Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Bubble Collapse (4)
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January 14, 1990, Sunday.
I threw a modest party to mark the historic collapse of Japan's bubble.
"Hehe, it's great making so much money. We can even have a party like this, right, Nanny?"
Nanny, who had no idea what I'd been up to, looked at me with worried eyes. If it weren't for her, I might still be holed up at Daeha Securities.
Sweeping up cash from the Japanese crash, then pouring it into Eastern Europe... I still had plenty left to do.
"Miss, you have no idea how worried I've been lately. You haven't been doing anything strange, have you?"
"No way! I worked completely, totally legally!"
Yeah, yeah.
My short selling was perfectly legal, anyway. Sure, I bent a few rules here and there...
"... "
Si-hyeon's gaze toward me felt a bit impure somehow.
"Si-hyeon, want some cake?"
"...No, I'm fine. You always nag me about gaining weight whenever I eat, but now..."
Tsk.
Lee Si-hyeon reluctantly took a bite of cake and stared wistfully at the fork's tip.
-Nom nom.
I devoured the rest of the cake right in front of her eyes, then flashed a bright smile.
"Ahaha, my Si-hyeon. Turning thirty soon, huh?"
-Grind.
I could hear her teeth grinding.
"Still in my twenties..."
"Aw, it's fine. Who doesn't age?"
Nanny, who had turned thirty by Korean age reckoning last year, smiled and tried to comfort Si-hyeon, but it backfired.
"...I haven't even dated yet. I really don't want to get older."
"Don't worry! I'll develop reverse-aging tech for you later."
"Heh, thanks for saying that, at least."
Hey, I meant it, sort of.
The secret to hiding immortality is simple: share the blessing of eternal life with everyone else.
If things don't pan out by around 2050, I could always put them in cryosleep. Anti-aging tech has to be a thing by then, right? A century from now?
"Miss, you're going to work tomorrow too?"
Nanny hugged me from behind, worriedly stroking my hair. A sharp tingle shot through me.
'Eek...'
Really, the only ones allowed to touch my body were Nanny or people I approved.
Feeling a bit guilty, I gave an awkward smile and nodded.
"Yeah... pretty much. But these days, I play with I-ryeon a lot! For real, I swear."
Of course, it was a lie. As if I had time to play with Myeong I-ryeon when I was swamped with work.
Sigh, I still had vacation homework too.
What should I write in my diary?
[Today, I shorted the Japanese Nikkei Index. It was fun.]
...Yeah, that won't work.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Anyway, after enjoying the sharp plunge in early January, I headed to Daeha Securities today as usual to get a situation report.
"How much did Alpha Fund rake in?"
"About fifty million dollars right now."
Roughly five hundred billion won... nice.
"Liquidate the derivatives positions moderately for now. The Nikkei will keep dropping, so go long on shorts."
I didn't know exactly when it would drop. But... I had a rough idea of how long it would keep dropping.
That's why I planned to avoid high leverage or derivatives bets and just steadily profit from short selling.
Like a periodic cash dispenser, basically.
"...What about the investment firms? They're pretty unhappy."
Oh, right.
"Give them options for now. If they go crying to Uncle Jin-seok, it'll be a headache. Hm... the current losses can't be helped, but let's give them a chance to cut and run."
Daeha Securities was my domain, so Yoo Jin-seok couldn't interfere... but I still needed to draw as little attention as possible to Alpha Fund.
"Won't that deviate from the original plan?"
"It's fine. When push comes to shove... most will choose to ride out the risk."
The losses the investment firms had taken so far weren't really theirs. They were debts the Japanese securities firms would have to repay later.
But if they bailed early, those would stick as the firms' own losses. From their perspective, they couldn't imagine a massive Japanese securities firm going under, so the only risk was holding the debt longer.
Ha Joo-seong nodded slowly, as if getting it.
"True. Hard to believe the Japanese market will drop further. You're ruthless, Miss."
"Well... isn't that just how this world works?"
I didn't deny it.
The reason the investment firms clung to losing contracts despite knowing better was because I'd cunningly structured them that way.
Those contracts were bombs. Not exploding now, but growing bigger by the day, ones I could detonate at will.
With all my money tied up in the US and Europe, this was the only way to control Korean financial firms.
Anyway.
"More importantly, Eastern Europe. Si-hyeon, did you set up the company in West Germany?"
I turned to Si-hyeon, who was busier than ever lately. With me running around Korea, Japan, the US, and Europe, she was swamped too.
"Ah, yes. Got word recently. Poland's frantic preparing to snap up privatizing companies."
"Hire M&A experts under Alpha Fund's name and have them work from West Germany... Recruit front-office talent from Daeha Investment Bank and put them to work. Can't throw them into the deep end yet, but rolling with the pros should teach them something."
In East Germany's case, since it unified with West Germany, West German firms got first dibs on acquisitions.
So to snag East German companies, I needed a West German entity in place ahead of time. That's why money kept pouring out endlessly, no matter how much I made.
Good thing I'd laid the groundwork by busting through the Berlin Wall.
I kept my brain churning, preparing for the next steps.
"Alright, then next..."
.
.
.
"—So, laundering money through Swiss banks turns it into a squeaky-clean company."
"Where on earth did you learn that?"
"Huh? Picked it up on that Europe trip last time. Recruited a citizen who could open a Swiss account, remember?"
"...That was why? I thought you just wanted to see the Alps..."
"You know I hate physical labor? I don't even like working."
Si-hyeon still had a lot to learn. That's why I liked her.
I smiled and toyed with her hair. It was soft and smelled nice.
"With that in mind, time for me to take a break. Everything's ready now."
Well...
Preparations were complete.
All that was left was to wait.
With the money-making machine all set up, I just had to flip the switch and watch. ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ After that.
Japan's slump deepened sharply and dragged on for years.
What does that mean? A glance at the news would give you the idea.
[Bank of Japan... hikes base rate to 4.00%]
[Japan's Ministry of Finance imposes total cap on real estate loans. New loans fully banned...]
[Japan base rate hiked again, to 4.50%]
[Overvalued Tokyo land prices plunge nearly 30%... investor panic spreads]
Normally, a sharp downturn would bottom out quickly, but Japan's bubble was so inflated it was basically skydiving.
Without a parachute.
"Man, looking at it now, it's ridiculous."
I let out a hollow laugh at the stack of newspapers. The Japanese government was playing the fool.
If the US had mimicked Japan's policies during the subprime crisis—the 2008 global meltdown—instead of a great recession or depression, America might have just collapsed outright.
'Pointless, though. The US learned from Japan.'
Oh well, couldn't be helped. Japan was pioneering a path no one had walked before.
The biggest prerequisite for a Nobel in Economics? Not genius insights or achievements, but longevity genes.
...Macro economics lab is 'Earth,' so to validate my theories, some country had to guinea-pig them first.
And Japan was graciously staking its nation's fate on a slew of economic experiments.
'Ah! If a big corp is drowning in debt and about to fail, propping it up forcibly prevents others from collapsing too!'
To learn that, a giant had to fail first.
'Sometimes you need to deliberately tank the economy to prevent excessive bubbles!'
This future common knowledge was written in the blood of countless people. Incidentally, it's tricky stuff—the US watched neighbor Japan get it right and still needed a repeat lesson.
By mid-1990...
Alpha Fund projected an annual return of 47%. Even after diverting half its Japanese profits to Eastern Europe.
And I pocketed 150 million dollars.
Not managed assets or fund profits—my actual 'cash' earnings: 150 million dollars.
Alpha Fund made 2 billion total; half to Eastern Europe left 1 billion.
Under the hedge fund's 2-and-20 deal, Ha Young-il took 200 million... and per our original contract, ceded three-quarters to me.
A bit modest, but fine. Unlike Black Monday, Japan's bubble burst would drag on for years.