Chapter 589 Economic Downturn

The once-in-a-decade meltdown caused a commotion in the U.S. network. At first, most people thought it was a normal technical adjustment and didn't pay too much attention.

But when the stock market began to plummet in all directions and got out of control, everyone realized that something was serious.

Almost everyone's stocks are devaluing, and at the same time they are selling their depreciated stocks to stop losses. In this vicious cycle, a circuit breaker occurs.

Trading in the stock market was forced to stop and it seemed to have calmed down a little, but everyone knew that this was just the beginning.

Luo Quan had nothing to do and also paid attention to the stock market.

The stocks that fell the hardest this time were some oil companies, with losses measured in tens of billions.

Although giants such as Apple, Amazon, and Walmart did not fall as hard as oil companies, because of the size of the companies, even if they fell by a few percentage points, the converted amount would be quite terrifying.

All walks of life have been greatly affected by this circuit breaker, but what is more worrying is not the circuit breaker, but whether a financial crisis will really occur next.

If this happens, it will not be the United States, and it will be a disaster for the whole world.

Even though China survived the last financial crisis unscathed, it came at a price.

After absorbing a large amount of U.S. national debt, China's economy has actually been greatly affected, but these effects have been successfully transferred domestically through the development of real estate.

Therefore, China's economy did not collapse during the 2008 financial crisis, but since then, domestic housing prices, which were not outrageous at first, began to soar at a rocket speed.

In ten years, the salary has more than doubled, but the salary has not increased significantly. This has caused many young people to have a negative attitude when talking about housing. All their ambitions have finally turned into saving enough money to buy a house.

If there is another financial crisis, who knows what will happen, so Luo Quan is still paying close attention to such major events that concern the world, and has been searching for the latest situation on Twitter and reddit.

The latest news received so far is that the problem is not particularly big, and the Federal Reserve is already preparing to regulate it.

If you really can't control it, then just print money and distribute it to the people. Anyway, the United States is now deploying military force around the world. No matter how much money it prints, it can be distributed to countries around the world.

It's very shameless, and also very helpless.

Night passes and day comes.

With the world watching, the U.S. stock market reopened.

This time, investors were well prepared and sold their stocks as soon as the stock market opened, causing the stock price to plummet again.

This time the circuit breaker was broken faster than yesterday, taking less than three hours, which made people all over the world scream outrageously.

The circuit breaker in the United States is actually a rare event in history. It happened twice in the last century, and before yesterday, it only happened once in this century.

Some people may never encounter a meltdown once in their lifetime, but it happened twice in a row yesterday and today, and it may even happen again tomorrow.

I have to say that this time everyone is witnessing history.

The good news is that two consecutive circuit breakers did not have much impact on the Luoquan family.

Albert Group's real estate belongs to the industrial sector, and most of it is concentrated in Europe, which has not yet been affected.

As for some of the investments made by the company in other areas, they are only small investments and would not be worth much if they were all lost.

As for his father's shipping company, it has been delisted a long time ago and has not even started operations yet. Even if the circuit breaker is suspended for a month, it has nothing to do with him.

The same is true for the company Luo Quan invested in. Nikola is probably burying his head and forgetting food and sleep in research and development right now, and he may not even know about the circuit breaker.

Therefore, although Wall Street, which controls the lifeblood of the American economy, is now in a gloomy mood, at least the crew on the outskirts of the casino has not been greatly affected.

After the self-heating hotpot arrived, Luo Quan excitedly called all the employees and recommended this special delicacy from his hometown to them.

"Everyone, this self-heating hot pot is a unique delicacy in my hometown. If you eat this in winter, I guarantee that you will feel warm all afternoon." Luo Quan said as he took out a lunch box-sized self-heating hot pot from the box. .

To be honest, she has never eaten self-heating hot pot, but she has never eaten pork and has seen pigs running away. Many food section up owners on Station B have eaten this type of product.

The brand she bought is the one with the most favorable reviews. There is definitely a gap between it and the freshly cooked hot pot, but the base used is the authentic Yuzhou old hot pot base, and the taste is absolutely the best.

As for the ingredients, considering that foreigners might not be able to eat hairy tripe, duck intestines, and blood venom, Luo Quan didn’t buy any. Instead, he picked beef rolls, pork rolls, and the like, and paired them with some vegetarian dishes.

"Friendly reminder, this tastes very spicy, very, very spicy. If you have a bad stomach, you don't have to try it. It's better to choose hot pot fast food." Before the distribution, Luo Quan solemnly reminded everyone who had never eaten hot pot before. colleague.

Whether it’s Sichuan cuisine or hot pot, it’s basically not as spicy as Jiangxi cuisine.

But in addition to being spicy, Sichuan cuisine and hot pot also have the same level of hemp.

When the two flavors are combined, right after you start eating it, your tongue and lips temporarily feel the intense spiciness because it is too numb.

Science has proven that slight pain can excite the senses and lead to addiction. This is why many people get high the more they eat spicy food.

And when you get high, the numb taste gradually fades away, and the spicy taste comes, and the consequences are very serious. It is not an exaggeration to say that your mouth seems to be breathing fire.

And there will be very uncomfortable sequelae the next day, so it is not recommended to try hot pot if the taste is relatively light.

When the crew members saw what the director said, they were curious and immediately became hesitant.

It's good to have a hot meal in the cold and snow, but it's not worth the gain if you suffer from acute gastroenteritis.

Most of the people in the crew do not eat regularly. The director is very busy filming, and the filming lasts for several hours. If he does not speak, no one can rest.

If things go on like this, everyone will have some gastrointestinal problems to some extent. After all, not all directors can be like Luo Quan who can actually eat as soon as meal time comes, and can also buy delicious food from his hometown and bring it to the crew to share with everyone.

Although they really wanted to give the director face and have a taste of hot pot, considering the actual situation, many people still did not force themselves. In the end, only about 40 brave people dared to stand up and have a taste of hot pot, most of them were boys.

Leon was the most active among them. He took the lead and took a beef hotpot with "Extra Spicy" written on it in Chinese from his sister.

Luo Quan was originally going to eat this, but it was taken away by Leon.

"This is the highest level of spiciness. You can eat it after you think about it." Luo Quan saw his brother fidgeting unpacking the outer packaging and kindly reminded him.

"It doesn't matter, it's just diarrhea at most." Leon said nonchalantly.

Angela picked through the boxes and finally took out a box of "pork in clear soup + potato slices".

On Leon's side, he quickly poured water into the self-heating bag, and soon the boxed hot pot started to boil.

After waiting for five minutes, Leon carefully opened the bag, and a stream of hot air spurted out.

"Here I go, this thing can be used directly as a hand-held heater." Leon screamed strangely and opened the lid of the hot pot box.

What appeared in front of him was bright red chili oil first, and then a spicy aroma hit his nostrils.

Leon took a sip and immediately coughed. He was choking before eating.

"Can you do it? If not, don't force it." Luo Quan himself had already opened the box and was preparing to cook. Seeing that his brother seemed to be in a little trouble, he couldn't help but laugh.

"It's nothing, it's a mistake." Leon grabbed a bottle of ice water and said, "I didn't expect the smell to be so strong. It's so spicy just by taking a sip."

"It's useless to drink water when it gets spicy. You have to drink milk. Milk can secrete a substance to protect your mucous membranes, which is very helpful in reducing the irritation of the pepper." Luo Quan said, throwing a bottle of pure milk to his brother.

These tips are all summed up by her frequent eating of spicy food.

Pure milk is a good thing. Drinking a cup of hot milk before going to bed at night can help you fall asleep. Drinking a cup in the morning is good for your health.

You can drink milk when eating spicy food, and you can also drink milk when drinking alcohol, both of which have a protective effect on the stomach.

The only pity is that many Chinese people are lactose intolerant, and drinking pure milk is prone to diarrhea.

"We'll talk about it later. Let me see how spicy this thing is first." Leon took the milk and put it aside, picked up a spoon, scooped up the soup and meat, and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Wait a minute..." Luo Quan wanted to stop him after seeing it, but it was a step too late.

When eating hot pot, you only eat the vegetables inside. She didn't dare to drink the red soup. Leon just drank a spoonful of it. Is this okay?

Sure enough, after taking a spoonful of red soup, Leon's face suddenly turned from white to red, and his lips began to become bloodshot quickly.

"Oh, my God." Leon now knew what his sister meant when she said it was extremely spicy. This mouthful of soup was like a flame, burning along the esophagus and into the stomach.

At this moment, part of his mouth had temporarily lost consciousness, as if he had bitten something slightly smaller than a pea. After biting it, it was like an injection of anesthetic.

"You are a real cow. You drank the red soup mixed with Sichuan peppercorns. I have never tried eating it this way." Luo Quan quickly opened a bottle of milk and let his brother take a few sips.

Fortunately, it was only one bite, not too much.

"Uh..." Leon's face looked as if he had drunk three kilograms of Erguotou. He was a little drunk and it became difficult to speak.

"This hot pot... tastes really good." After recovering a little, Leon found that he could feel sweat on his back.

It was indeed a little uncomfortable at first, but after eating, his taste buds became excited under the painful stimulation.

Soon he spooned again, but this time he spooned beef...

Ten minutes later, Leon put down his spoon and let out a spicy burp.

This meal was so satisfying for him that he was sweating profusely from his forehead.

Leon was not the only one who had the same idea. Other employees who had eaten hot pot also showed quite satisfied expressions, but they were not so brave. Not many of them taste spicy.

After eating, Luo Quan went to the medical team and asked them to prepare medicine for gastroenteritis, which might be used at night.

Fortunately, everyone's stomach is still strong, and since they dare to eat hot pot, they still have the confidence, so there are no illnesses.

However, it is unknown how many people's walking postures became strange after taking the tuba the next day. Anyway, Leon did not sit down much the next day, either standing or lying down.

Five days passed in the blink of an eye, and the crew successfully filmed all the real-life scenes in the snow according to the original plan.

The team then returned to Hollywood to prepare for the next phase of filming.

The special effects are the highlight of this movie. Many plots have to be completed in green screen, and there will be quite a lot of non-physical performances.

In any movie, performing without physical objects is one of the most difficult. The imagination and on-the-spot performance of the actors and directors determine what the scene will look like in the end.

Generally, special effects blockbusters will spend a long time in this aspect, because many actions need to be changed. There are too many places that need to be adjusted in the character's position, eyes, and movements.

However, the employees didn't know that Luo Quan already had a standard answer for how to shoot these special effects scenes. It was originally the most difficult part of film shooting, and in her opinion, it was not that difficult.

In the remaining three days in the casino, the U.S. stock market experienced a circuit breaker again, the financial market had all shut down, and there were more and more news about leeks and capitalists jumping off buildings.

At this dangerous moment, the Fed finally started printing money.

Green dollars poured out of the printing press in a steady stream. These papers, which were not worth much at first, became dollars worth more than gold after being printed with Franklin and watermarks.

This is the ultimate manifestation of the strength and hegemony of the United States. They can print money at will and make the whole world pay for it, because the U.S. dollar is the world's common currency and is also tied to the strategic resource of oil.

After the money printing machine started running, the circuit breaker that lasted for three days finally stopped. Although it was still falling, the amplitude was much smaller.

And on the fifth day, the curve rebounded briefly.

However, this did not last long, and decline was still the main theme in the stock market.

The evaporated capital will not come back so easily. The people at the bottom are really bankrupt, and most of the banknotes printed by the Federal Reserve cannot be given to their skills. After all, American relief stations have never lacked food.

But the economic downturn is definitely unavoidable. But then again, since the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. economy has been going backwards. So what if it doesn't downturn?

But at least the financial crisis will not appear, at least there are no such signs now.

ps. Thanks to book friend Zi Ming for the 5,000 book coins, thank you very much!