Chapter 191: Flaunting Wealth
A winter was descending on the capital markets.
〈Nasdaq Drops 10.7% in One Month〉
〈NYSE Plunges 1.3% in Late Trading Again〉
〈Yellen, US Treasury Secretary: "Expect Inflation at 2% by End of Next Year." No One in the Market Believes It〉
〈Nasdaq in Freefall: Tightening Fears Spark Cheers from Korean US Stock Retail Investors?〉
〈Biden: "Inflation Is Top Priority."〉
As Christmas approached, Treasury yields were surging, and market interest rates were climbing.
The US government and the Fed, which had insisted inflation wouldn't rise, became targets of public scorn.
―Groceries, essentials, appliances, fast food. Nothing hasn't gone up.
―One thing's going backwards, though. Biden's approval rating.
―Prices are so high I've cut back on eating out, swapping steak for ground beef. What's next on the chopping block?
President Biden was getting flak from Americans over inflation, that invisible tax.
On the flip side, there were those cheering.
―Love you, Kim Shin hyung!
―You made me enough for an apartment last year, now you're gunning for a whole building this year.
―Put in 20 years at one job. Company's starting to hint I should look elsewhere... Feels like I can quit in style now.
―5 years stock investing. Final return: -22%. Trusted Kim Shin hyung and hit 300% gains lololol
―Our trades are tanking the won.
―Korean US stock retail investors save the nation!
The Korean US stock retail investors had followed Kim Shin into massive short-selling and put options.
When stocks hit all-time highs, plenty dismissed it as folly.
"Blindly following celebrities is the worst kind of investing."
"You need to invest based on a company's intrinsic value. Know how to read financials, or hand it off to pros who can react fast to changes."
"The US economy has trended up for decades, unlike Korea's. Betting against the US government and Fed is ignorant."
Stock experts yapping on internet streams got buried in hate comments back then too.
―Kim Shin proved it with returns. What've you got?
―These guys always say buy stocks. Never warn when they're dropping. Just parrots.
―Invest in blue chips? Easy to say, but how many Korean stocks are actually worth buying?
―Exclude Isung Electronics and 20+ years of investing is mostly losses.
―Yeah, so what's John Lee's return rate?
The Korean US stock retail investors were crushing the experts' predictions, raking in huge gains on the NYSE.
Those who loaded up on puts near the peak scored over 400% returns.
It left Korean stock pros stunned.
"400%? Is that even a real return?"
"Insane. Never seen numbers like that."
"Hard to hit even in paper trading."
"Higher than my lifetime returns."
"So what's your total so far?"
"42%."
"Mine's -21%..."
The stock experts from those streams had to beg to delete their videos en masse.
The Korean US stock retail investors poured in $50 billion and pulled out over $100 billion.
An impossibility in a financial backwater like Korea was happening.
―The day we stick a straw in Nasdaq is here.
―Let's make bank in finance!
―If we're clearing this much, how loaded is Kim Shin hyung getting?
―Arsenal top of Premier League, Earth esports squad wins every tourney wtf
―Arsenal takeover and signings are nuts.
―When you're winning, everything clicks.
―Life's about lining up right. Behind Kim Shin hyung, it's toasty.
* * *
It was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
After snagging the one with a bathtub, he was putting it to good use.
He no longer had to book commercial flights for trips to Texas with his bodyguards.
'Saves on tickets, sorta. Reality is, maintaining a private jet costs way more.'
Like buying a personal car and feeling like you're saving on bus fare.
[Kim Shin's Dreamliner Lands at San Francisco Airport]
A video someone uploaded to Earth Channel hit 30 million views.
Boeing had given it a special callsign: Earth One, when it rolled off the line.
Several streamers captured Earth One landing at San Francisco International Airport.
"Whoa... Money really is the best. A gold-plated bathtub!"
Weekends, he took Oh Myeong-woo to LA on the Dreamliner.
Oh Myeong-woo rarely budged, but a bathtub on a plane got him moving.
"Feels like the dead skin scrubs off better up here."
"Scrub hard."
Middle East tycoons sip wine or champagne in theirs, but he and Oh Myeong-woo scrubbed each other's backs.
It was a ritual dating back to their college days; every couple of months, they visited a bathhouse together.
"I'll pass, hyungs."
Lee Jong-yeop flat-out refused, and the bodyguards found it a bit odd.
Anyway, with all the buzz on the Dreamliner, he posted on SNS explaining it and the interior.
"This plane came available via a White House intro—canceled reservation. The fancy interior isn't my doing... Changing it would've cost extra, so I took it as-is."
The video showed the seats, dining area, conference room, and bathtub.
Over 20 million tuned into the live stream.
Even with auto-translation, viewer flags showed Koreans, Americans, Japanese, Hong Kongers mixed in.
There were probably plenty of mainland Chinese viewers among the Hong Kong crowd as well.
―This a boarding vlog? wtf
―Korean rich streamers flex Benzes, BMWs. Rare Lambo test drives. This guy's got a plane...
―Not some Gulfstream peashooter. Seats 300+.
―Loaded. ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ
―Kim Shin, so cool. ^ↀᴥↀ^ Visit Japan sometime.
―Gotta be this level to bathe mid-flight.
―You boil ramen on this thing?
Not much real chat on live, but he bantered lightly with viewers.
"There are pilots and crew, but didn't want to bother them, so no ramen service requests. Grabbed burgers before boarding."
―Polite super-rich wtf
―Ramen at home then?
―SF means mandatory burgers now.
―Stores already crawling with Koreans lololol
―Full meal service? Private jet worth it.
Viewers didn't seem to mind the money flex.
Times have changed, sure... But maybe it felt different from mid-tier rich guys bragging.
'Not quite at private-jet wealth-flaunt level yet.'
This, however, was true wealth...
"Earth Factory construction site. Way more built up than before, right?"
He went live at Earth Factory.
He drove around the site, showing the vast grounds and buildings to his viewers.
Top auto engineers go to Apple, Google, Tesla, Ford, GM, Toyota.
Earth Car needed aggressive recruiting promo to snag talent.
Like Elon Musk, maxed engineering but can't solo everything—need top hires.
―Whoa... Built fast.
―Roads done, factory shells up in 3 months.
―Just steel framing? Insides empty probs.
―Money = SimCity in real life.
Chats viewers posted that Oh Myeong-woo would've loved.
"Earth Car R&D happens in San Francisco. Collaborating with Stanford, hiring tons of engineers."
Wrapped live promising a VOD upload, no skipping promo.
Then came two major announcements.
Earth Channel's one-year results were blinding.
Earth Channel had taken the top spot in the fiercely competitive U.S. OTT market.
In Asia, it had swept Korea and Japan, as well as China unofficially.
It was pushing hard into Europe, but most of its 900 million subscribers still came from Asia.
Indonesia alone had a population of 275 million.
Vietnam had a population of 98 million.
Asia's populations were massive.
Cheap monthly fees made it accessible even in developing nations.
"Earth Channel will host awards for dramas, movies, games, shows, variety."
To mark its first anniversary, Earth Channel was holding its own awards ceremony.
"Not some historic tradition. Just small gifts for our family who've toiled together, and a year-end party bash."
―Awards show wtf
―Earth Channel awards? Skip local ones and bolt.
―Global actors incoming
―Hollywood stars too?
―Earth Channel bought Hollywood drama studios, big player in films now.
There was one more announcement.
Awards were huge, but this'd send media into frenzy.
"One more thing. Earth Car's production was set at 1.3 million units."
Earth Car was still a new automobile company.
None had dumped $70 billion upfront on factories.
Reckless didn't cover it.
But...
〈Earth Car Pre-Orders Top 2.4 Million〉
US pickup craze was wild.
Cute giant pickup design, but EV motors made it a beast.
I had not expected Americans to become this excited.
Cancellations or sales slumps could hit, sure.
That's why scale mattered—economies thereof.
Making fewer cars to survive? Not how autos work.
"Bumping Earth Car production. 2 million units per year."
―2 million?
―asdf
―Gutsy af.
―Super-rich class?
―This is real baller status.
* * *
〈Earth Car Locks In 2 Million Annual Production〉
〈Earth Car Scales Up Capacity Amid Order Backlog〉
〈Kim Shin Live: Earth Factory Rising Fast〉
Kim Shin's production hike lit a fire under the Korean government.
The four groups were Isung, DK, Mirae, and LK.
Korea's big four teaming for a US high-tech auto plant.
Biden's Buy American push played in, but Korea's gov saw it as a loss.
"Why not invest here? Jobs, taxes—how great would that be?"
"For Korea's economy, need more domestic investment."
At PM An Hee-sang's cabinet meeting, regrets over Kim Shin piled up.
Earth Factory thriving felt like losing out.
'Election soon. If he pulls something off...'
An Hee-sang had ambitions.
Lifetime chasing power, top seat within reach.
What'd get him there?
An Hee-sang spoke.
"I'll go to the US, meet Kim Shin, push hard for Korean investments."
If the popular Kim Shin invested domestically, An Hee-sang could claim the credit for it.
Given Kim Shin's astronomical wealth, it'd be big.
The presidency would be within his grasp.