Tommy Hawk was now knocking on the door, demanding the repayment of matured debts, and the consequences were about to trigger a chain reaction. Murdoch, in addition to the nearly five hundred million US Dollars in short-term debt held by Tommy through a dozen or so Californian banks, had nearly four billion US Dollars in debts held by over a hundred other banks, most of which were short-term debts. It was a major blunder committed by Murdoch out of greed, as he had hoped to convert these short-term debts into long-term ones when the interest rates fell, to take advantage of the banks.
However, with Japanese capital withdrawing and a shift toward conservative investments, all loan interest rates were sure to skyrocket, and the process of converting to long-term debts was unlikely to be as easy as before. Simply put, creditors now preferred borrowers to pay back on time to ensure the safety of their principal, rather than chasing after small interest earnings.
