Forging America: My Campaign Manager is Roosevelt

Chapter 384: Chapter 181: The Basic Axiom of Finance

After the awards ceremony ended.

Leo sat behind his desk, holding a freshly printed list.

It was the detailed staff roster for the technology and operations team of the Pennsylvania Industry Alliance Trust’s notes platform.

He read it, line by line.

Chief Architect: Former Vice President of the Quantitative Trading Division at Goldman Sachs.

Head of Data Analytics: Former Senior Manager of the Risk Control Department at JPMorgan Chase.

Director of Systems Operations: Former technical consultant for the Blackstone Group.

The list was long, and every name was followed by a dazzling resume.

They were all from Wall Street, from the top institutions that controlled the lifeblood of global finance.

They were the technical backbone Evelyn Saint Cloud had handpicked for this platform.

Back then, to ensure this massive and complex financial system could operate stably, Leo had agreed to Evelyn’s staffing arrangements.

But he wasn’t completely unprepared.

In the deputy positions on this list, and on the supervisory committee, Leo had packed it with his own people.

These people were accountants from the municipal finance department, senior auditors from the Auditing Bureau, and even a few statistics lecturers recruited from universities.

Leo thought that with his people watching, Evelyn’s team couldn’t stir up any trouble.

As it turned out, he was wrong.

Spectacularly wrong.

The accountants from City Hall knew how to verify the authenticity of invoices, check budgets for compliance, and find extraneous coffee receipts in a pile of reimbursement forms.

But they didn’t understand what a liquidity trap was, what latency arbitrage in high-frequency trading algorithms meant, or the priority settings hidden in the code’s underlying protocols.

They thought they were providing oversight.

In reality, they were just watching a magic show they couldn’t even understand.

Evelyn’s people used the barriers of financial technology, preying on the ignorance of administrative bureaucrats to carry out their plunder.

"Professionals make mistakes too, Leo."

Roosevelt’s voice echoed in his mind.

"Any complex system will have vulnerabilities in its initial stages. It needs to be debugged. That’s common sense."

"Wall Street’s models crash all the time, and the Federal Reserve’s forecasts are often proven wrong. The system needs to be corrected, parameters need to be adjusted. There’s nothing wrong with that in itself."

"But making a mistake and concealing it are two completely different things."

Leo stared at the list in his hand, his gaze intense.

The Chief Architect was from Goldman Sachs, and the Head of Risk Control was from JPMorgan Chase.

These people had spent half their lives clawing their way through the financial world. Their sensitivity to numbers was sharper than a shark’s sense for blood.

’Could these Wall Street elites really not see the risks that Marcus, a college sophomore, had spotted at a glance?’

’They definitely saw it, but they chose to remain silent.’

’They reported beautiful growth data to me every day, showing off perfect transaction curves.’

’They watched me run between cities with the passion of a salesman. They watched me beat my chest and promise a win-win situation to all the mayors. They watched me stake my political credibility on this system, bit by bit.’

’And they stood in the shadows, watching coldly, waiting for that tipping point to arrive.’

’Then, they could step out justifiably, taking over everything in the guise of a savior.’

"This is betrayal."

Leo’s fingers tightened abruptly, and the paper in his hand was instantly crushed into a ball.

"Get the car ready."

Leo slammed the crumpled paper into the trash can.

"Where are we going?" Ethan asked, chasing after him.

"Philadelphia," Leo said without turning back. "Chestnut Hill."

...

The iron gates of Saint Claude Manor slowly opened, and Leo’s car drove onto the gravel driveway.

In the study, Evelyn Saint Cloud sat behind her desk, looking over an investment report on emerging markets in Asia.

Hearing the door open, she didn’t look up, merely swirling the wine in her glass.

"You’re three hours later than I expected, Leo."

Leo strode to the front of the desk.

"Explain."

Leo’s voice was tight with suppressed fury.

"You knew from the very beginning."

"When you sent those quantitative experts from Goldman Sachs and Blackstone to build the system, you already knew this would be the outcome."

"You knew Pittsburgh would siphon off the surrounding cities. You knew Erie and Scranton would be left with nothing but a pile of notes."

"This was a trap you designed."

Evelyn set down her wine glass.

"Explain?"

Evelyn let out a soft laugh.

"Does this need an explanation, Leo?"

Evelyn stood up, walked around the desk, and stopped in front of Leo.

"This is common sense."

Evelyn’s voice was cold, as if stating the obvious.

"Capital always flows to where efficiency is highest."

"That’s an axiom of finance, as natural as water flowing downhill."

"Pittsburgh is the core. It has the best healthcare, the best education, the most complete service industry, and that Inland Port of yours that’s expanding like crazy."

"When these cities are connected in a unified market, when the barriers obstructing circulation are broken down,"

"resources are bound to concentrate in Pittsburgh, and wealth is bound to gather where efficiency is greatest."

"You provided the credit, the platform, and the logistics network."

"And they... they only provided the raw materials."

"Those at the top of the industrial chain are entitled to take the surplus value."

"That’s just the way the world works."

Evelyn walked past Leo to the liquor cabinet and poured herself a little more wine.

"You didn’t really think this was just some simple game of mutual aid, did you?"

She turned around, leaned against the liquor cabinet, raised an eyebrow, and put on a look of surprise.