Chapter 281: Chapter 281: Laying out the euro
The town mayor had just set off in his Cherokee and the first thing he saw was the car parked in the cabinet factory. He knew that Feng Zhenchang and the others had returned. In the past, he would have waited for Feng Zhenchang to visit at the office, but now he no longer had that thought.
The driver, Xiao Su, looked at Feng Zhenchang's car with a little envy, 'Mayor, I'll go and talk to them about borrowing the car for a couple of days. I don't think he'll refuse.'
The idea of borrowing cars from companies in the area was not arranged by the central government, but it had occurred to the leaders of many places spontaneously. The cars they borrowed were, of course, all better than their own assigned cars.
It was also hard to say how long the "borrowing" would last. Perhaps someone would learn from the big-eared Uncle Liu and borrow Jingzhou.
'Drive carefully!' the town mayor said with a stern face. In the past, if Xiao Su had done the same thing, he would have acquiesced. He actually had some opinions about Feng Zhenchang and the others, and it wasn't just him—his wife had even stronger opinions—and he guessed that the town's senior officials felt the same way.
During the Chinese New Year last year, he spent a few days going to the higher-ups to lobby for support, but his wife didn't even play mahjong for those two days, never leaving the house for a moment, just waiting for gifts from all kinds of people.
They knew that two new factories had opened in the town, and they were both a little excited, thinking that they would definitely receive a generous red envelope. However, they never received the expected big red envelope. They waited and waited, and on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve, they realised that Feng Zhenchang would not be visiting. The only token of their appreciation was the cigarettes and alcohol that Cai Lei and Mei Guoping had sent before the Chinese New Year. Although those cigarettes and alcohol were not cheap, they were nothing compared to Feng Zhenchang's two factories and the token of appreciation they had imagined.
His wife even said a few angry words at the time, telling the town mayor to reasonably seize their pigtails after the New Year, 'so that they know not to think that they can ignore us just because they have made some money outside.'
He had no words at the time, and in fact, he quite agreed with her, and some petty tricks were already in the planning.
But after receiving a phone call from County Magistrate Zhao the other day, he immediately called a halt to all those preparations.
He even went out of his way to check, and only then discovered that the Feng family was not only powerful because of the head of the family Feng Zhanchang, but also because of his son, who, despite his young age, had already made quite a name for himself. The two factories in town, although they were foreign-invested, were both legally owned by Feng Zhanchang's adult son.
County Magistrate Zhao also said that he could freely enter Mayor Fang's home, and was treated better than the county-level cadres like them. Moreover, he had a 'very pleasant conversation' with Mayor Fang's daughter. The latter word was emphasized by County Magistrate Zhao.
That means whatever he said could directly reach Mayor Fang's ears. What's the point of planning anything? Does he not like the comfortable life and want the mayor's attention?
This poor place has finally got two modern factories, like two pieces of fat meat. Just feel them and you'll get a handful of oil. But they've hooked up directly with the mayor's family. You can't even feel them. What the hell!
"I haven't given any orders, so don't touch those two factories. Also, Cai Lei and Mei Guoping are okay, but in front of Feng Zhenchang, don't you dare put on airs again. Remember!' Xiao Su is his right-hand man, and he is very good at reading his mind. He always thinks ahead and takes the lead in everything. But now, if Xiao Su takes it upon himself to go and cause trouble for Feng Zhenchang, he is really asking for trouble.
'Remember!' Xiao Su was a little confused, but he agreed very promptly, without asking for a reason. The first thing a right-hand man must do is never ask questions he shouldn't.
Mayor Zhao had better information than the town mayor, and also told him that the Feng family had already bought a piece of land of over 100 mu in the provincial capital, and was preparing to spend tens of millions of yuan to build a hotel. It was now in full swing. Tens of millions of yuan! To be honest, this figure also surprised him. Even if the Feng family did not get on the mayor's good side, he would have to think carefully if he wanted to cause trouble for Feng Zhenchang and set up obstacles for them now.
There aren't many people as rich as him to deal with. He is a regular official, and he can deal with petty local tyrants, but he doesn't think he can really fight against a multimillionaire.
However, as he looked at the two factories slowly receding in the rearview mirror, he wondered where his family had gotten the money. Forget about opening a noodle shop. If you could make tens of millions of dollars just by opening a noodle shop for a few years, then our country would have already surpassed the UK and the US.
Feng Yiping had no idea what the mayor was thinking. To be honest, no matter what tricks the mayor played, he would have a way to counter them. As someone who had made a personal fortune of several hundred million in the international financial markets, he now took the time to pay attention to world events.
As for the year 1999, the most important thing he remembered was that, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty on European Union, which had been adopted by the European Community in 1991 and had entered into force in 1993, on 1 January at the beginning of the year, the first supranational currency, the euro, was officially issued.
The first 11 countries to join the eurozone, in terms of both population and GDP, as well as total foreign trade, firmly outpaced the world's number one superpower, the United States. According to statistics from the International Monetary Fund, the total assets of the European Union, including bonds, stocks, and bank loans, exceed those of the United States by nearly 4 trillion US dollars. The European Union has in fact become the world's number one economy.
The US economy has been lacklustre in recent years, so foreign investors have turned their attention to the European market, where trade costs are lower and returns are higher. Some countries have also added the euro to their foreign exchange reserves. In short, the introduction of the euro has effectively affected the strong international position of the US dollar.
However, Feng Yiping knows that Europe and the United States, these Western countries that we often refer to together, although in public most of the time they are putting on a show of being good friends by putting their shoulders together, behind the scenes they are not shy of underhand tricks and backstabbing.
In particular, the United States, which leads the world in the use of the US dollar, will naturally not remain indifferent to the impact on the euro. In short, the euro has been in the works for many years, and the United States has also been laying the groundwork for many years. It is also a common practice for the United States to divert domestic conflicts abroad. Therefore, regarding the US air strike on Kosovo in the heart of Europe, many experts say that this is one of the moves in the US government's combination of moves against the euro. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
As for whether this is true or not, Feng Yiping doesn't need to delve into it. He just knows that the United States, pulling its loyal Japanese dog along, has been suppressing the euro from the day it was born, both militarily and economically. The final result is quite good. Throughout the year, the euro fell nearly 15% against the US dollar and 30% against the Japanese yen.
This is of course not as impressive as the 70% devaluation of the Russian rouble, but whether it is 15% or 30%, with Feng Yiping's current 15x leverage due to the rise in capital, it will also generate considerable income.
In addition, he remembered that Iraq had gone crazy twice this year and next year, and twice decided to stop exporting oil. The first time was in the second half of this year. OPEC was completely unprepared for this move, so international oil prices in the second half of the year will rise to their highest point since the 1990s. Haha, it seems that futures and other things can also be tried in the second half of the year.
Thanks to Comrade Saddam, the revolution is not yet successful, and you still need to work hard. In a decade or so, I will definitely mourn you for a few minutes, Feng Yiping thought very insincerely while calculating on paper the funds needed to hold the euro call/dollar put and euro call/yen put options.
Huang Jingping brought him some hot tea and saw that he was intently writing some symbols and numbers on the paper that she couldn't understand. She walked out gently and seriously looked at accounting books on the sofa. If she passed the accounting qualification exam, she could also help him more.