Since the popularity of "The World is Flat", Thomas Friedman has become a world-renowned scholar and the mouthpiece of the Donkey Party.
Because of this, the irreversible relationship with Mr. Lu can be regarded as a stake in the New York Times and even the American media circle.
But when he heard about co-writing a book about shorting subprime mortgages, Friedman refused at first because Mr. Lu couldn't let him write it, so he wrote it immediately.
I don’t know anything about finance!
What's more, he is unwilling to write a fantasy like the subprime mortgage crisis. If after publication, the subprime mortgage does not "duang", rupture, and collapse, readers will definitely come out and scold him. There is no such crisis at all, which proves that it is absolutely
Fake.
This will make your colleagues laugh to death, otherwise your reputation will be ruined!
He wanted to politely refuse, but he couldn't resist. Mr. Lu added more money and inducements, promising to give the "Short Penguin" an exclusive interview to the "New York Times". Friedman accepted it without thinking, but kept a secret.
I hired a thug to do it for me.
"Lu, this is Michael Lewis, who used to be a bond trader at Salomon Brothers."
Friedman took the initiative to introduce the financial reporters around him: "Like us, he is also a best-selling author. His book "Liar's Poker" has the characteristics of Wall Street in the 1980s."
"Hello, Lewis."
Lu Fei also briefly introduced Carlson Bullock and George, and then invited everyone to sit down.
Looking at the four people sitting opposite each other, George suppressed his inner ecstasy, calmly served the coffee, and stepped aside.
On the surface, he picked up a pen and paper and acted like a recorder. He secretly turned on the recorder and never let go of any detail of the conversation.
After Lewis said a few polite words, he immediately got to the point, "Lu, what do you think about Penguin being shorted by Lehman?"
"The first reaction was of course shock. I spent two days and two nights unable to figure out why Lehman wanted to kill me?"
Lu Fei changed the topic: "Finally, I eliminated all impossible explanations, and there is only one left, and that is malicious short selling!"
Noticing his serious expression, Lewis listened patiently while writing and scratching, and saw that his words were full of anger:
"I know that there is a short-selling institution on Wall Street that specializes in digging up dirty information about listed companies, and even makes up stories out of thin air, but I never would have thought that the mighty Lehman would do such a thing!"
“Why did Lehman maliciously short Penguin?”
Lewis took advantage of the opportunity and asked a second question.
"You should ask Lehman about this. You should ask Fowles."
Lu Fei shrugged, "Penguin's 2006 annual report, on a 100-point scale, would have been at least 90 points, not to mention a perfect score. Many brokerages and rating agencies have raised the outlook for Penguin stock, which proves everyone's views on Penguin."
."
"But since Lehman released its short-selling report, Penguin's stock price has fallen by 3.6%. Isn't this a big drop?"
Lewis stopped writing and stared up at him.
"Is it big? Excuse me, under the malicious short selling, currently only Bank of America and Merrill Lynch's few small shareholders have been 'paniced' and sold a small part. On the contrary, I feel that this kind of decline is somewhat disrespectful to Lehman, and it did not happen.
Diving, even plummeting.”
"You look disappointed?"
"Of course, it's a waste of my friend's phone bill."
The corner of Lu Fei's lips raised, "Penguin's two largest individual shareholders, Bill Gates and Buffett, respectively promised me that they would never reduce their holdings, and would not even rule out continuing to increase their holdings."
"Is this information accurate and reliable?"
Lewis couldn't wait to ask questions, and George, who was not far away, felt his heart pounding and quickly pricked up his ears.
"Of course, it won't be long before, maybe today, Berkshire Hathaway will issue a statement."
Carlson Bullock showed a shrewd smile. Thanks to Mr. Lu's early plan, he tied the world's first and second richest man to the chariot of shorting subprime mortgages, forming a Wall Street Iron Triangle.
“Penguin’s two most important social products are QQ and Line, with registered users growing to 931 million worldwide…
The number of daily active users has exceeded 70 million, covering 21 countries and regions including China, Neon, Bangzi, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. This kind of increase in traffic and profits, such an eye-catching result, is not something that Lehman has achieved.
It can be wiped out with just one report.
It’s sheer nonsense to bet against Penguin!”
Lu Fei kept talking and snorted coldly.
"I read Lehman's report, uh, it mainly focused on Penguin's three points." Lewis carefully listed them one by one, "The first is the fierce competition in the online game market..."
"The three points you mentioned can actually be boiled down to one point, which is where Penguin's new growth point will be in the future. I can tell you directly, it is still in the game business."
Lu Fei stretched out a finger.
"Is it a stand-alone game or an online game?"
Lewis had done enough homework before the interview. Penguin has made frequent moves in the past two years. In addition to acquiring oil pipelines, it also invested in EPIC, acquired Riot Games, and was responsible for LOL's overseas business.
From Japan and South Korea, all the way to Europe and the United States.
"No, stand-alone and online games are the present of Penguin Games, not the future. The new growth point must be in the major changes in the entire game industry." Lu Fei smiled mysteriously.
"What exactly is it?"
“Mobile game!”
“Mobile game?!”
Lewis and Friedman looked at each other.
"That's right, mobile games."
Lu Fei vowed: "My lphone is subverting the traditional mobile phone industry. Just like a few years ago, I used lmusic to prove that a music player combined with the Internet is the best choice in the digital music era. Smartphones and mobile Internet are the best choice."
Carrier mobile games are destined to be the direction of the next era."
"Not long ago, I announced that Android is open source. It welcomes not only mobile phone manufacturers, but also all software developers including games. I just take this opportunity to announce one more thing."
"Penguin has clearly joined the Android Alliance. "Bejeweled" and "Plants vs. Zombies" will be ported to Android mobile phones, including but not limited to "Temple Run" and "Angry Birds" currently under development..."
"hiss!"
The crowd couldn't help but commotion, and Lewis cheered up:
"Can I understand that the focus of Penguin Game's business will gradually shift from the PC side to the mobile side?"
“Not only games, search, email, video, payment, social software, etc., but everything about Penguin in the future will be ‘mobile Internet+’!”
Lu Fei said a lot of things eloquently, "Lehman thought in the short-selling report that the future of Penguin was bleak. It was a big mistake!"
He slapped the table and said, "We are following the logic. Excellent partners like Google will go out to sea just like Columbus did, expand into unknown blue oceans, and find new continents for the entire industry, instead of a group of companies fighting to the death."
"Columbus? I love that metaphor!"
Lewis licked his lips.
"How can Lehman understand these?"
"Does Fuld understand? How many people at Lehman know about smartphones and mobile Internet?"
"I'm afraid there aren't any!"
"In this case, why did Lehman issue such a short-selling report to question Penguin? Do you know that it doesn't have the ability?"
"It's hard not to wonder if Lehman had ulterior motives."
Lu Fei can be compared to the king of strong talk, and I am invincible with my strong talk!
"Why do you think?"
Lewis couldn't help but become interested.
"It's very simple, Lehman is anxious, it is anxious."
Lu Fei shook off the prepared rhetoric carefully. Lehman did this to target me, the largest financier who supports Paulson's hedge funds. It was bulls forced by the situation to make three moves against shorts.
A ridiculous conspiracy.
"Do you have any basis for being so unfavorable about Lehman or subprime mortgages?" Lewis asked with a frown.
"certainly!"
Lu Fei glanced at George, the mole, and then winked at Carlson Bullock, who immediately projected the PPT onto the screen, which was completely a simplified version of the one Buffett saw.
There is neither video of the investigation nor recording by the ratings agency.
Moreover, a lot of data either contains errors or discrepancies.
In the catalog, there are several eye-catching titles:
1. The scale of CDO and CDS in the United States and Lehman.
2. National real estate market performance in 2006.
3. The national residential mortgage bond default rate...
"Ahem!"
Carlson Bullock also glanced at George, holding a laser page-turning pen and said: "To talk about Lehman, we have to start with housing prices in the United States. To put it simply, after the Federal Reserve's successive rounds of interest rate hikes, interest rates have continued to increase.
I think U.S. housing prices will soon reach an inflection point..."
While talking, the PPT was updated simultaneously and listed various data.
"Gulu, Gulu~"
Although George was engaged in shorting subprime mortgages himself, this was the first time he understood "why shorting" in such an in-depth and detailed manner.
Looking at the dense data, the more I looked at it, the more frightened I became. I couldn't help but swallow my saliva. I wished I could take a camera or mobile phone and secretly take pictures of them all, or even steal the entire PPT file.
This information is so important!
Goldman Sachs executives must be notified immediately!
"Although your data combination looks very convincing, there are no problems with subprime mortgages now. Not long ago, the ABX index and CDO prices both rose."
Before Lewis could speak, Friedman interrupted decisively.
Just like the Wall Street Journal rejected John Paulson, the New York Times cannot allow these shocking assumptions to be reported. After all, the pen depends on capital.
"Saori, Lu."
Lewis Rao was very interested and had to stop.
"Understand, understand."
Lu Fei laughed and said: "That's why I asked Friedman to come to you. I wonder if you would like to cooperate with me and write a book about subprime mortgages. The tentative title is "The Big Short"?"
"Okay! How can we cooperate?"
Lewis pondered for a moment and finally made up his mind.
"Don't worry about this yet."
Lu Fei showed a relaxed smile for the first time: "We will wait until you publish the report of our interview today. For the sake of your agreement to co-write, I can also reveal to you an exclusive news. Because of Lehman's short selling, I will
Short Lehman to fight back.”
"What?!"
Everyone in the audience, except for Carlson Bullock who was informed, was shocked. Lehman was shorting Penguin, so Lu Fei was shorting Lehman?
This is simply a fight between Wall Street gangsters!
Isn't it a bit too childish?
"According to Lu's request, the Three-Body Fund has established a special short-selling fund called 'Muddy Waters', with me as the first fund manager. It has invested heavily in subprime institutions, including Lehman.
All will be included in the short list."
Carlson Bullock grinned.
"We can report this, right?"
Lewis seems to have seen the bloody Wall Street.
"Originally, short selling like this cannot be made public, but this time is an exception. I am sniping to retaliate against Lehman, and there is no need to be secretive."
Lu Fei waved his hand, "However, other data about subprime mortgages must be kept confidential. I will ask you two to sign a confidentiality agreement later."
Haha, keep it secret?
George's eyes flickered, and the corner of his mouth raised a smirk.
…………
The next day, Lewis rushed out the news and immediately published it in the New York Times. "Lu Fei backhandedly shorted Lehman" in revenge, which immediately caused an uproar on Wall Street.
The Wall Street Journal and many other media have reprinted it——
"Short Penguin: The Lehman Conspiracy."
"Lehman ate penguins and watched the subprime shorts."
"Penguin bets on the future and joins the Android family!"
"Buffett: I'm still optimistic about Penguin's development"
"Lehman is shorting Penguin, Chinaland is strongly counter-shorting".
"Who is right and who is wrong? Who wins and who loses? Lu VS Lehman".
"Why Short Lehman? Just Revenge?"
All major mainstream media, from newspapers to TV stations, would not miss such a hot topic. Financial news even invited industry experts and analysts to analyze real estate and subprime mortgages at length.
On the Internet fronts such as Facebook and Line, political heroes have invested in it one after another. In addition to Gonghuo and Leziren who are not too big a deal to watch the excitement, they support and oppose Wall Street, and the June 4th event.
Forty percent of the area is filled with a large number of Logic fans and Mr. Lu’s fans, which seems to be the prototype of a fandom, making a big move.
[Why is it that what Lehman does is right and what Lu Fei does is wrong? 】
[I am a fish seller. I know a truth. The bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish. Lu knows how to fish. 】
[Because Lu is a god, he is always right! 】
Most of the supporters were elites, especially investment banking elites, who sarcastically said that Mr. Lu was overestimating his abilities, "No matter how high Mr. Lu is, he would still dare to bet against Wall Street giants", "Even the richest man in China, Li Huanggua, has to kneel down when he comes, let alone the second-largest man."
"Rich Man"...
To a greater or lesser extent, mixed with discrimination and hostility.
Richard Fuld even went so far as to leave the game in person, and directly criticized Lu Fei on Facebook, constantly attacking Lu Fei with crazy output.
Not only are tit-for-tat confrontations taking place in the public opinion war, but the smell of gunfire is gradually filling the U.S. stock market, ABX index, and CDO bond markets. From the short selling of Penguin stocks to the long selling of subordinated bonds, Lehman's presence can be seen everywhere.
Behind the scenes, there were a group of Wall Street wolves following Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, etc., all of them baring their teeth and claws, with clear division of labor. Some were in charge of the front, some were in charge of sneak attacks, and some were in charge of ambushes.
However, in the midst of a great situation, Goldman Sachs suddenly stood still and quietly broke away from the large army.
The senior management who got the tip from George held an emergency meeting overnight that day, and carefully reorganized the entire subprime mortgage situation from top to bottom, and discussed it for three full days.
The Goldman Sachs conference room was filled with smoke.
The whole house was filled with the smell of cigarette smoke, which was terrible.
David Solomon opened the window, and a biting cold wind blew in his face, and his groggy brain suddenly became much clearer.
"David, Fowles called again."
John Wallund frowned: "This is already the sixth time. He asked us why we didn't continue to lend Penguin shares to Lehman and why we didn't buy collateral."
"Let him mind his own business!"
David Solomon had a gloomy look on his face. We, Goldman Sachs, have made our own decisions, and our mortal enemy Lehman is not worthy enough to point fingers at us.
"Do you think there is a possibility that George has been exposed, and what Lu passed on was all false information? The purpose is to make us switch from long to short, and work with him to deal with Lehman and others."
John Wallund felt more and more strange.
David Solomon frowned and asked: "Even if we add Goldman Sachs, can we stop Fowles and the others?"
"Unless we can get Henry to help."
"We also need to let China invade his powerful motherland. Just like when Soros attacked Xiangjiang, China must take action."
"So I can't figure it out, how could Lu dare to declare war on Lehman and the others? Could it be that he was like Cixi of the Qing Dynasty, who couldn't distinguish the situation and dared to declare war on eight countries at the same time?"
"That's the crux of the matter, unless..."
David Solomon said with a straight face, "It's just like Lu said, real estate has reached the turning point of decline and may collapse at any time."
"is it possible?"
John Wallund felt uneasy.
"What if?"
David Solomon's face became more and more solemn.
I thought about it for days and nights but couldn't figure it out. Even Goldman Sachs wanted to avoid his edge. Who gave Mr. Lu the courage to confront him head-on?
