England and Argentina announced a break in diplomatic relations, and tensions began to rise. At this point, talking about peace was a bit of a joke.
A small island, even if it had strategic value, wasn't worth starting a war over. In fact, the only reason the two nations clenched their teeth and went to war was because of the poor domestic economic environment, with rising unemployment and the public's anger needing an outlet.
By coincidence, both sides thought the other would compromise.
"William, you really called it. It's actually going to happen, isn't it?"
"Haha, George, the undeclared war at the start of April already began, so it's not surprising. Just that it won't escalate into a big conflict."
"Tsk, almost got us in a mess."
"Heh, that's impossible. Your old man knows what's up; he's just testing your judgement."
"Sigh, anyway, thanks."
"Ha, don't get all emotional. That's that."
William White didn't believe the Bush family didn't know the score. In fact, overseas oil companies weren't doing too well.
Why did the Hunter family take the risk of speculating in silver? It was because Kadafi seized their oil fields. If it hadn't been for that blow, who would go mad enough to challenge the Fed? This wasn't an isolated case. In times focused on world peace, how could you continue to occupy someone else's oil fields?
What? Contracts?
Come on, those are colonial-era contracts; the international community doesn't recognize them.
War in this era wasn't about conspiracies; you could understand the ins and outs just by watching TV. What is there to hide?
...
But their wars didn't affect William White's plans to get rich.
Nowadays, when people talked about William White, they had a strange feeling because he just had a knack for making money.
Two companies successfully listed had their final prices above thirty bucks a share, meaning two ten-billion-dollar companies were born just like that.
This wasn't any American Dream, okay? It's not a dream; it's an American myth. Whether there would be more like this is unclear, but before, there hadn't been such legendary stories.
While Wall Street bigwigs sighed in admiration, Morgan Stanley gave an evaluation of NBC.
Yes, two and a half billion dollars.
You have to know, NBC hadn't changed hands for too long, and it had already increased that much. If operated for a few years, increasing by another three to five billion wouldn't be difficult.
For NBC's valuation, there weren't many opinions. In Barry Diller's view, this valuation was actually conservative. You know, before this William White had acquired quite a few TV stations, plus the infinitely potential MTV.
Two and a half billion? Ha, the boss wasn't tempted.
...
The worst performer was naturally Disney. Their parks in America were suffering losses, and there were still more than a billion dollars in bank loans. The most annoying thing was, they had a lawsuit in Paris that wasn't settled yet.
A lot of folks saw it coming; this project seemed doomed. The current situation was just haggling over terms.
The most frustrating part was the project's inefficiency, something like a joke; every few days a new batch of people showed up.
Their attitude was clear, same as William White's, dragging it out.
In the current economic environment, creating a park on such a scale was practically crazy. Paris was rethinking, but no one wanted to bear the political risks.
Opponents existed everywhere, with a notable characteristic of lacking any ability to get things done while being eager to point fingers at others.
When you wanted to open Disneyland, they cried cultural invasion and resisted vehemently, rallying others to oppose it. Now that it wasn't opening, they still had more to say.
Cultural discrimination?
William White was baffled, 'Can't you be more dependable?'
Since everyone wanted to drag it out, William White remembered quite clearly that Paris Disneyland could lose a billion a year, becoming Disney's most significant blemish.
Europeans, in fact, liked princesses, not so much with Mickey Mouse and whatnot. If you wanted to make a breakthrough in Europe, you had to create a bunch of princesses.
You say Disney has a lot of princesses?
No words left for that.
What's this Beauty and the Beast nonsense?
How could a princess like a beast? Maybe having a prince turn into a beast at night could barely make sense, but appearing as a beast and still being loved deeply is not about any kind of princess.
...
After reviewing William White's industries, Wall Street tycoons found that apart from Disney not doing great, the other enterprises were rapidly expanding.
Even that arbitrary mineral water company could transform and become synonymous with healthy living.
Alright, things like farms and wine were overlooked once again. Even if the wine sold well, it wasn't really about making money.
Joking aside, the largest wine cellar in America.
Such reckless behavior indeed left one speechless, but what could be said? There weren't any discount promotions; the prices had substantial increases every year.
"High inventory?" Faced with the Texas journalist's questioning, William White, not caring at all, said, "The current economic difficulties are temporary. People may not have money for wine, but grapes can't be wasted, so they're turned into wine, nothing much to it."
"Mr. White, will prices increase significantly in the future?"
"That's impossible. The current economic crisis is nearing its end, and inflation risks are negligible. There will be a slow price increase in the future, depending on inflation. As for why I'm buying a lot, to be honest, making money is easy for me, and I need to use the funds somehow. The longer wine ages, the better its quality, which is its own kind of investment."
People didn't know how unique William White was, but after his words spread through TV and media, Texas farmers were thrilled.
With great weather this year, a grape bumper crop was nearly certain. If White's winery reduced purchases, many farmers would hit a dead end.
Today's farmers were of course William White's supporters, as long as the grapes meant money, they could keep going.
William White making such statements publicly wasn't without reason, local government naturally needed to give some benefits, otherwise, he wouldn't have done it.
Taking advantage of a situation to suppress small farm owners was the norm. Waiting until they couldn't hold on, then either acquiring or swallowing them up suited his interests the best.
After all, he wasn't running a charity; maximizing benefits sometimes meant making tough decisions.
Those guys should be thankful because William White no longer cared about those returns. Since the government could compensate a bit, he naturally went along with it.
Making money was easy for William White; it had almost become common knowledge. People said he was fooling around in Hollywood for sensual pleasures.
But have you seen his box office numbers? In barely over a week, North American box office was approaching a hundred million dollars, with global box office surpassing 150 million.
If that's not making money, then what is?
*****
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