Washington.
In a mansion near Rock Creek Park in the northern suburbs of the city, when he heard his assistant announcing that a guest had arrived, Richard Mellon Scaife immediately greeted him. The guest's name was Martin Mendels, who was about fifty years old. He is a middle-aged Caucasian, slightly fat, and wearing rimless glasses.
Most importantly, Martin Mendels is one of the seven members of the Executive Committee, the Federal Reserve's top decision-making body.
After a warm exchange of greetings, the two came to sit down in the reception room of the villa. Scaife personally poured Martin the coffee that had been prepared, with a gentle smile: "Martin, how are Melissa and the children doing?"
Martin Mendels took the coffee and nodded slightly: "Very good, where are you?"
"Not bad," Scaife responded, took a sip of his coffee, and then said: "Martin, well, to be honest, we have known each other for so many years, haven't we?"
Martin Mendels smiled and glanced at Scaife: "Of course, Richard..."
"Charlie, call me Charlie."
"Okay, Charlie," Martin Mendels said, but he put down the coffee cup and stopped beating around the bush: "I'll be honest, Charlie, I'm sorry that I can't help you this time."
When Richard Mellon Scaife saw Martin Mendels getting straight to the point, his expression remained calm: "Don't be so absolute, Martin, you also saw the situation when Nasdaq closed yesterday, 6317 points, and the total market value reached 7.6 Trillions, this is completely crazy, and for the sake of the federal economy, Martin, the Fed has to step in to stop the bubble from continuing, right?"
"Charlie, I'm just an ordinary member of the executive committee. There's a deputy chief on top? There's also the White House and Congress above. Do you think we can make decisions arbitrarily?" Martin Mendels said, looking at Staring at Scaife: "So? Even if there's nothing you can do about it in the White House? You should try to lobby Congress? Instead of coming to me."
"I know you don't have the right to decide," Scaife paused and then said: "Well, Martin, I hope you will help me in other aspects, just once, and if you agree, I can give you adequate compensation. .”
Martin Mendel paused and said cautiously: "Can you tell me first?"
"Give an interview? Comment on the Fed's upcoming move to raise interest rates."
As soon as Richard Mellon Scaife finished speaking, Martin Mendels immediately shook his head: "I'm sorry? Charlie, I can't help you with this. You have to know that I will retire in five years." , I also have a wife and three children.”
"$1 million? After you leave your job? I can arrange for you to join the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as a director."
"This is not just a matter of money? Just pretend we haven't met today, right?" Martin Mendels said, already standing up: "Also, Charlie, I guess you must have bet on the short position of technology stocks recently? We have known each other for so many years, There is only one piece of advice I can give you, clear your inventory."
After saying this, Martin Mendels walked directly to the door.
Richard Mellon Scaife had no choice but to get up and see him off. When he saw Martin Mendels leaving in a hurry as if he was being chased by the devil, he suddenly kicked the door, and then there was another ping-pong-pong-pong sound in the living room. Out, the assistants and servants just appeared, and immediately stayed away from Scaife's roar.
Clearance
If he could clear his position, of course he would be willing to do so. However, now it is difficult to get off the tiger.
From the end of the presidential election in early November last year to now, Richard Mellon Scaife has raised nearly $300 million in funds through mortgage loans and other methods, all of which have been placed on short positions in technology stocks.
This was also stimulated by a certain young man.
Simon Westeros took a gamble during the 1987 stock market crash and got everything he has now. Richard Mellon Scaife has carefully studied the current situation of the new technology industry and believes that he can take a gamble. Take the big one.
In the initial prediction, the team around them basically believed that technology stocks would turn around before New Year's Day this year, and would not last until mid-January at the latest, because during this period, many new technology companies will successively release quarterly or full-year financial reports. In addition, The many connections he had contacted over the past few months worked together, and Scaife did not believe that the already shaky technology stocks would not collapse.
Unfortunately, the world is really unpredictable.
Today is January 25th. Not only do technology stocks show no signs of collapse, but they are still advancing rapidly. Especially after Igret's 1996 full-year financial report press conference on Wednesday, the new technology giant rose sharply in the following two trading days, taking the Nasdaq to a new high.
As of the close of the week yesterday Friday, the Nasdaq index had reached 6,317 points. Compared with 5,426 points on the day of the U.S. election on November 6 last year, the cumulative increase has reached 16%.
As for Igret, compared with the market value of US$579.6 billion on November 6, the market value at yesterday's closing price has reached as high as US$751.9 billion. In less than three months, the cumulative increase has been as high as 29%.
More and more media and the public are beginning to believe that Yigrit will become the first giant with a market capitalization of trillions.
Richard Mellon Scaife's $300 million in funds was mainly used in the past few months to establish short contracts on the Nasdaq futures and short-sell leading technology stocks such as Igret. Initially, Scaife was able to avoid using it relatively conservatively. Too much leverage, but as the floating losses on the book increased, in order to recover the capital, Scaife gradually increased his position.
The result is that losses continue to grow.
By the close of yesterday, Richard Mellon Scaife's various short-short losses had exceeded 50%. The original US$300 million in funds was now less than US$150 million.
Last year's "Forbes" list of the 400 richest Americans, as one of the six Mellon family members, Richard Mellon Scaife's net worth was US$700 million, most of which was inherited from his parents. Mellon Financial Group, Alcoa, Chevron and other companies came to buy stock assets, and the US$300 million in funds he borrowed were all secured by these assets.
Now, once the $300 million in funds is lost, it not only means that Scaife's net worth will be severely reduced, but also means that the sharp reduction in shareholdings is likely to cause him to lose the implicit power represented by the stocks in his hands.
The Mellon family's control over companies such as Mellon Financial Group, Alcoa, and Chevron is not only due to their family background, but mainly due to the intricate stockholdings involved.
The same is true through the influence of these corporate giants on areas such as the federal political economy.
Therefore, once this hedging operation fails, at least his own team will be fundamentally damaged.
If he could regret it, Richard Mellon Scaife swore that he would never act out of impulse. Unfortunately, there is no chance of regret in this world.
After smashing all the furniture and furnishings in the living room, Richard Mellon Scaife, who was sitting alone in the 'ruins', calmed down a little and dialed the number of Julian Robertson, the head of Tiger Fund. .
In the past few years, millions of dollars have been spent digging up dirt on Clinton, and the White House will definitely have no chance. On the Congress side, although the Westeros system was quite restrained last year, the generosity of Simon Westeros in the 1994 midterm elections still frightened active members of Congress. In addition, the impact of many companies under the Westeros system on the U.S. economy The influence is getting deeper and deeper, and no one seems to offend rashly.
The last resort, trying to take action directly from the Federal Reserve, still failed to work.
Now, in Washington, there is nothing he can do.
We can only look forward to Julian Robertson's efforts. After all, compared to his 300 million US dollars, Tiger Fund has tens of billions of dollars of huge funds currently on the short side. Scaife does not know the current float of Tiger Fund. The loss is equally heavy when you think about it.
No matter what, it's time to give it a try.
Simon came to the east coast as usual for the weekend.
Simon got the news that evening about Richard Mellon Scaife's meeting with a certain committee of the Federal Reserve Board of Executive Committee members on Saturday afternoon. In order to prevent the committee member from doing something "stupid," he passed the news directly to the White House. .
I believe that Clinton, who has not been completely out of trouble after being dug up by Scaife for several years, will definitely 'appease' the committee member.
It is probably speculated that the short side is about to exert force, but Simon's schedule has not been affected at all.
On Saturday night, as agreed, I invited Natasha Richardson, whom I met at the last Sundance Film Festival, to have dinner with her, and things went smoothly.
The next day is Sunday, January 26th.
It’s still cold in New York at the end of January, and you can see Central Park covered in snow from the restaurant in the morning.
Natasha Richardson got up a little late. When she sat down in the restaurant, the man had already eaten half of his breakfast. After the waitress brought him a lunch and left, the woman couldn't help but roll her eyes at someone and use an obvious expression. His British accent said: "Simon, I find you are really evil."
Although she was accusing someone, Natasha Richardson herself blushed first.
In the upstairs bedroom last night, she was quite nervous after they had just met each other, so when a guy suggested watching a movie to relax, she agreed.
As a result, someone put on a "Blow Up."
This is a 1966 work by Italian film master Michelangelo Antonioni, 30 years ago. Of course, this is not the point. The problem is that the heroine of "Blow Up", Vanessa Redgrave, is her mother.
Facing the woman's anger, Simon said with a smile: "Nata, don't you think this is a great movie?"
"Of course," Natasha Richardson nodded subconsciously, and then added: "But, you are still too evil."
"But," Simon said with an innocent expression, "I think you were also very excited last night?"
Natasha, who had just picked up a small piece of bread, heard this, grabbed off a piece of bread and threw it towards the man opposite.
Simon caught it casually, stuffed it into his mouth, and said: "Well, only evil people can see evil. For me, what I see is just beauty. Haven't you noticed that the fashion in the 1960s, put Isn’t it outdated at all? I have just asked A to recommend this movie to Melisandre and let them look for some inspiration. Well, the solid color shift skirt is really beautiful, and you should try it too, Your style fits perfectly.”
When Natasha Richardson heard this, she glanced at someone sideways: "You mean, I'm suitable for straight skirts?"
"Yes, because you are straight."
Then another piece of bread hit him.
Simon failed to catch it this time and said half-jokingly: "I should really send you to Africa to see those hungry people who don't have enough to eat."
Natasha just glared at someone.
After breakfast, Simon didn't immediately throw away the woman he had sex with just now. He happened to have a meeting in the morning, so he took the woman with him, and Martin Scorsese was on the other side.
About "Gangs of New York".
The original "Gangs of New York" was produced by Miramax, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis, and cost $100 million. The result was a global box office of $190 million, which was far from a success.
Coupled with the unsatisfactory performance of another blockbuster film "Cold Mountain" during the same period, the rift between the Weinstein brothers and their old employer Disney became increasingly irreparable and they eventually parted ways.
The two brothers have always wanted to make a blockbuster with a big investment and a big budget. Unfortunately, anyone with a little bit of brains should understand that this cannot be done in literary films.
Unfortunately, bloated people are often irrational.
This is also a lesson for Simon.
For any literary film, Simon's inner investment limit is at most US$50 million, no matter how high it is, unless there are other special reasons.
"Gangs of New York" is a special one.
The story of the film comes from a novel of the same name published in 1928 that Martin Scorsese read. The idea came up in the 1970s and has been promoted for many years. It was initially slightly anticipated due to the success of the "Godfather" series, and then it was He died in the 1980s after "Once Upon a Time in America" failed miserably at the box office.
Until now.
Old Martin has always been obsessed with this matter. Simon happened to have a suitable amount of funds in his hand, and in his memory, the movie was not an absolute failure, so he decided to shoot it.
Of course, there are more important reasons.
Xiao Li Zi, one of the male protagonists.
Now DiCaprio has just finished filming "Titanic" and has been tossed by Cameron for more than half a year. Now that the big ship is coming, once the project achieves the glory it once had, "Gangs of New York" will once again become DiCaprio's next project behind the big ship. The box office of the first film was as expected.
On the other hand, Simon is not planning to give Martin Scorsese $100 million this time, only $65 million. After all, this is a feature film that does not require special effects. Now it is up to DiCaprio to sign the contract in advance before the big ship is released. The film contract and the salary are also very cheap, the same is true for Daniel Day-Lewis, 65 million is more than enough.
In terms of schedule, "Gangs of New York" will definitely not be produced this year.
After Simon agreed to launch "Shakespeare in Love", Ella Deutschman has successfully invited Daniel Day-Lewis, so the actor will definitely not have time this year, and will have to wait until next year at the earliest.
Similarly, it would be better for Leonardo DiCaprio to start filming next year. As long as the big movie is released, "Gangs of New York" will definitely attract everyone's attention as soon as it starts filming. It is equivalent to saving 50 million US dollars in publicity and distribution costs, plus Martin Scorsese Si He has been brewing the stunt for more than 20 years and is almost foolproof.
Finally, since Natasha Richardson was brought on board, it was a smooth process and the heroine was booked in advance.
This woman, who comes from a British entertainment family, has both good looks and acting skills, and her 32-year-old age is just right. What she has been lacking is just opportunities.
As for the original Cameron Diaz, Simon had no feelings for her, so she never thought of using her from the beginning of "The Man in Disguise". This actress who was supposed to be a hit in the 1990s is still in a state of obscurity. .