[Chapter 705: Since it couldn't be stopped, he decided to close his eyes.]
William White was on vacation, while a group of Wall Street big shots was far from relaxed. Sure, what was said during the campaign didn't always come to fruition. However, his governing philosophy was always clear. Generally speaking, such things wouldn't change easily.
Of course, they could only prepare for now; it was uncertain what this guy planned to do. True, he had done pretty well in Arkansas, but that place wasn't exactly representative.
"Did the data come in?" William White, wearing a cowboy hat, was on the phone with Tom.
"Sir, the phones and the PS2 consoles were sold out, expected to exceed three hundred million dollars."
"Hmm, there weren't any incidents, right?"
"Luckily, just a couple of minor injuries; the lawyer has already taken care of it."
"That's good. Anything else?"
"Well, boss, MPEG has established its format. Can our next generation PS play those videos?"
MPEG stands for Moving Picture Experts Group. This association was founded in '88, with MPEG1 finalized in '92.
"Ahem, that's not the issue here. Are you planning to have those Japanese fight me to death?"
"Sir, without a recording feature, they wouldn't care. In America, people buy video recorders primarily to tape TV shows, and there are plenty of lawsuits over that."
"Okay, I got it, Tom. Send me an email. I want to understand MPEG, what exactly it can do. As for the PS, don't even think about it. The laser head has a limited lifespan. If it weren't for the expensive hard drives right now, we would be using those. A high-load optical drive can easily malfunction."
"Alright, sir. That's all for now."
The first generation of MPEG standards had rather unimpressive results. The Americans developed this mainly for video telephony.
Just think about it: a resolution of 352x240, there wasn't much to look forward to.
What if the resolution was subpar? Sony's videotape format was better, yet they still lost out to Panasonic. If you perfected that, who would bother going to the movies?
These things weren't really what William White cared about. What occupied his mind was whether one day, the pircay movie lovers would say, "We all owe William White a movie ticket."
Was there a way to stop it?
Come on, that just wouldn't work. The higher the road, the stronger the magic. If he wanted to reclaim any losses, he needed to push for heavy product placement.
As for anti-piracy measures, that was more of a waste of energy; they had other things to worry about right now.
...
"Master, it hasn't been too peaceful lately; that angel and Israel have been at each other fiercely."
"Hehe, that's good news. Let the drama intensify. By the way, what about that CIA jerk?" William White wore a satisfied smirk; if they didn't clash, he'd have bigger problems on his hands.
"Master, still on that Leo Wanta; he's completely out of reach now. They've been working hard to drag that money out of him."
"Strange, I've had no inquiries at my Swiss bank. Tanner, just keep an eye on it; that money is too hot to touch, and no one dares to lay claim to it."
"Got it, Master."
Things seemed to get more interesting from here. This mess should fall squarely on Clinton, right? Oh, I can't wait; if he made even one mistake, it would be much more serious than whatever happened with Lewinsky.
...
"Sir, your call is from Mr. Filson."
"Thanks." After taking the phone from his assistant, William White was curious why this guy was bothering him while he was on vacation.
"Sir, the tax matter has been resolved. Our think tank's analysis suggests the healthcare plan is likely to be implemented. You also have too small a share of pharma stocks in your asset allocation."
William White chuckled bitterly; he knew the healthcare sector had potential. However, with the upcoming Golden Decade for the American economy, holding cyclical stocks like healthcare wasn't exactly pressing.
"Filson, they've finished squabbling, and I'm not looking to buy in the secondary market. Furthermore, this could drag down the entire American economy. If the market was to avoid a collapse, the Federal Reserve would need to print a massive amount of cash."
"They wouldn't be that reckless, would they?" Filson sounded nervous. If it really sparking trouble, anything tied to the dollar would plunge significantly.
"Wouldn't? Abandon the Bretton Woods system, and it wouldn't matter. They lost over 80% of their foreign reserves overnight, and it seemed no big deal. Filson, the first time might have had some modest embarrassment, but now that it's come to this, would they still care about their principles? Just look at the Brits and the Sicilians, when it came to exit, they just left without hesitation."
"I got it, sir. So, we focus on resource-based and high-tech sectors."
"Yes, as long as they're non-renewable resources, we can buy in. As for high-tech, the consortium currently can't pull strings; we need to speed up our positioning."
"Okay, understood, sir."
He hadn't taken the advice, and although disappointed, Filson didn't dwell on it. The boss seemed to be looking for stability now.
William White's actions in the past had been so bizarre. This led to Filson's misjudgment.
If he thought there would be hyperinflation, why did he short gold? That was a surreal move.
No new giant gold mines had been discovered, and no central banks were dumping gold reserves. With the Federal Reserve printing at such high rates, what was the basis for being bearish on gold?
Strangely enough, gold prices were actually falling. Although the decline was limited, it exhibited a downward trend.
There were plenty of geniuses in the world, but this situation transcended that. He really couldn't fathom what was amiss.
William White had some things he simply couldn't tell Filson. With so much cash disappearing from the market, how could precious metals still rise? Even if you started a new Bretton Woods system now, it probably wouldn't pose much of a challenge.
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