America's Road to Wealth

In the morning, the dazzling New York winter sun shone through the floor-to-ceiling windows, making Abel unable to open his eyes.

Abel confusedly reached out to hug little Laura or Li Xinyu next to him. After the throw was empty, he turned over and faced the sky. He lazily opened his arms and stretched. After yawning, he directly sat up.

He reached out and scratched his hair and looked at the clock on the wall. It was already 8 o'clock.

Today is Abel’s first morning back in New York from Texas.

Abel returned to Smith Farm early Christmas morning. Accompanying the family and Charlize and her daughter to spend a joyful Christmas.

The next day, the family went to Austin.

In a bush estate outside of Austin.

With the blessings of all the members of the Shrub family, and all the members of the Smith family.

Abe Smith and Laura Shrub are officially married.

The two parties agreed to choose a date to get married when Laura Bush turned 20 years old.

Since then, the Smith family and the Bush family have officially formed an alliance.

After the engagement, Abel stayed at Bush Manor for three days.

During this period, little Laura "accidentally" caught him having sex with her best friend Li Xinyu in the guest room where Li Xinyu lived.

After a confession, the fiancée admitted Li Xinyu's existence. She showed Abel that she was not a different person after getting engaged.

Things agreed upon before the engagement will not change after the engagement.

Little Laura's behavior made the very thick-skinned Abel feel a little embarrassed.

I'm sorry, but if you want him to change it... I'm sorry, I can't.

In this way, Li Xinyu has become the same mistress as Annie and others in front of little Laura.

According to little Laura's words, that is - "Ha! From the first day he saw you, he kept staring at your pair of car lights secretly, I knew this day would come!"

That's what happened.

Next is Abel at the Bush Manor, where he stayed for three days in total.

During this period, I participated in various year-end cocktail parties held by the Shrub Family in Austin.

At these drinking parties, Abel got to know most of the "top people" in Texas.

There is the Texas Consortium inside, with important members of more than a dozen families behind it.

In fact, Abel was already the "top man" at those drinking parties.

He is even one of the most important figures.

At those drinking parties, Abel's popularity was no less popular than George Bush, who was almost pushed up by Texas.

Because everyone with a discerning eye knows that if the merger of the Texas Consortium and the Smith Consortium succeeds.

The surname Smith will also become very important in Texas.

No one knows what the future will be like.

But since we are all at a cocktail party, we will not lose anything if we get to know each other and handle the relationship well.

These people are naturally willing to make this kind of emotional investment, network investment.

During those few days, Abel also understood why the Texas Consortium made such a big concession this time.

It was Herbert and his grandfather Alex who jointly gave him a heads up and made him understand this.

This is a big concession from the Texas consortium. Their greatest confidence comes from the arrogance or confidence of these traditional old money families.

In the United States, there is no family that is easy to deal with that can still stand still and become stronger and stronger after hundreds of years.

Every such family is paved with glory paved with the corpses of many victims.

Through marriage, establishing alliances, and then annexing industries one by one, this is the most popular and most popular method among American chaebol families.

Because most of the time, the new money family cannot compare with the heritage of the old money family. Especially when it comes to the issue of successors, no one can guarantee that the successors will be as good as the entrepreneurs.

Many of the dozen or so families that control the Texas Consortium have this idea.

That means you, Abel Smith, are indeed very powerful, better than everyone else.

But you can't live forever, nor can you be so wise forever, right?

Even if you are always so wise, you will always have descendants.

It is impossible for your descendants and successors to be as wise and capable as you, right?

These people are thinking long term and they want to do what they used to do.

Through alliance and marriage, the process mentioned above is achieved.

Abel and little Laura’s child is not even a bubble yet.

But it has been targeted by many people.

In a sense, they are gambling. Bet that the Smith family will be a flash in the pan, bet that families with richer foundations will be able to dominate the alliance in the future.

Of course, the more important reason is that even if the two parties merge successfully.

Smith \u0026 Texas Syndicate, that's also binary rule.

It will be Smith and Texas who will co-lead the consortium.

This is the basis.

With this foundation, these old moneymen will want to take a gamble.

Even Herbert was outspoken in this regard.

This situation is actually the most common and most likely to occur in American family culture.

Little Laura, the grandfather, spoke directly to Abel.

If the descendants of Abel and little Laura are no longer as good as the bushes in the future, there is a high probability that they will end up like this.

Similarly, if in the future the shrubs are not as good as Smith and are annexed by Smith, no one can blame them.

Just like the relationship between Bush and the Walker and Pierce families before.

In the generation of Herbert's grandfather and father, the Walkers were superior to the Bushes.

Herbert's father was able to rise to power and become a senator.

At least half of the credit goes to the Wall Street financial tycoon of the Walker family at that time.

That is, Herbert's grandfather.

What about now?

The Walker family has not produced a strongman for many years. Over the past few decades, most of the family's resources have been vested in shrubs.

The Walker family, which was very powerful back then, is now considered one of the vassals of the Bush family.

Much like the Pierce family.

In the history of American plutocrats, this model has been around for more than a hundred years.

As for this kind of family affection and love, haha, that's all!

On December 29, Abel took little Laura and Li Xinyu back to Smith Farm.

I stayed at home for more than two days.

On the afternoon of December 31, he left Texas with little Laura and Li Xinyu.

Get on his Boeing 747 and return to New York.

We just arrived last night. After arriving, Abel took two girls to attend last night's New Year's Eve concert in Times Square, New York.

This is one of New York’s must-have shows every New Year. It can be regarded as New York’s “Super Bowl” and is very lively.

Basically the most popular singers of the year will be invited.

In other words, only singers who are popular enough can participate in this New Year's Eve concert in New York.

The concert was hosted by the New York City Government.

In fact, Bloomberg has the final say in the New York City government.

This concert was naturally led by DreamWorks Music.

The consequence is that after the National Arts and Arts Festival on October 11, DreamWorks Music once again dominated a performance of this scale.

Let the American entertainment industry realize that DreamWorks Music has become one of the music giants.

In the situation of three major players and one minor player in the American music industry, they have become the new minor player and are madly attacking the three major players.

After watching half of the concert, the three of them left the concert and returned to the townhouse at 138 East 65th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where Li Xinyu lived.

With his half-coaxing and half-cheating, and Li Xinyu's active cooperation.

Last night, he successfully placed the two of them on the same Simmons table.

I am about to be extremely happy.

Something evil happened.

The two girls’ close relatives are here.

It is said that according to some scientific research that I don’t know whether it is reliable--

For best friends who live together, their menstrual periods will become extremely synchronized after a period of time.

If this hypothesis is true, this may be the case for little Laura and Li Xinyu.

What happened next was that the two of them ran away and went to the next room to rest.

Abel could only rest in another room, because the master bedroom was stained with blood, making it look like a murder scene...

Right now in the bathroom of this bedroom.

Wow——

The steaming water from the shower head washed over Abel's body.

Most Europeans and Americans are accustomed to taking a shower in the morning. This is different from Asians who always like to take a shower at night.

But in modern society, many people who love cleanliness, whether they are men or women in Europe, America, or Asia, may take two baths.

Take one at night before going to bed and one before going to work during the day.

After washing up, Abel wore a white bathrobe, wiped his hair, walked out of the bedroom, and went down the stairs.

Little Laura and Li Xinyu were wearing the same belted nightgown with dark blue background and white flowers.

The two heard Abel's footsteps coming downstairs, looked at each other, and both showed narrow smiles.

"Ha ha--"

While laughing and joking, little Laura raised her eyebrows and smiled sweetly, holding a cup of coffee.

Li Xinyu was holding a sandwich, and the two of them appeared on the stairs and watched Abel walk down.

"Good morning, my dear."

"Good morning, Abel."

"Good morning--"

Abel greeted the two of them with a smile, walked down and kissed little Laura, and then did the same to Li Xinyu's face.

Another pair of bestie donburi, achieved!

Counting Paris and Ikana, Abel has successfully collected two pairs of best friends.

As for sisters, there is only one pair at the moment. There is also a fake pair, the pair of Annie and Elmo.

As for mother and daughter...

Like, there's a pair of Asian ones?

But Abel didn't think of it because he was not a fan of that one.

The focus on that person is not particularly detailed, which makes it possible for the other person to escape.

Well, it's also possible that the other party missed the real golden mountain.

It's possible anyway.

My best friends are here, and one of them is my real wife.

Just thinking about it made Abel feel happy.

He took the steaming, fragrant coffee brought by little Laura, picked up Li Xinyu's sandwich, stretched out his hands around their waists, and walked to the sofa in the living room.

"You guy..."

Seeing him hugging each other openly and openly, with that proud look on his face.

The corners of little Laura's mouth turned up, she smiled sweetly and slapped Abel.

However, my family knows their own affairs. The sunk costs were so high that it was impossible to recover them. To a certain extent, little Laura was succeeded by Abel.

It was already difficult for her to change this way of life before Abel had a huge overturn.

Little Laura now gradually doesn’t care much about these things.

After sitting on the sofa, Li Xinyu took his coffee in one hand and his sandwich in the other, feeding him breakfast.

Little Laura picked up a pile of newspapers on the table and handed it to him.

"You'd better read it first. Those financial newspapers seem to have exploded."

While enjoying the care of Li Xinyu, his best friend and sister-in-law, Abel took the newspaper and said, "Huh? What's the matter?"

"It seems to be something related to American Express."

"The person you work for, David Mellon, held a press conference yesterday. Smith Capital announced that it will make a comprehensive tender offer to acquire American Express."

"The financial media is very busy today and seems to be reporting on these things."

Abel nodded and opened a stack of newspapers in his hand.

"Wall Street Journal": [The acquisition of American Express may trigger more intense resistance]

"The New York Times": [A decision with obvious "Smith" style]

"Fortune Times": [Concern? Cartel? syndicate? trust? 】

"Economic Observer": [Rockefeller \u0026 Morgan in the new era]

Looking through it casually, almost all of them were negative headlines. Abel couldn't help but sneered and complained:

"The response was really huge. People who knew, knew that I was just going to privatize American Express. People who didn't know, thought I had acquired the Federal Reserve!"

"But I can't blame them. The remaining shareholders of American Express are all major institutional shareholders. It's too easy for these guys to let the media speak out."

Hearing her fiancé's comments, little Laura took out a tissue and wiped the coffee from the corner of his mouth.

Then she shrugged playfully, "We don't understand this. Are you full? If you are full, you will have received our "atonement"."

Abel laughed, "You took care of me so much today. Are you atoneing for last night?"

No wonder two people would do something that only a maid would do this morning.

"Otherwise? In a few days, we will go back to school! Although school has not started yet, several professors have started teaching. We are good students, so of course we will not miss it." Little Laura said confidently.

Li Xinyu helplessly agreed beside him.

"Okay. I have received your thoughts. I'm full. Then I'll go take care of things first."

after an hour.

Smith Tower, on the 52nd floor, in Abel's unique and huge office in the entire building.

Smith Capital CEO David Mellon,

Smith Capital shareholders Soros and Buffett,

There is also shareholder representative Sullivanston,

Sitting in a circle around Abel in the sofa seating area of ​​the office.

"It's very obvious. Fisher, Vanguard, Fidelity, State Street, Wellington, they're the biggest opponents."

Sullivanston, chairman and CEO of PNC Financial Services Group, said:

"They came to me and asked me to tell you their position. That is, they are opposed to American Express being privatized."

When Abel began to join American Express Company and competed with the original executives of American Express Company for control.

These five Wall Street giants, under Abel's instigation and temptation, once stood on his side.

Later, seeing the profit, he jumped to the opposite side of him.

Throughout the process, he was jumping sideways.

Now when Abel wants to let Smith Capital, or American Pacific Commercial Bank, privatize American Express.

As expected, these capital hyenas stood up again to oppose Abel's idea.

"They can't succeed." Abel said directly: "Rejection is in vain. I already own 50.9% of the shares of American Express. More than half of the shares."

Sullivanston shrugged, "I'm just passing on a message. Of course I'm on our side!"

Abel looked at Soros and Buffett.

The two also quickly expressed their opinions.

"Look what I'm doing? I'm the first to support your acquisition of American Express. You know, this time last year, I was the largest shareholder of American Express."

This is Buffett.

"Perhaps we can attack these institutions and companies with heavy holdings. Let these hyenas understand who can and cannot be messed with on Wall Street."

Soros's statement was more direct, and it was indeed the approach of the Oilers or Soros.

It was Abel's turn to express his stance, and he said directly:

"We can't live without American Express. Whether it's American Express Bank, American Express Asset Management, or American Express Travel Services."

"As long as the U.S. Pacific Commercial Bank is annexed and digested, we can welcome the arrival of the Texas consortium with a completely new look."

"At that time, we will be able to conduct this asset merger from a more advantageous perspective."

After Abel finished speaking, he looked at everyone and everyone's faces became serious, and he began to say again:

"In other words, American Express is an important part of our financial sector. No one can be an exception, and no one can fail to contribute. This is not a force, this is a responsibility, this is an obligation. I hope everyone understands this."

After his lengthy speech, several shareholders and shareholder representatives were silent for a while.

Buffett was the first to express his stance, "I understand what you mean. I will take care of Vanguard Group and Fidelity. Peter likes you very much."

Vanguard has a good relationship with Buffett and is even one of the major shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway.

Buffett dares to say this, and it seems that he is really sure to handle Vanguard Group.

As for Fidelity, it is the company where former stock angel Peter Lynch worked. And it was Peter Lynch who single-handedly brought it to its current scale.

It is now one of the largest mutual fund companies in the United States, and the number of assets under management is not even lower than that of Wells Fargo and Citibank.

Peter Lynch and Buffett also have a very good relationship.

It has been more than two decades since Stock Angel retired, but his influence on Fidelity is unquestionable.

Looking at the meaning of Buffett's words, Abel guessed that he wanted to use Peter Lynch to get Fidelity.

As for Peter Lynch being interested in Abel... who in the United States is not interested in Abel?

After the stock god made his statement, Abel looked at Soros and Sullivanston.

"State Street, Fisher Asset Management. Let me give it a try." Soros said softly.

These two Wall Street giants have strong Oilers backgrounds.

Abel even speculated that some of the shareholders behind them may also own some shares of Smith Capital.

It’s Soros and Bloomberg, the 8% combined.

Bloomberg is not here today because today is January 1st.

It was the day he officially took office and became the mayor of New York.

Bloomberg is very busy today. He will participate in multiple oaths to express his allegiance to New York and will participate in a citywide parade in the evening.

Because they trust Abel, or know what Abel decides, the other shareholders combined can't do anything to Abel.

Bloomberg was very straightforward and gave Abel full power to make the decision. He just had to tell him what he wanted to do.

Not counting the Texas consortium that has not yet been integrated, there is also the Bush family, which is basically represented by Abel.

Among the remaining shareholders of the Smith Consortium, the only one that has not expressed its stance is PNC Financial Services Group.

Abel looked at Sullivanston.

"call--"

The latter took a breath and said helplessly: "I am different from you. Well, I will try to deal with Wellington."

Abel nodded with satisfaction.

The five largest and most vocal institutions holding shares in American Express were settled.

The remaining institutions with lower shareholdings only need to be defeated one by one.

He is sure of this.