America's Road to Wealth

[On October 5, the price of gold futures for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose US$25 per ounce to close at US$310. It once rose to US$330 during the session, the highest in the past nine years]

Queens, New York,

Smith Building, in an office on the fourth floor.

Abel leaned on the boss's chair and looked at the gold futures prices on the screen monitor.

International gold spot prices once rose to US$850 per ounce on January 23, 1980.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. Since February 1, 1980, the price of gold has been falling.

With the new economic growth momentum brought by the information industry revolution, gold entered a long downward cycle until the eve of the millennium.

In September 1999, in order to prevent the price of gold from continuing to fall sharply, the European Central Bank and 14 European countries signed a central bank gold sales agreement.

The general idea is to stipulate that central banks of various countries will sell gold in batches and in limited quantities in the next five years.

A major factor in gold's decline has now disappeared.

In 2000, the US Internet bubble burst.

Risk aversion has emerged in the market, and gold, an anti-inflation hard currency, has become increasingly popular again.

Gold, which has been falling for two decades, is finally starting to strengthen.

Not long ago, a major event occurred and risk aversion intensified. Gold once rose to US$330 per ounce at its highest point.

Faced with such a big market situation, financial giants from all over the world will certainly not let it go.

The same goes for Smith Capital, in fact as early as early August this year.

Abel has already asked Smith Capital to gradually build a position in London gold spot.

However, in order to avoid being too high-profile, the number of positions built was not very large.

A total of approximately US$5 billion has been invested.

Wait until a big event occurs and the U.S. financial markets are closed.

Smith Capital (UK) immediately built long positions in London gold, and the United States immediately took the same action after the financial market opened up.

Nearly a month has passed, and Smith Capital has invested a total of about US$50 billion in international gold spot.

Here, half of the US$50 billion in Smith Capital’s seventh private placement was used.

The remaining US$25 billion was used as guarantee lines provided by Pacific Bank of Commerce, Wells Fargo, and Citibank.

After nearly a month of rising prices, London Gold has begun to show signs of decline.

After all, gold has been weak for twenty years, and it has only been in the past two years that it has broken through $200 again.

You must know that five or six years ago, when international spot gold was at its lowest, it was as low as $150 per ounce.

People's psychology has not yet changed, and they have not yet realized its anti-inflation value.

The so-called antiques in prosperous times are gold in troubled times.

The 21st century has just entered a period of profound changes unseen in a century.

Everyone's minds haven't changed yet.

Therefore, international spot gold is now showing signs of falling.

Many retail investors and small investors want to withdraw one after another.

But they don't know that well-informed large institutions and Wall Street are still gradually building positions at this time.

Because in a few days, a new black swan will spread its wings and provide another boost to international spot gold.

After looking at the spot gold data, I made sure that it was not out of my control.

Abel pressed the phone next to the monitor and soon became one of the CEO and president of Smith Capital.

David Mellon and Melio walked in.

Both of them are dressed very similar, with white shirts, ties and leather shoes, and meticulous hairstyles, typical of Wall Street elites.

"Boss——"

"BOSS——"

"Here you are, take a seat. Tomorrow the company will move to the Smith Building. Are the employees in a mood?"

Abel asked with a smile.

Will Smith Capital also has the headquarters of other companies.

All were moved to the Smith Building in the heart of Manhattan, the former Woolworth Building.

This matter was announced to the group as early as May this year, after Abel successfully acquired the Woolworth Building.

Whether it is Smith Capital or several other companies, they all know this.

At the beginning, except for Smith Capital, most employees of Abel's companies were very excited.

After all, you can work in Manhattan, which is for most white-collar workers in the United States.

It can be said to be a status symbol, just like the social workers who work in the CBD in the Second Ring Road of the Imperial City will feel superior to others.

But that was before an incident like September 11 happened.

After the big incident, Abel's decision to move in has not changed.

Many of his employees, mainly middle and lower-level employees, are a little hesitant and afraid.

They all feared Woolworth Towers would become the second Twin Towers

This is actually human nature, and it hasn’t even been a month since that incident.

Upon hearing the boss's question, David and Melio looked at each other.

Melio shrugged and motioned for the CEO to answer the question.

David then said: "There are some opinions. Too many people have died. Some of them were friends they knew."

Abel thought that would be great.

It's a good opportunity to fire some people, and then it will be in the newspapers and TV.

Others will know more clearly Abe Smith's support for Manhattan and his love for New York!

Abel said bluntly:

"As I said before. If there are people who don't want to work in "dangerous" Manhattan, that's fine, just ask them to hand in their resignation letters."

It sounds nice, but it actually means getting fired directly.

Here we have to talk about American labor laws.

There is no such thing as "labor law" in the United States. It is generally called labor law here.

It is not a law but a legal system.

Because specifically the federal government, each state, county, city or even town may have labor laws that are generally the same but have different details.

Like in China, if things are done according to the rules, if the company takes the initiative to fire an employee, it usually has to pay 16 months' salary.

Layoffs are extremely costly.

The U.S. labor law system does not provide for layoff compensation.

Only the "Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act" provides a very vague provision: large-scale layoffs require consultation with employees 60 days in advance.

The "negotiation" here is used brilliantly by capitalists and companies.

Abel has already planned to fire some people this time.

According to this law, strictly speaking, 60 days of wages are required.

Abel got a 50% raise and 90 days' salary. Is that interesting enough?

This explanation is not only legal, but also gives people the impression of being a very generous and good boss.

However, this compensation for ninety days' salary will only provide a basic salary, and will not include dividends, bonuses, etc.

Income other than basic salary is actually the bulk of the income of most Wall Street workers.

Therefore, if Smith Capital fires a few more people, the labor costs are really not that exaggerated.

Since the company was founded, no one has been fired yet, which is too lacking in capital.

Other companies are the same, only giving three months' basic salary and no bonuses at all.

Taking advantage of this relocation of the headquarters, if someone is really unwilling, Abel will certainly not be polite.

Doing this can have the effect of establishing authority and intimidating internal employees.

You can use it to create the image that you are optimistic about Manhattan and love New York.

This would help him a bit with his plans later.

Abel still wished that more employees would stand up and not want to go to Manhattan to work.

That way, a few more people can be fired.

The U.S. economy is currently in recession, and many people have no jobs.

The same goes for white-collar elites. The demand in the job field exceeds the supply and they are not afraid of not being able to recruit people.

Seeing that his boss was resolute, David Mellon was naturally unable to disobey.

Smith Capital’s relocation of its headquarters tomorrow has been finalized today.

As the leading company, Smith Capital will be the first company to enter the Smith Tower.

As for Abel's other companies, they will also move in one after another.

The Smith Building (Woolworth Building), after five months of rent clearance and renovation.

It also has a new look at this time, both internally and externally, and can already accommodate the headquarters of so many companies in Abel.

There are a total of 57 floors in the building, and the bottom 42 floors have about 1,600-1,700 square meters of office space on each floor.

The area of ​​the 10 floors of 43-52 has become much smaller.

But each floor has an area of ​​about 300-350 square meters.

These floors and the five floors above were actually built purely by the builders in pursuit of height.

In order to become the tallest building in the world, the original 42-story Woolworth Building became the current 57-story building.

Including the lightning rod function at the top of the tower, the height of this building exceeds 318 meters.

The internal construction area of ​​the upper part of the building is naturally much smaller and narrower than the normal office building below.

In the top five-story tower, the first four floors are only about 200 square meters each.

The top floor is just over a hundred square meters.

Not counting the top five floors, the office area on the remaining 52 floors exceeds 70,000 square meters.

According to the office area of ​​about 10 square meters for one person.

Smith Tower can already accommodate more than 7,000 people.

It is more than enough to accommodate the headquarters employees of all current companies owned by Abel.

As for the top five floors, they have been undergoing renovations during this time.

It will be turned into a luxury condominium called The Summit.

This residence will crown the Woolworth Building.

The five-story building occupies nearly 9,680 square feet, or more than 900 square meters.

There will be a 408-square-foot observation deck on top, which will be 727 feet higher than City Hall Park. In the development of the interior design, the not-so-famous devil Zaha Hadid took the initiative.

It would become one of Abel's future residences in Manhattan.

Simply put, it is the original Woolworth Building and now the Smith Building.

The top five floors will become Abel's personal residence.

The 52nd floor below is the office location of the New York headquarters of the Smith Company.

The renovation work started in May and it has been five months now.

It's basically all completed, but Abel hasn't actually seen the pinnacle mansion on the roof yet.

In fact, given his personality, there is a high probability that he will not live in top mansions many times in the future.

The main reason is that it is too high and would be too dangerous if something happens.

Compared with this kind of skyscraper, he still prefers villas or the townhouses in Manhattan.

If you live in these places, at least you can run away if something happens.

The reason why this "peak" was created is simply that the area on the top floors is too small for office use.

In addition, the views were so good that they could overlook the entire Manhattan, so he simply turned them into mansions.

If you feel better, stay here for a while. Usually he still likes to live in a low villa, which can give him a sense of security.

After all, he is not Iron Man, and there is no Mark Armor that can carry people flying around.

If Iron Man living on the roof encounters any problem, he can just put on his suit and fly away.

If something happened to Abel who lived on the top of the building, it would really make the sky and the earth inoperable.

After spending the morning in the Smith Building, he made another appointment with Ted Lerner at noon.

The two met in midtown Manhattan, specifically near 111 West 57th Street.

The convoy parked directly on the side of the road, and the rock security staff quickly dispersed and took precautions.

Abel and Ted Lerner got out of the car.

After coming down, Ted Lerner couldn't help but said: "You did a great job as a bodyguard. I feel like even the commander-in-chief can only do this."

"For safety's sake. Personal safety is always the most important. Only when people are alive can they have infinite possibilities." Abel said casually with a smile.

Ted Lerner shrugged, looked up, and said, "Look ahead, this is 111 West 57th Street."

Abel nodded, "Let's go over and take a look."

Then the rock security opened the way, and Abel and Ikana's father walked forward.

This place is located in the center of the south side of Central Park in New York. It is only separated from Central Park by two small buildings in front and a main road.

The straight-line distance is less than fifty meters, and 111 West 57th Street is currently just a low-rise building 30 meters by 40 meters wide.

The two of them appeared here because they were chatting at Charlie Brown's Pizza yesterday.

Ted Lerner took the initiative and mentioned that there was a vacant lot here in midtown Manhattan that was about to be auctioned.

Abel had previously mentioned to him the idea of ​​building a residential building in Manhattan.

Ted Lerner mentioned it.

Although Abel's attention in this area was attracted by the Hudson Bay.

But he felt that in this moment of crisis in Manhattan.

The world's richest man said he wants to build a building here, or a residential building.

Presumably, I should be able to add another layer of aura of loving New York to myself.

This is similar to moving the headquarters to Manhattan.

When it comes time to do it, he will be mainly responsible for paying for it.

The specific work will be carried out by New Start Real Estate in cooperation with Ted Lerner.

Anyway, he had nothing to do, so he came over to take a look.

After looking around at 111 West 57th Street, Abel felt that it was too narrow.

Generally speaking, it is only 30x40 at most, with an area of ​​less than 1200 square meters.

If you build a building here, it would be boring if you build it too low. If you build it high, it will definitely look like a thin and long bamboo tube-shaped toothpick building.

Abel brought this up, but Ted Lerner thought it could also be a selling point.

"We can build it tall and long!" Ted Lerner said:

"The view from the high-rise buildings will be the best in all of Manhattan! You can even overlook the entire New York. We can make money entirely by selling units in high-rise buildings!"

Abel knew what Ted Lerner meant.

Abel remembered that in a parallel time and space, most of the buildings that appeared in Manhattan after 9/11 were thin and tall toothpick buildings.

However, most of them were residential buildings, and he remembered that they were still selling well.

Because there was news at that time that a wealthy man from China spent 280 million RMB to buy an entire floor, which was probably less than 900 square meters.

At 300,000 per square meter, many people actually say it is not expensive.

Thinking of this, Abel said: "Then let's build it. Let the Lerner Group prepare a plan and hand it over to my New Starting Point Real Estate. As long as it passes the review, I will be willing to pay."

"Bingo!" Ted Lerner shouted happily: "No problem!"

Abel smiled. For him, this cooperation was just an idle investment.

Of course it's a good thing to make money, but to lose money. Considering the location of this area and Ted Lerner's accomplishments in the real estate industry, there should be no losses.

For Abel, this is also the chain of interests he gave to Ikana and Ted Lerner, plus another layer of performance.

But for Ted Lerner, it was the largest project the New York real estate developer had ever personally participated in building.

In parallel time and space, Ted Lerner was having a particularly difficult time at this time.

At this time, Ikana's father was being chased by the bank for debts, and he also happened to encounter the collapse of New York real estate caused by September 11, and the market was very bad.

Ted Lerner, who had most of his assets in New York real estate, lived a hard life for many years and almost went bankrupt again.

In this time and space, because of Abel.

Ted Lerner's life during this period was so nourishing.

With Abel's relationship with Ikana, Ted Lerner didn't have to worry about no bank willing to lend him money.

With sufficient capital circulation channels, Ted Lerner, who mainly relied on real estate companies, naturally prospered.

In addition, his other important industry, the TV program merchant industry, can also get help from Smith Media.

Some of the TV shows Ted Lerner participated in produced had very good ratings on AMC.

For example, this year's Miss Universe achieved 10 million viewers on AMC, setting a record for this program.

In addition, he also made multiple investments in Smith Capital’s private equity.

From last year to now, it is most appropriate to describe Ted Lerner as a prosperous person.

Perhaps because of this, Ted Lerner did not start contacting Shoji this year like in parallel time and space.

To know the Ted Lerner of another time and place.

I will become a third-party candidate next year, clamoring to participate in the 2004 general election.

As a result, by 2003, this faction with tens of thousands of people was classified.

He became the leader of one of the cliques, and after two more years of being around, the clique was disbanded.

Unwilling to give up, Ted Lerner joined another third party in 2006, and another farce ensued.

Before 2010, Ted Lerner first joined the donkey, then jumped to the elephant, then jumped back to the donkey, and then jumped to the elephant again.

Jumping left and right is not enough to describe it, it is jumping everywhere.

It was not until 2010 that his business stabilized.

Only then did he feel at ease inside the elephant.

Later, when the time came, he jumped out again, and then was inexplicably pushed forward by the general trend.

【Every time comes, heaven and earth all work together, and the heroes are not free when they are transported. 】

The first half of this sentence is the best description of his early political career.

As for whether the last half of the sentence will appear, Abel doesn't know.

Because Abel had already traveled through time by that time.

Regarding the update issue, I can only guarantee four updates and 20,000 words a day, and the update time cannot be guaranteed for the time being. Mainly because of the new input method, plus a bit of glitches, so the speed is not that fast. Anyway, I usually just update four chapters from afternoon to evening. terribly sorry.