Dress Rehearsal (2)
"So, you want to quit gambling and live a stable life now? Yoo Sun-jun, you're totally whipped."
I grumbled, feeling a bit annoyed. Really, I'd even handed over Seo Joo-eun to him and taken away his bloody job. Thanks to that, the thugs she used to boss around had to be handed off to someone else. Finding reliable people is no easy task.
"Hey, once you have a kid, you'll change your mind."
"Hmph, sure you will."
Well, babies are cute. The kid put on a great show and didn't look a bit like Yoo Sun-jun. Still, no way I'd ever have one myself.
...Well, honestly, it's not like I have zero desire to have kids.When I conquer the universe later, building a golden throne for me and my twenty children is on my bucket list.But I just didn't want to be responsible for anyone else. Not when I'm more irresponsible than my own dad.
"So, what do you want me to do? Let's hear it first."
Yoo Sun-jun, lounging crookedly on the sofa, asked seriously.
"It's not real gambling. I just need you to handle some stocks or business stuff. There's work in France."
"Figured as much. Not thrilled about it... but what can I do? If you say do it, I do it."
"Hmm, that's good, but why so listless? It's not like I'll kill you if you don't."
I tilted my head, and he stared at me intently, like you really don't get it?
"Forget me. Just take good care of my wife instead. You know? We couldn't even have a proper wedding..."
My cousin, whom I hadn't seen in a while, seemed to carry guilt over his wife. They couldn't even register the marriage because of prying eyes. As the eldest grandson, the pressure to marry into a proper family must have been immense. A few years from now, I'd personally bury anyone who spouted that crap, but for now, I had to hold back.
...This just makes me feel guiltier for no reason. He married Joo-eun because of me.
I sighed inwardly. Dealing with people is the hardest part. I understood, though.
"Alright, got it. Don't worry about that. I'm not petty enough to hold it against you. We're... family, right?"
Saying that word awkwardly made my stomach churn. I hate this stuff.
"...Yeah. Thanks."
I mentally reviewed my plans for a moment and decided this was fine. Daeha Securities wouldn't shake much without just one Seo Joo-eun. If anything, having another of my people would help control BBB in Europe more effectively. My influence hadn't reached there yet.
Satisfied inwardly, I proposed to Yoo Sun-jun.
"Why don't you just move to Europe for a while? You'll be in France quite a bit, and I'll assign Joo-eun as your secretary... Hmm, make a second kid while you're at it."
I poked his side playfully with a giggle.
He swatted my arm away casually and skimmed the documents on the desk.
"...Hmm."
-Rustle.-
After flipping through the papers, Yoo Sun-jun looked at me and asked.
"But if CL really collapses like you say, can't we just bet on a short position appropriately?"
"We will. But we need the exact scale of the mess, so... that's why I need you, the director of a major bank, to go check it out. And... this is kind of a dress rehearsal."
He paused, then asked back.
"Rehearsal for what?"
I smiled slyly and said nothing. It's a secret.
One key lesson from the Crédit Lyonnais scandal: Governments bailing out massive corporations with taxpayer money causes massive political backlash... And not doing it lets it snowball into a bigger disaster.
Hmm, that's two lessons, actually.
Anyway, let's talk about something slightly different.
During the 2008 global financial crisis, the US was actually one of the luckier cases. Japan botched its bubble burst and took decades to recover, and France here delayed the bailout too long, wasting most of the money they'd thrown in.
This is deeply political. It's the clash between neoliberalism—leave it all to the markets—and Keynesianism, popularized by FDR's New Deal during the Great Depression (though not exactly the same).
For example, during Korea's IMF crisis, the government avoided corporate bailouts because Korea had handed economic sovereignty to the IMF, hardcore neoliberals. Money shortages played a role too.
Simply put, neoliberalism says failing companies should fail. It fosters healthy competition in normal times, boosting efficiency, but when bubbles burst, it plunges endlessly with no bottom in sight. Even salvageable firms go under.
Of course, as I mentioned, the US broke its long-standing principles in 2008 and intervened. That's why neoliberalism, which had defined the US since the Cold War, finally crumbled.
I wasn't there, but I heard there was huge backlash. Bailing out Wall Street's gamblers with working people's taxes, plus believers in the invisible hand who wanted markets left alone.
What this means is... If the US hadn't admitted neoliberalism's failure early, the 2008 crisis might not have been called a "Little Depression" or The Great Recession. Just hypotheticals, though. If it had been worse, economists would name it later.
....
"So, you're saying expose CL's corruption but wreck the French economy in the process? Why...?"
Seo Joo-eun, now Yoo Sun-jun's personal secretary after some complicated procedures, asked. The answer seemed obvious on the surface, but after a year away from the field, she didn't want to guess.
She'd gotten too soft. Finance demands ruthlessness.
"Nothing to it. It's just to make more off the short positions."
I neatly folded away all my prior musings into a corner of my mind and smiled sweetly.
"That'll spark massive backlash. Spending money and tanking the economy—you planning to swap out the French PM too?"
Yoo Sun-jun sighed.
"That's a side benefit. What can you do about their incompetence?"
"At this rate, neoliberalism in the US gets another decade. Dodging regulations like pros. Heard you're pushing a law change there too?"
The current US president was Bill Clinton. Bush tried hard, and the LA riots gave him some goodwill, but it was inevitable. I like tweaking history, but changing the US president? Who knows what that'd do. Plus, Clinton was neoliberalism's poster boy. Democrats would ditch it later, but right now, they favored laissez-faire economics. Financial capital was gaining massive power.
Still, not the time yet.
"Oh, that? It fizzled out. Glass-Steagall repeal's still a ways off. Just testing the waters."
"'Testing' with that much lobby money? You went all-in but failed because you're not chummy with other Wall Street banks?"
"Come on, oppa. You know I'm thorough with money matters."
Being too smart has its downsides. Yoo Sun-jun eyed me suspiciously, but him knowing my plans wouldn't change much. He's no bleeding-heart altruist.
Anyway, if the plan succeeds, he'll enjoy the power too—no way he'd sabotage it outright.
"Buy put options on all French bank stocks... and short French bonds. Insider trading profits after you get the info. Got it?"
"Eurozone launch is soon; France will fight to defend bond prices. Your plan for that?"
"Ah, hit the exchange rate first then. Pound short was just last year, right? Pull in hedge funds to short the franc... We'll go long and catch the rebound. French gov'll defend the rate, but to be safe, help them a bit. When CL collapses, their stocks flood the market—better weaken the hedge funds beforehand."
"...You're preparing meticulously. Fine, Ha-yeon, eat it all up yourself."
Yoo Sun-jun shook his head like he was done.