Chapter 774 Dinner (Two in One)

The charity gala takes a week to prepare.

There are people in charge of this organization, and the guests include Rubin and Sa, two former financial stewards, which has raised the tone. When Geithner of the New York Fed received Fang Zhuo's call, he also readily accepted it.

In addition, Susan, a member of the board of directors of Northern Trust, and Phipps, vice president of Bessemer Securities of Bessemer Trust, accepted the invitation after hearing the names of Rubin and Sa.

Power and money.

Fang Zhuo thought about it and invited Sony's head Stringer and Google's founder Larry in the business world, so that there are both business relationships and rich people on the list.

Finally, he personally called to invite Michel, a director of Deutsche Bank. This person is responsible for Deutsche Bank's global markets and investment banking business in the United States. He is well-known in the financial circle and has a reputation as a "big shark" because of his style.

MIGA Fund is now gradually cutting off cooperation with Deutsche Bank in the CDO market, but considering the New York Fed's interest in Deutsche Bank, it is also great to have a person like Michel on the scene.

The guest lineup of the evening party laid a basic foundation, Fang Zhuo no longer cared about this aspect, and instead walked around New York City twice.

New York is a financial center and an international metropolis.

In the past few years, the average annual increase in New York housing prices has exceeded 11%. The price of the same property in 2006 was almost 1.9 times that of 2000. In other words, a property purchased for $1 million six years ago can be sold for $1.9 million this year.

This is a realistic basis for the prosperity of the subprime debt market and related securities.

However, in June, which just ended, the high-end real estate market in New York seemed to have ushered in changes. Many properties quietly lowered their prices and sought to sell them more quickly.

On the contrary, the low-end real estate market still seems to be booming.

Fang Zhuo observed the real situation of real estate accompanied by Zhao Zhishan.

When he talked to Xiao Zhao about what he had seen in the past few days, the latter talked about what she knew about the Washington market.

"Mr. Fang, when I was in Washington in May, there were more and more home purchase advertisements, price reduction promotions, and gift certificates in the slightly more remote neighborhoods there, but the number of customers was decreasing."

"Many newly built buildings have not received good responses, so they can only put up signs of "temporary rental."

"Although Washington is not as good as New York, but..."

Zhao Zhishan is not responsible for fund work in the United States, so this is when he remembered what he saw with his own eyes.

Fang Zhuo nodded slightly. Different local samples have different situations, but from the contact and some investigations, the US real estate market has indeed reached a turning point with the Fed's interest rate hike.

Relatively speaking, the situation in New York is better.

In some cities and some small and medium-sized banks, a down payment of 1 million properties can be obtained with only 70,000 US dollars. These will inevitably be precarious after the turning point.

Unlike the actual situation of the real estate market, the CDO securities market has also had some different voices, but it is still prosperous overall.

The same data can lead to different conclusions from different angles.

If you add neglect, luck, paralysis, guidance, and profit-seeking, the market will only believe the conclusion that it is more willing to believe.

On July 8, the New York Institute for Economic and Social Development Charity Dinner was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

On the surface, this charity dinner was to show off the brand of the "New York Institute of Economics".

Secretly, this was to celebrate the re-employment of Mr. Xiao Sa after being laid off.

In the evening, guests arrived in the banquet hall one after another.

At 6:30 in the evening, Zhao Zhishan, who was in charge of this dinner, hurried from the banquet hall to find the boss who had not yet appeared, but found that he was sitting in the room with his legs crossed and reading a newspaper.

"Mr. Fang, Stringer has been here for a while, and Geithner has just arrived."

Zhao Zhishan has had a deep impression on himself these days. The name "Geithner" is very useful.

The cost of this night's charity dinner was about 300,000 US dollars, including the accommodation suite prepared by the Plaza Hotel. It was originally all covered by the MIGA fund. Unexpectedly, when the name of "President Geithner" was mentioned, people immediately squeezed in to sponsor.

Not only was the planned cost not used, but it was also a little more.

In addition, several financial institutions asked about the budget for the charity dinner auction in advance, showing great enthusiasm.

This did not use the names of Summers and Rubin.

"The old jazz came quite early." Fang Zhuo finished reading the last half page of the newspaper and asked, "How is the atmosphere?"

Zhao Zhishan hesitated for a few seconds. How to describe the atmosphere on the scene?

She organized her words and answered, "The atmosphere is not bad. Different people seem to be somewhat distinct."

Fang Zhuo nodded. This is normal.

He drank the remaining half cup of coffee and said to the secretary, "Please help me put away the newspaper and keep it as a souvenir."

Zhao Zhishan took two steps and couldn't help looking back at the newspaper sorted by the secretary. He saw that it was a copy of the New York Times. The title on the page was very conspicuous-"New York house price increases are far from reaching the peak."

She retracted her gaze, quickened her pace, and reported the situation as she walked: "There should be more people participating tonight than planned, because almost all of them brought their girlfriends and friends, and some are quite influential."

"Among them are two New York City Council members and a New York Comptroller."

Fang Zhuo smiled and said: "That's good, it seems that our retired old man activity center can indeed have some influence."

Zhao Zhishan smiled, Retired Old Man Activity Center... People like Rubin and Summers have extraordinary influence and can switch between retirement and office.

Soon, Fang Zhuo and his group arrived at the banquet hall downstairs. The security assistants only took one person in and let him stay on the edge.

Fang Zhuo greeted Geithner first, and then met the auditor general, city council members and others who attended the charity dinner with his introduction.

Then he met old Sir Stringer and met a circle of his friends.

Tonight's charity dinner will have popular American singers Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani performing for free. This is the resource directly pulled from Sony Music.

Fang Zhuo walked around twice, and some people did not match the information, so Zhao Zhishan followed him to give reminders.

"The vice president of Time Warner has a very good reputation."

"The head of Morgan's investment banking business has just taken office and is said to be relatively low-key."

"There are rumors of a romantic affair with this one."

"He is from Alcoa and there is not much information about him."

"Lehman's Fuld does things without leaving room for maneuver and has a fierce style. He is nicknamed "Gorilla" in the industry."

As Zhao Zhishan introduced more and more people, another guest who was briefly reviewed by her walked into the banquet hall. In fact, there was no need to introduce this guest.

Richard Fuld, the head of Lehman, has been in charge of this famous investment bank for more than ten years. Today, he took the initiative to come to support Summers.

Mr. Summers resigned as the president of Harvard, and his dynamics are worth paying attention to.

The chief economic adviser of a new research institution is actually nothing, but Rubin showed up, and a charity dinner was specially held. It can be seen that Mr. Summers still values ​​​​NYSE.

So, Fuld came - many people came for similar reasons.

Fang Zhuo and Fuld shook hands briefly to get to know each other, and then saw Google founder Larry following closely behind.

Larry's trip was actually quite coincidental. When he received a call from Mr. Fang, he was about to fly to New York to buy a villa. He happened to hear about the people in the New York Economic Institute, so he took a night off.

With the surge in Google's stock price, Brin and Larry became the two youngest people in the top 100 richest Americans this year, ranking 12th and 13th respectively.

In fact, a considerable part of the profit income of the MIGA Fund also comes from the purchase of Google stocks.

After all, the opportunity for low-priced Chinese stocks such as NetEase and Sina is only the previous wave. There have been gains in the past two years, but the momentum has been relatively stable. The high-yield reputation of the MIGA Fund is an increase in Internet companies such as Google, Amazon, Penguin, Baidu and US real estate stocks.

Compared with other people in the banquet hall, Fang Zhuo still had a good chat with Larry.

The cooperation between Google and Yike is very important. Both sides have a lot of things to do. There will be a closer connection based on the Android system in the future.

Larry still praised the mobile phone design he saw at the Yike R&D Center that day, but also mentioned a small problem he encountered recently - the Android system has not found an American operator willing to cooperate...

Fang Zhuo: "?"

Larry saw the big question mark that Mr. Fang had typed, and said seriously: "The progress of this matter has encountered problems. For example, AT&T has clearly rejected us, and the attitudes of other companies are not positive."

He frowned and said: "After all, it is the first time for us to develop a mobile phone system. Operators do not trust Google and Android."

"Shouldn't the priority of this cooperation be put forward?" Fang Zhuo was a little helpless.

Larry looked at Mr. Fang's expression and suddenly found it interesting. He smiled and said: "It's being arranged, it's being arranged. There are twists and turns, but we are still confident. We are already digging executives who have jumped out of the operator. This matter should still be discussed from this aspect."

Google is rich and powerful. In order to promote a cooperation, it can spend a lot of money to dig executives with connections.

Fang Zhuo was relieved when he heard this approach. Google is willing to take the money and work hard. It's just afraid that he will delay time.

He led Larry to Geithner's small circle. The two knew each other, but they had never interacted with each other.

Larry didn't like the bureaucratic atmosphere around President Geithner. He chatted politely for a few words and then left to pursue freedom.

However, Fang Zhuo noticed that when Summers and Rubin appeared together, Larry quietly returned to the reception around the president, giving up his freedom for the worship of economists.

At 7:30 in the evening, the guests of the charity gala were basically all there.

Fang Zhuo remembered most of the faces, and the rest depended on Zhao Zhishan's supplement.

The singers sang, the guests socialized, and before the charity auction, everyone was relatively comfortable in their own appropriate circles.

Summers, Rubin, Geithner and their friends had the strongest influence, and those who talked and laughed with them were well-known institutions such as Northern Trust, Bessemer Trust, Lehman, Deutsche Bank, Bear Stearns, and Morgan.

Those who were a little further away were divided according to the size of the company and their identity background.

However, in a dinner party where everyone seems to be dressed in suits but there is an invisible gap, there are also people who do not follow the invisible rules.

Larry is such a rich man.

Not only did he not wear a formal suit, but just a simple and casual T-shirt, he also only maintained respect for a limited number of people. Others would chat if they wanted to, and would not be polite if they did not want to chat.

Fang Zhuo's positioning is somewhat similar to Larry, but his wealth is not as good as the Google founder.

According to this year's ranking of the world's richest people given by Forbes, Larry is ranked 21st with 14 billion U.S. dollars, and the next 22 are Xiangjiang Lijiacheng with 13.5 billion U.S. dollars. Fang Zhuo mainly relies on the rise in Yike's stock price to advance into the top 100. No. 93 with $6.4 billion.

Last year, Fang Zhuo was ranked 165th in the world on the Forbes rich list. This year, he has made great progress.

In addition to his wealth, Fang Zhuo also has some needs to promote MIGA funds today, so things will go more smoothly.

However, when Kong Yu, President of MIGA Fund, was talking about the fund's income further away, an uninvited guest forced MIGA Fund to show its presence.

New York real estate tycoon Agawa is a rich man with an exaggerated behavior style.

He did not receive an invitation to the NYE charity gala, but after learning that there was such a show, he came to the event easily.

Achuan did not bother the small circle of big guys at the scene. He approached the person who spoke to the MIGA Fund with a clear purpose and claimed that he wanted to become a client of the fund.

Fang Zhuo was quite surprised to see a person like Achuan here and now, and his emotions were very complicated.

Agawa started the conversation from the Empire State Building rented by the New York Times, and talked about his relationship with the Empire State Building. He had the operating rights there for the past two years. It was precisely when chatting about the brand presence of the Empire State Building in the past few days that he understood it. After attending such a charity party, the goal was to make money.

He had no intention of asking for trouble from people like Rubin and Summers. Today he wanted to do business and invest in a private placement.

In principle, Fang Zhuo would not refuse investment from a client like Achuan, but in terms of specific negotiations, he still recommended him to Kong Yu, who was busy sharpening his skills, without much communication.

It was this scene that made a group of drinkers such as Lehman and Bear Stearns talk about MIGA Fund, an increasingly famous private equity fund.

Phipps of Bessemer Securities has decided to invest in the MIGA fund, and he expressed his appreciation for its investment strategy: "It is not without reason that the MIGA fund has gained so much fame in just a few years. Mr. Fang is very discerning. Google and Amazon made decisive choices.”

Susan from Northern Trust also conducted as much detailed research on the MIGA fund as possible before coming. However, her perspective was more biased towards the activities of this private equity company and its series of institutions in the CDO market.

In her view, with figures like Rubin, Summers, and Geithner at the forefront, the probability of MIGA funds making money is extremely high.

Susan also praised the MIGA fund a few times and believed that investing money in it was a wise choice.

Phipps and Susan were both quite prominent people. When they spoke, everyone in the circle praised Mr. Fang and his foundation.

"I heard that MIGA Fund is selling stocks of companies such as Google and Amazon. It must also know that the prospects of these companies have reached a bottleneck. Without such lucky investments, how can this private equity company maintain its high returns?" Lehman's Forecast said. De listened for a while, somewhat disapproving.

"MIGA Fund has also done well in cooperating with Bank of Washington and Goldman Sachs in the CDO market. Even if the returns are not as high as before, there will definitely be good opportunities." Susan said.

Fuld laughed and said: "Then you might as well buy our Lehman securities directly. We have launched several very good products this month, which will definitely be more stable and safer than private placement as a dealer."

He means it sincerely. Lehman is a first-level player in this market, while MIGA is at most third or fourth level. The level gap between the two also represents the profit gap.

Geithner, who was walking over, was a little unhappy when he heard this. Why is this gorilla so disrespectful? Are you slapping Mr. Fang in the face?

No, you're preventing me from making money!

Another time, another occasion, forget it, tonight in front of potential big clients like Northern Trust and Bessemer Securities, you are really not betraying anyone at all!

You really finished eating the meat and didn’t let anyone else drink the soup!