs issued by bundling those MBS together.”
Hillary looked toward me. Han Kyungyeong continued.
“And economists kept warning about it too. But no one listened.”
It was not as though there had been no warnings about the overheated investments.
Not only renowned economists, but even the Fed and the Federal Reserve Banks had issued warnings.
“We also invested heavily in CDOs. But Dreamhigh liquidated all of its CDOs and got out before the bomb exploded. Do you know why?”
“Go on.”
“Because we bear all responsibility ourselves. We do not invest our clients’ money. We invest our boss’s money directly. All losses that arise from that are our losses.”
“Are you saying others are not like that?”
Han Kyungyeong shrugged and replied,
“Yes. It is their clients’ money. Even if losses occur, they personally lose nothing. That is why, even knowing the risks, they kept making reckless investments for their compensation.”
“Hm... So Dreamhigh suffered no losses from this crisis?”
“Yes. Not even one dollar. And it is not just us. Small asset management firms and hedge funds will probably make enormous profits from this crisis.”
“That is going a little too far.”
At that moment, someone cut into their conversation.
It was Charles Prince of Citigroup.
“You knew in advance? Who was it that invested aggressively in CDOs? Wasn’t it Dreamhigh?”
“...Is that important?”
“Dreamhigh’s influence on Wall Street is significant. Once you started aggressively investing in CDOs, everyone began creating CDOs left and right. That made this situation much bigger.”
“Are you saying this is my responsibility?”
“You can’t say you have no responsibility at all.”
Hillary did not stop Charles.
Instead, she took one step back and listened to the conversation between Han Kyungyeong and Charles.
“I have never once told anyone to invest in CDOs.”
“Hahaha! How naive. There are no secrets on Wall Street. Rumors that you were going around buying CDOs from banks and insurance companies reached everyone’s ears in less than a day. Can you really say you did not know what kind of ripple effect that behavior would have?”
“So I should take responsibility for something I neither recommended nor forced anyone to do? How convenient, blaming someone else.”
While the two of them engaged in a sharp war of words, I approached Hillary.
Her security guard immediately tried to stop me, but Hillary shook her head.
Without moving her gaze, she spoke to me standing beside her.
“Do you have something to say to me?”
“Yes.”
“I have heard so much about you that my ears are practically calloused. I don’t really want to hear more.”
I lowered my voice so only Hillary could hear.
“Should I stop playing along?”
“What?”
“You seemed to be creating that kind of atmosphere, so I deliberately instructed James to act a bit aggressively. Am I wrong? Should I tell him to stop even now?”
Only then did Hillary turn her head toward me.
“The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. You’re going to support it, aren’t you?”
“...What are you trying to say?”
I jerked my chin toward the CEOs arguing with Han Kyungyeong and said,
“You are trying to squeeze more money out of Wall Street, aren’t you? I deliberately played along with your tune.”
“Ha... You really haven’t changed at all. Charlie. Your blunt way of speaking is hard to get used to.”
“Hillary has changed a lot. You’ve become a true politician.”
I had met Hillary before, when she was President Bill Clinton’s wife.
But back then, we had never spoken in depth.
My main objective had been Bill Clinton.
“I am going to become President of the United States.”
“I will pray that you achieve that dream.”
“So what do you want?”
“You are not planning to save Wall Street for free, are you? No matter how leading a presidential candidate you are, there are limits to what you can do as you please.”
“I will handle it myself.”
Hillary frowned as though my question displeased her.
“Still, for old times’ sake, let me give you one piece of advice. Do not let Wall Street drag you around. Their greed has no end. Look at them even now. Do they look like they are reflecting?”
Hillary did not answer and looked at the CEOs.
Only Jamie Dimon stood beside Han Kyungyeong, while the others seemed to be attacking him.
“Even if they get through this crisis with the government’s help, nothing will change. In the end, that will become a major obstacle to your presidential campaign, Hillary.”
“Will anything change if I oppose it? If I oppose the bill and Bear Stearns goes bankrupt? If the aftershock causes other major banks to collapse too?”
Hillary continued in a sharp tone.
“In the end, ordinary citizens are the ones who will suffer. Bailouts will stabilize the financial system while also contributing to protecting the interests of ordinary people.”
I shrugged and said,
“Well, if that is what you think...”
If Hillary was determined to pass the bill, then the bill would eventually pass.
The Republicans could not simply sit and watch Wall Street’s crisis if they wanted to win the presidential election.
They would be thinking of passing the bill no matter what, with the Democrats’ help.
“James.”
At my call, Han Kyungyeong, who had been arguing with the CEOs, nodded.
As though intending to end the conversation, he said one last thing to them.
“I and Dreamhigh take responsibility for our investments. But you are different. Do not even think of holding us responsible for the investments you made after following us. I am telling you to show that you can take responsibility yourselves.”
Leaving those words behind, Han Kyungyeong turned and walked straight toward me.
“James, I enjoyed the debate.”
“Senator. No matter what result comes out of this, someone must take responsibility. If you help them unconditionally, the same thing will happen again.”
Perhaps because he was rather worked up, Han Kyungyeong’s tone was rougher than usual.
Beside him, I shook my head.
Seeing my signal, Han Kyungyeong let out a deep sigh and stopped talking.
I smiled and said goodbye to Hillary.
“The uninvited guests will be leaving now. We made our donation in advance through another method.”
Hillary nodded.
“I received the report. Thank you. I will definitely become president.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
We left the party.
As soon as we were out of the ballroom, Han Kyungyeong muttered fiercely.
“Even if you beat those people to death, they won’t change. They won’t change in the future either.”
His voice was full of anger.
He seemed quite furious.
I smiled and tried to calm him.
“Calm down, hyung. You already knew this. In the end, nothing will change. Obama will delay it as much as possible, but it looked like she intends to pass it before the primaries start.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Nothing changes. It was only a matter of time before the Economic Stabilization Act passed anyway. It may just happen a little faster than expected. By the way, Citigroup’s CEO was pretty aggressive toward you. Were you two always on bad terms?”
Han Kyungyeong took a deep breath as though trying to calm his anger, then nodded.
“There’s no way we’d be on good terms. Citigroup was the bank that suffered the most because of us.”
“Hm... His reaction felt too staged. The nuance was that we were responsible. It was like he was determined to make us the root cause of this mess.”
Han Kyungyeong fell into thought with a serious expression. Then, after a moment, he spoke.
“No matter how much I think about it, there is no trace anywhere that we were involved in this. Investing in Michael Burry was also a perfectly legitimate investment with nothing problematic about it. Even if it comes out later, they won’t be able to use it against us.”
I nodded at Han Kyungyeong’s words.
After meeting them at the fundraising party, it seemed clear that we could not remain on good terms with them.
'I need to move faster.'
The night in New York only grew deeper.
A few days later.
“What? My name came up during the Progressive Party primary?”
― Yeah. The opposing candidate raised suspicions that you gave political funds to Choi Seohyun.
“...Is that bastard insane?”
I knew Choi Seohyun well.
He was not someone with that kind of guts, so what on earth was he thinking, attacking me?
“So what’s the mood like?”
― Since it’s just a suspicion raised for now, it hasn’t become a major issue yet... But I wonder if he did it because he has something in his hands.
“Jungwon Development and Choi Seohyun had nothing to do with each other, right?”
― That’s right. If anything, he rose all the way to being a leading presidential candidate thanks to the deal he made with us back then. Without our help, he wouldn’t even have been able to run as a presidential candidate.
“And now he stabs us in the back like this.”
No matter how much I thought about it, I could not understand it.
If he wanted to run negative attacks over political funds, there was no reason to specifically bring up my name.
“I’ll look into it more. How are things on your end?”
― We’re confused too. Honestly, among the people currently running in the primary, there isn’t a single one free from political funding issues.
I had provided an enormous amount of political funds to the Centrist Party.
“He hasn’t presented evidence yet, right?”
― What should we do? Should I meet him once?
“No, forget it. I’ll look into it myself. You keep doing what you were doing.”
― Got it. When are you coming back to Korea?
“I don’t know. Not sure when I’ll go back.”
After letting out a short hum as though hesitating, Myungsoo spoke carefully.
― Muhyuk. I think it would be better if you don’t come back for now. The fact that your name has come up at all is not a good thing.
“I don’t have any immediate reason to go back, but...”
― Then let’s watch the situation for a bit.
“Alright. Focus on getting through the primary. I’ll call again.”
― Yeah. I’ll contact you if I hear anything.
After ending the call with Myungsoo, I called Chief Ma.
“Chief. I heard my name came up during the Progressive Party primary in Korea. Find out the details... and investigate Choi Seohyun’s movements over the past year.”
