12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

After D-day, China went crazy. Companies went bankrupt and collapsed one after another, and the stock price indices tumbled. The exchange rate also went mad, falling repeatedly. The Chinese government tried to patch things up, but it was not enough.

Even the Chinese people, who usually succumbed to the authoritarian government, did not care about it during their money-losing cases. They began to take their money and things out of the market against advice; stock or real estate, it did not matter. Goods released to the market quickly ran out, and the credit that supported the economic system began to crack.

Global hedge funds, smelling blood in the water, didn’t miss this point. From the United States, from Europe, from Japan, they flew in like a pack of sharks, smelling blood, and upon seeing the bleeding whale, they began biting brutally.

[Larry White, CEO of Red Rock Investments says that China’s slowdown will deepen. He recommends selling the yuan.]

[John Tepper, CEO of Tri Partners, says that the Chinese market crash is now beginning and real estate is even more dangerous.]

[Ray Walker proposes investors exclude the Chinese market from their portfolio.]

[Kazuo Yamaguchi, a senior researcher at Nomura Securities, says that it is time to convert the yuan into yen or dollars.]

They had sold the Chinese stocks and the yuan first, and then said that. This was a kind of psychological warfare, a slogan for building a common front. They first sold off and then played the press, and not only the rest of the world’s institutional investors, but the many, many ants were on their side. This put more of their money into a selling position, thereby maximizing their profits. It was a very vicious way to cut the flesh and pour salt on it, but it certainly made them money.

Having been in a selling position in China sooner than anyone else, I made a lot of money every day thanks to their efforts. I had meetings with four key members in the conference room every day, and listened to their reports:

“The U.S.-listed Shanghai Index Inverse has soared! Given the dollar gain, we expect to see bigger profits.”

“The yuan has plunged again. Profits are exploding in the FX market!”

“The yen has risen again today. The Japanese government, which was trying to lower the yen, is flustered, but it’s good for us.”

It was hard to check all the income coming from this. Overnight, I was making hundreds of millions of dollars. The three directors shouted excitedly whenever they reported to me.

“It’s a record profit!”

“The boss will be the richest man in Korea now!”

“The yuan is going down, but the dollar is soaring. It’s as good as earning money twice!”

Even the polite Vice President Jang said, “Boss, we are creating legends in the investment industry!”

It was indeed a legend. This legend would be left to be republished in the Korean investment industry later. I was gradually becoming the god of money in that myth. But then again, I asked them to hide the fact that our company was in a selling position vis-a-vis China. I didn’t want to be branded by the public as the man who brought about the Chinese financial crisis…

Even if I made money, I didn’t want to get named a widow maker. Considering that our country would be affected in the future, we had to keep our mouths shut. I couldn’t just laugh as everyone around us was crying. I instructed the four core members to keep it all a secret.

“Yes, boss.” They, too, knew the severity of the incident, so they absolutely obeyed me.

“This is awesome! Mr. President!” What we had achieved was only between ourselves, and that was how we agreed to keep it.

A month passed like that.

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“Oppa, by the way…” Ah-young said, putting coffee in front of me. “Are you all right these days?”

Holding up the ice Americano glass she gave me, I replied, “Uh? What?”

“No, China has been going crazy lately. That’s why our nation’s main stock index keeps dropping… I am wondering if your company is okay.”

The condition of our company was more than good. I said with a smile, “It’s okay. I’ve been managing the risks.”

“Hmm, really? Well, thank God!”

“Why did you worry?”

“No, this and that companies are all going to collapse. I thought our company was having hard times, too.”

I replied, recalling my subsidiaries for a moment. “Well. Some of them will be difficult. Maybe.”

The aftermath of the Chinese financial crisis had hit Korea harder than expected.

[In the financial crisis originating from China, the biggest victim is China, and then Korea.]

There was a report like that. Many companies had gone bankrupt because they had put investments in China, or they had lost the money they were supposed to receive. The stock price index was reflected this, and the KOSPI and KOSDAQ were still falling, day after day.

In addition, the won, which had a high coefficient interconnection with the yuan, had been falling a lot, further accelerating the market decline as foreign investors, who were worried about foreign exchange losses, had left. The same was true of my subsidiaries, so stocks like OH Entertainment, Jiwoo Entertainment, and Blue E&M quickly fell by two-thirds.

It was okay, though. These companies had very small market capital. Although there were several tens of million dollars of losses, that amount of money was being earned back every day in the overseas markets. The only possible problem was Hyun Young Pharmaceutical, which had been sold to Pfizer. As all the other pharmaceutical stocks burst, Hyun Young Pharmaceutical also lost its market high of one billion dollars and was about to be halved. So, I was a little sorry, but I thought, ‘It was a good thing I sold…’

Changhae Food, a dumpling maker, and Songhae Brewing, a liquor maker, found their places after a brief fall. Everyone knew that these companies, which sold goods in Korea for Korean raw materials, had no significant elements to lose in the face of a global crisis. Ah-young also knew what stocks our company had.

“That’s right, oppa. That OH Entertainment stock fell a lot. Is that okay?”

“It’s all right. It’s pretty low, but… we are making that kind of money somewhere else.”

“Really? Well, thank God.”

In the meantime, the cell phone in my pocket rang. Tiriri tiriri tiriri… I gave Ah-young a wink and picked up the phone. When I looked at it, it was none other than President Kwon Oh-hyuk.

I answered the phone thinking, ‘He acted as I expected…’ “Hello, President Kwon.”

“Boss. It’s me, Kwon Oh-hyuk. Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Yes.”

Kwon spoke in a slightly trembling voice. “Well, do you think we’ll be alright, boss?”

I said, reassuring him, “Yes, I know OH Entertainment has been impacted badly by this financial crisis, but if you wait a bit, you’ll be able to get over it. You haven’t invested heavily in China since the last joint venture was postponed, have you?”

I had brought up the subject at last year’s regular report. Back then, President Kwon Oh-hyuk had been very sorry and noted he’d have to reschedule our celebrities. However, his attitude was completely different now.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you first. Thank you, boss! I managed to avoid the risk because you blocked investment in the Chinese companies at the time!”

I spoke to him, “Hold out for a while, even if you lose a little bit of the reserved money. Sales to China will be down a little, but… think about opening a path to Japan, the U.S., Europe, and South America during this time.”

He answered me quickly, “Yes, sir. I’ll do that!”

President Kwon Oh-hyuk said goodbye to me and hung up the phone. I looked at the phone for a moment. Dealing with China across the sea, countless companies in Korea were like OH Entertainment.

President Joo Sung-won, who saw my editorial, had been busy making his own efforts, but there was a limit. He had only been in office for two months. It wasn’t something that he could have prevented, even if he had prepared for it for two years. At the sudden thought, I picked up my cell phone and read the political front page.

[President Joo Sung-won met with representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, and discussed future measures.]

He was busy solving this financial problem, as I’d seen in the future news before. I didn’t know how helpful my advice would have been going forwards…

‘I think the Blue House will keep wondering what I’m going to say. I’ve been leading him well so far. He’ll be curious about the next crisis, right? But now there’s nothing else I can tell him… No, there is.’

I drank a coffee, and came up with the following editorial title to be posted on Oracle News: A crisis is an opportunity. In the financial crisis from China, Korea has a chance to make another leap.

In fact, our country was very similar to manufacturing in China in areas such as tea, chemicals, shipbuilding, electronics, and so forth. However, our country would be naturally doomed if China grew big. It wasn’t long ago that the sweet money used to drive up trade with China, but in fact it was a long-term chokehold on our country.

At that time, there were tens of thousands of semiconductor engineers who were offered three to five times the salary they would be paid in Korea. We could compete with Japan because of its similar weight class, but Korea could be under pressured by China. China was different.

Their side had a structure that completely crushed our country with its large population and larger land mass. So, China’s recent crisis was a bad thing for Korea in the short term, but it was a boon in the long run. Naturally, we should prepare well now.

‘Well, that’s the way to write it. Don’t be so embarrassed right now, but let’s get ready and take the chance to make another leap… Then the president will understand.’ As I was thinking about it, I turned my mind to our company. ‘Oh, by the way, our company needs to prepare for the next step, right?’

I called Vice President Jang right away.

“Yes, boss.”

“Vice President Jang, let’s start thinking about the next step. It’s a little early, but it’s not bad because it’s fast.”

“The next step?”

“Yes. Now, have some of our directors check the status of Korean companies’ investments in China: how much a company invested in what field, and what the size of the asset is, and what the impact is when it went bad.”

“Oh, yes, I see.”

This is the benefit of betting on a fall. When they stopped, I could earn money; hungry companies that need cash sell cheaply in the market.

I started preparing for the next move, while others were still upset about the incident.