United States Washington.
The time is Tuesday, August 27th.
In the private area of the presidential family in the East Wing of the White House, Bill Clinton, who had quietly slept in a separate room with Hillary, got up early this morning and sat in the dining room. While eating, he couldn't help but open the latest issue of "Forbes" that was just released yesterday. Magazine.
It’s not just the $1.5 trillion personal wealth of the young man at the top of the list that is eye-popping, the entire list is enough to cause too much sadness.
The top ten on the list are the most typical.
First place: Simon Westeros, $1.5 trillion.
Second place: Bill Gates, $97.1 billion.
Third place: Claire Gein, $29.5 billion.
Fourth place: Neil Brantley, $29.5 billion.
Fifth place: Paul Allen, $18.6 billion.
Sixth place: Tim Berners-Lee, $17.8 billion.
No. 7: Jeff Bezos, $17.8 billion.
No. 8: Carol Bartz, $17.8 billion.
No. 9: Larry Ellison, $15.5 billion.
Fourth place: Warren Buffett, $13.9 billion.
The top ten richest people in the United States, not to mention the guy who is really a weird star, all the others have personal net worths in the tens of billions of dollars.
This is not the most important thing.
The most important point is that among the ten super-rich people, except for Warren Buffett, most of the other nine people’s net worth comes from the new technology fields that have rapidly emerged in recent years. Moreover, this tendency is even more prominent in the entire 400-person list.
Once again, it feels like a new era is suddenly coming.
It was only 7:30 after breakfast, and Janet Reno, the Attorney General of Clinton's cabinet, hurried to the White House to have final discussions with Mr. President regarding this morning's nine o'clock press conference.
Yesterday's "Forbes" list was released. In the face of heated discussions in the media, something brewing in the White House has reached the best moment to launch.
Because it was also yesterday, August 26, that the four-day Democratic National Convention was officially held in Atlanta, Georgia, the venue of this session. It can be regarded as riding on the east wind that has just concluded some Olympic Games. As the serving president, Clinton does not need to attend the entire convention. However, two days later, on August 29, he had to go in person to deliver a speech and formally accept the party's nomination.
Then comes the Republican National Convention, from August 30 to September 3.
These eight days can be regarded as the complete end of the presidential election preliminary stage. After the Republican nomination is announced on September 3, the formal election sprint will begin.
Although many things will be settled in these days, and basically there will be no major changes, the struggle will never stop.
Now that the strategy of taking the initiative to attack the Westeros system in order to avoid falling into passivity has been determined, after these days of intense preparations and taking advantage of the release of the "Forbes" America's 400 Richest List, today is also a very appropriate formal 'declaration of war'. timing, so as to achieve the best public opinion effect and leave the Republican Party with nothing to say.
After discussing for more than half an hour, Janet Reno left in a hurry.
Nine o'clock in the morning.
The U.S. Department of Justice held a press conference personally chaired by Attorney General Janet Reno, officially announcing that because Igret had not fulfilled the agreement reached with the U.S. Department of Justice at the end of 1994, the Department of Justice would once again launch an investigation into Iraq. Investigation into a series of suspected monopolistic behaviors of Gretel Company.
The focus of this investigation is on the use of market advantages between Igret Software and the network department to force users to use its own Internet software and cloud computing services, the unfair competition caused by the IE browser monopoly, and the use of market advantages to maliciously suppress competitors, etc. Behavior.
Although there is a three-hour time difference between the east and west coasts, after the Ministry of Justice held a press conference, the head of Yigrit's east coast branch responded immediately, saying that the Ministry of Justice's investigation into Yigrit Regretfully, it emphasized that Yigrit is a company that strictly abides by market rules, and completely denied all the accusations against Yigrit at the Ministry of Justice press conference.
The Yigret portal also simultaneously published a more detailed response and self-defense on its website.
There was only 10 days between the listing of Verizon Telecom and the launch of the investigation by the Department of Justice. 10 days was enough time for people who should know to know the White House plan. Therefore, ordinary people felt that this press conference was quite sudden, but regardless of it Whether it’s Washington, Wall Street or Silicon Valley, it’s not a secret.
Regarding this news incident, what everyone is more concerned about is the impact this investigation may have on the Nasdaq stock market.
Including the White House.
As the initiator, no one cares more than Clinton. Once this investigation accidentally bursts the technology stock bubble and triggers a stock market crash, he will definitely not be too happy in the next few months. He is even far ahead in the polls at this time. It is not impossible to lose the chance of re-election under such circumstances.
Fortunately, in the early risk assessment, the White House staff believed that it would only launch an investigation and there would be no substantive action for the time being, which would not have a significant impact on Nasdaq. Moreover, they chose to announce it in Forbes magazine. The survey news was announced on the second day of the new annual list of the 400 richest people in the United States, and it was also based on this consideration.
The list of the 400 richest people in the United States will definitely have a positive impact on the technology stock market. The 2.9% increase in the Nasdaq index after the release of the list yesterday is evidence of this. Therefore, it can largely offset the impact of this investigation. negative effects.
The press conference that started at nine o'clock lasted 20 minutes, and then, at 9:30 in the morning, the US stock market opened.
It's directly a downward curve.
In just five minutes, the Nasdaq index fell from 5263 points to 5134 points, a drop of 1.9%.
At this time, the total market value of all companies in the Nasdaq market has reached 6 trillion US dollars. The 1.9% decline may not seem like much, but it also means that in just 5 minutes, more than 100 billion US dollars of stock wealth was wiped out. .
On the other hand, as the most direct target, the stock price of Yigrit Company will inevitably be more severely affected than the broader market after the market opens. However, in five minutes, compared with the 1.9% decline of the broader market, Yigrit The stock price fell by only 2.6%. Even though this also meant that nearly 10 billion US dollars of book wealth disappeared quickly, it was completely controllable.
Everyone was paying close attention with fear. After a brief dip, the Nasdaq began to rebound again. Also rebounding was Igret's stock price. Moreover, the imaginary selling wave did not appear. After half an hour like this, 30 minutes after the market opened, the Nasdaq index returned to above 5,200 points, and the stock price of Yigrit fell back to within the 2% range. Countless people breathed a sigh of relief.
Then came the Republican counterattack.
Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, who followed the trend and launched a personal website, personally went into battle and published a blog post at 10 o'clock in the morning, criticizing Clinton's investigation of Eagleite Company at this time, which was a complete bluff. This is to cover up his serious strategic mistakes in the new technology industry in the past few years.
Bob Dole also said that once he is elected, he will take serious measures to guide the development of new technology industries and prevent the wealth dividends of the information age from being used by a few.
It has to be said that the Republican candidate chose to build a separate website, using IBM's network service platform instead of opening a Facebook account like many politicians. This detail that clearly distinguishes from the Westeros system is obviously not After careful consideration.
Moreover, this speech, in conjunction with the release of the Forbes 400 Richest American List yesterday, also hits the mark.
Not suffering from scarcity but from inequality is a common problem for almost everyone.
Many people don't think too much about whether they have the ability to compete in the surging new technology wave. They just see other wavemakers gaining huge wealth from it, and they will inevitably feel dissatisfied.
In any case, since you can't get it, it's best not for others to get it either.
However, some people may have noticed, or maybe not so many people noticed, that Bob Dole did not mention a specific name by name in his speech, but only emphasized that after his election, more people will get new benefits. Dividends for the technology industry.
Although these words can be very effective in inciting the general public, to people who understand, they basically say nothing.
After all, Bob Dole is just a candidate. Even if the opponent is the majority leader of the Senate, there is not much he can actually do. Just like the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill that was snatched away by Clinton some time ago, because the White House Some Republican congressmen who had been pushing for this bill for a long time were so angry that they wanted to vomit blood.
The same is true for this first attack on the Westeros system.
In fact, after Clinton decided to take action, the Republican Party quickly got the news, but they still could only watch.
Although both houses of Congress also have the power to initiate various judicial investigations, and the Republican Party also controlled the entire Congress through the midterm elections two years ago, compared with Clinton’s absolute authority in the White House, what Congress wants to do, even if it initiates One party occupies the majority of seats, but whether it is pushing a bill or launching an investigation, it takes a long time to argue.
At least, 10 days in advance to prepare an investigation on the Westeros system is definitely too late.
This is why so many people are fighting for a position in the White House.
Congress has great power, but it is a Congress of hundreds of people.
The White House is just one person's White House. Because it has absolute power, both the staff and the cabinet members need to obey the orders of the president as the head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Otherwise, they will be fired.
On the other hand, whether it is the sudden investigation launched by the Ministry of Justice or the game between the two parties in the United States using the Westeros system as a gimmick at the last moment of the election, it is just a continuation of the wealth list released yesterday that shocked the world.
$1.5 trillion!
What scale of wealth this is, too many people are completely unable to understand, but no matter what, everyone understands that such a batch of wealth is really too huge, so huge... It has given many people a sense of Uneasy feeling.
Therefore, even if the investigation launched by the Department of Justice today has been exposed by Bob Dole and many other Republicans and right-wing media, as long as someone attacks the Westeros system and attacks that man, then, Everyone will feel much better.
Mr. President's goal of taking the lead can be considered achieved.
You know, it's not just that arrogant young man. The entire list of 400 people still doesn't count Bill Gates and other less connected billionaires. It's just billionaires who can be called 'Westerosian'. Compared with last year's 37 people, , with many newcomers such as Girl B who founded Aaliyah Company on the list, the number quickly increased to 53 this year. In other words, more than one-eighth of the people at the top of the country’s wealth pyramid are from Victoria. Stroll system.
How does this feel balanced? !
Therefore, among the turbulent public opinions, someone once again proposed the idea of wealth tax. An additional tax should be levied on the people at the top of the pyramid to reduce the wealth inequality in this society.
However, because of the still fresh memory of a series of risky and tough actions by someone two years ago, and the fact that the strength of the Westeros system itself has quietly reached a new level, whether it is the media or politics, the influence Lidu is not what it used to be, so this time, when someone mentioned it again, there were far fewer responders than two years ago, and the response was even less.
Others argue that if some people are forcibly deprived of their wealth because they have too much wealth, it will shake the foundation of capitalist society.
After all, the United States is not the former Soviet Union.
Of course, the Westeros system will not remain indifferent. The guidance of public opinion has begun even before the release of the Forbes list. One of the important trends is to criticize the serious bubbles of technology stocks. Through various actual or False news instills in the public the idea that the personal wealth of Simon Westeros and other tech tycoons is not worthy of the name and is mostly just a bubble.
The spirit of Ah Q is universal throughout the world.
Since both Simon Westeros's more than one trillion US dollars and the billions and tens of billions of wealth of other technology stock tycoons are just bubbles, naturally there is not much to envy.
At the same time, the Westeros system has once again begun to promote the benefits that new technologies bring to ordinary companies on a large scale, launching a large number of products that have transformed ordinary people into The case of millionaires and multi-millionaires tells the public that the Internet is open to anyone, and everyone has the opportunity to rely on the Internet to realize their American dream.
The uproar caused by the latest Forbes list has spread around the world, including China.
Moreover, this time, this list, or to be precise, someone on this list, triggered the thoughts of many people in China's upper class.
This person ranks 387th on this year's Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, with a personal wealth of US$500 million, which is only US$70 million more than the US$430 million threshold for the 400th place. The industries involved in the note are also popular technology. 'field.
On the original English list, the rich man’s name is Su Lin.
Lin Su.
This Linsu is naturally the other Linsu.
At the beginning, many people did not react and did not think in a certain direction at all. After all, they subconsciously felt that the "Forbes" list was so high-end and it was an American list. It had nothing to do with the Chinese. Until A certain girl who had deliberately caused mischief from the beginning and had the cooperation of her boss took the initiative to release the news, and everyone suddenly realized it.
A certain Lin Su turned out to be a Chinese girl who had just immigrated to the United States for only two years.
$500 million.
It seems that there are not many on the "Forbes" list, but according to the US dollar to RMB exchange rate, it is equivalent to 4.3 billion yuan.
What is the concept of 4.3 billion yuan
There happens to be a very interesting comparison. In 1995, Forbes paid attention to the rich in mainland China for the first time and listed a list of 17 people. The total personal wealth of these 17 mainland rich was only 4.1 billion yuan. , not as good as Lin Su who suddenly appeared.