Chapter 1487: To Be At the Mercy of Somebody
The war was over.
The 150,000 UA troops stranded in Colombia finally could return home.
There were already eager to break through the Caribbean Sea blocked by Celestial Trade submarines. However, they did not expect they would return home in this fas.h.i.+on…
With frustration, unwillingness, and even resentment, the UA soldiers with mixed emotions surrendered their weapons, boarded Celestial Trade’s s.h.i.+ps in batches, and headed to the ports of Capital and Nouveau York. Admiral Felton, who remained in Port of Barranquilla, saluted with a complicated expression. He left the hundreds of M1A2 tanks and various types of armored units, then turned away with a group of senior officers.
As the month-long war between the UA and Xin came to an end, the outcome of the Colombian Civil War also also determined. The UA surrendered to Xin. The NATO Coalition Force had lost their motivation to interfere in South America, and morale began to deteriorate. After they reached an agreement with Celestial Trade to withdrawal with their equipment, they left from Port of Barranquilla.
Without the support of the NATO Coalition Force, North Colombian President Vargas fled from South America by plane overnight and went to Europe to seek political asylum. And almost at the same time his plane took off, North Colombia surrendered to South Colombia.
Colombia once again returned to unity.
For this reason, Timoshenko personally called Jiang Chen and expressed his infinite grat.i.tude with an excited voice.
“…The Colombian people will always be the friend of Celestial Trade! I will write our friends.h.i.+p into the Const.i.tution. No matter how the international situation changes, we will always stand by your side!”
Timoshenko was very smart.
Or rather, he could see the situation clearly.
From the beginning of this war, it was the two superpowers vying for hegemony. Now that the outcome was determined, the UA had lost the war. In this case, Xin would undoubtedly replace the UA as the hegemony of this world.
There was nothing for loss for him and his government to be close with this “big thigh”.
…
Liberty Avenue was located in downtown Coro City, where many heroic deeds took place five years ago. Now, this street was the financial avenue of the country. More than five large banks and twelve large and medium investment banks were located here. Many people referred to this place as “Oriental Wall Street.”
In addition to Celestial Trade itself, the financial inst.i.tutions on this street were the second beneficiaries of this war. The street that was already bustling had become a bit more crowded, and there were more foreign faces here than there were more than a month ago.
Located at one corner of Liberty Avenue, outside a beautiful marble building, large and small cameras and production trucks circled around the place. If it were not for the maglev road that diverted most of the traffic pressure, the scene made many people wonder how so many people could fit here.
It was the headquarters of the Xin Reserve Bank.
At this moment, a conference related to the trend of the global economy was held here. Because the Xin Reserve meeting had always been a “closed-door meeting” without any observer seats, both investors and financial reporters anxiously awaited the results of the meeting at this moment.
In the past, every time the UA Fed held an interest rate meeting, the market would be “frightened.” At this moment, this honor was taken away by Xin. Even the Federal Reserve’s vault was under the control of the victorious country, tens of trillions of a.s.sets were frozen, and the voice of Wall Street was no longer significant.
In the current global economic downturn, all countries required a strong currency to hedge against risks. Precisely because of this, the att.i.tude of the Xin Reserve was critical.
If Xin Reverse continued to cut interest rates and reserve requirements while they implement quant.i.tative easing and open the floodgates to the currency market to stabilize the exchange rate, then for other countries in the midst of the financial crisis, the Xin Reserve would undoubtedly be susceptible to taking advantage of this crisis and would make the economy of countries that held large amount of dollars and treasury bonds worse.
An interest rate cut was inevitable. After all, the continuously rising exchange rate had severely affected the export of Xin. The Xin Reserve had to be responsible for domestic enterprises first, and secondly, the overall global economy.
But now, the key was how many basis points to cut.
Finally, the door opened.
An Asian man walked out quickly.
The reporters swarmed around him and threw all kinds of problems like cannonb.a.l.l.s.
“Quiet, quiet,” The man impatiently patted the doc.u.ment in his hand. Although he was only the news spokesperson who was not qualified to partic.i.p.ate in the meeting, the expression on the man’s face was quite proud, or arrogant. Because he represented a rising economy, every word he said was enough to affect the lives of everyone in the world tomorrow.
He cleared his throat and read the results of the meeting directly.
The translators under the stage were in a hurry, for fear of missing or misinterpreting even a word. When the speech was about the most critical rate cut, everyone listened carefully and held their breath.
“…According to the decision of the Xin Reserve Bank General Meeting of Shareholders, this month’s interest rate cut plan is 0.1%, which will be implemented at 12 noon tomorrow. We have also carefully considered the opinions of the sectors of Xin and the investment banks of other countries. Therefore, this monthly reserve requirement will not be lowered.”
A rate cut of 0.1%!
Reserve requirements will not be adjusted!
These words were just like a timely rain in the desert, and everyone was relieved.
The 0.1% could not be underestimated. Originally, everyone expected that the Xin Reserve would directly cut interest rates by half a point to counteract the skyrocketing exchange rate. The goal would be to increase the total amount of currency in the market and pave the way for the next step of quant.i.tative easing.
Especially the representatives from Hua, their faces showed even more relief or rather, joy. It seemed that their fellow townsmen did not take advantage of the situation. After all, with the amount of UA Treasury bonds in their hands, even the wealthy People Bank was hurt…
Because the ident.i.ties of the shareholders were kept confidential in principle (most people would not actively disclose themselves as shareholders of the Xin Reserve), the underground garage under the Xin Federal Bank was built with security levels not inferior to that of the Presidential Palace. After the meeting, the shareholders all left from the garage, rather than the main entrance.
When Jiang Chen and Xia s.h.i.+yu walked out of the elevator side by side and appeared in the garage, the people who were still in the garage stopped what they were doing and saluted respectfully or greeted them politely. Among these people, many were chairmen of groups worth tens of billions, and there was no shortage of financial giants with a.s.sets over 100 billion, but when they saw the two, no one acted arrogantly.
After Jiang Chen nodded slightly to express his appreciation, they pa.s.sed through the crowd. Then he opened the door for Xia s.h.i.+yu, and the two got into the car that had waited for a long time.
“The Xin New dollar has already started to rise again. I thought you would raise interest rates drastically. I didn’t expect you to raise interest rates by 0.1%.” Inside the car, Xia s.h.i.+yu talked about the meeting just now., “Can you tell me your thoughts?”
There was no need to be careful chatting here because Ayesha was driving.
“The first stage of exchange rate stabilization has already been done. Before the gold indemnity is s.h.i.+pped to the Xin Reserve, I do not intend to further suppress the exchange rate. Over-interference in the market will lead to abnormal development of the market. We still have a long way to go.” Jiang Chen smiled, and then said, “What’s more, many people have been slandering us before this, and someone has to pay some price for their stupidity.”
For example, foreign companies that withdrew from Xin as soon as the 72-hour notification came out. The decrease of international capital shorted the Xin market. They desperately hoped for the decline of the Xin New dollar in order to reduce their losses.
As for the citizens of Xin who chose to stay in times of crisis (whether or not because they didn’t get to buy a plane ticket), Jiang Chen hoped that they could take the money to travel around the world and enjoy their life. At least in the next year, the super-purchasing power of the Xin New dollar was enough to allow any working-cla.s.s person to live a “superior” life abroad.
This victory belonged to every citizen of Xin, and this trophy was what they deserved.
“I didn’t expect you to have such a sophisticated side.” With the corner of her mouth curled up, Xia s.h.i.+yu teased him.
“Haha, haven’t you seen my S-side a long time ago?” Jiang Chen smirked.
Xia s.h.i.+yu did not respond, but Ayesha, who was driving, blushed.
Maybe she was thinking about last night’s wildness…
“What time is your flight?”
“Two o’clock in the afternoon.”
“Remember to be safe outside.” Xia s.h.i.+yu turned around and left a kiss on Jiang Chen’s lips. Then she fiddled with her hairs, and a trace of tenderness flashed in her eyes as she was not good at expressing her feelings, “Also, remember to miss me.”
Jiang Chen squeezed her gentle hand and put it against his face. He nodded with a smile.
“Mhmm.”