Chapter 801： financial crisis

In late August, the North American box office of "Transformers 2" reached the threshold of 400 million U.S. dollars, and the global box office was close to 900 million U.S. dollars. Ryan also received his first share of the lead actor and producer, which was as high as The 70 million US dollars of funds were transferred to Sandy's trust fund after setting aside tax.

At the same time, "Iron Man 2", which was released in early May, was officially dropped from North America, taking away a box office figure of 345.52 million U.S. dollars. The global box office also crossed the threshold of 700 million U.S. dollars. One hundred million U.S. dollars.

After the North American box office of "Robot Walle" exceeded 200 million US dollars, the growth rate became extremely slow. According to the box office trend, North America should eventually win a little more than 220 million US dollars, and the global box office is about 530 million US dollars. , Disney's idea of ​​going back to the box office will inevitably fail.

Fortunately, although the sales of the peripheral products of the film are not very good, they can always sell a lot. There is also the follow-up income from DVD video tapes, Internet on-demand and TV copyright, and there is no problem in achieving profitability.

"Robot Wall" and "Transformers 2" can be described as two extremes. Telling the story may not win the market, and making movies based on the current market needs is more likely to get big sales.

No one can deny that "Robot Walli" is far better than "Transformers 2", and the two sides have at least two levels of income for the production company.

Ryan is not just an actor. He represents the interests of Disney, a huge commercial group. Especially at this stage, Disney must come up with beautiful profit figures to tide over the next difficulties.

Entering September, the shadow of the financial crisis immediately enveloped the entire North American sky.

Since August 2007, the Federal Reserve has predicted the possibility of a crisis. They injected liquidity into the financial system to increase market confidence. The US stock market has also been able to maintain at a high level, and the situation does not seem to be very bad.

However, in August this year, the share prices of the two major U.S. mortgage lenders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, plummeted. Financial institutions holding the "two houses" bonds suffered large losses. The U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve were forced to take over the "two houses". To show the government's determination to deal with the crisis.

But what followed was that Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, the world's two top investment banks with total assets of up to 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars, broke out one after another. The former was forced to file for bankruptcy protection, and the latter was acquired by Bank of America; total assets reached 1 trillion. American International Group, the world's largest insurer based on US dollars, is also unsustainable. While choosing to take over to stabilize the market, the U.S. government expressed its "helpless" to other financial institutions.

This is only part of the outbreak of the crisis. The stock market has begun to turbulence under the influence of the financial market.

Major Hollywood companies are basically listed companies, and they will inevitably suffer shocks. For example, Walt Disney, despite a series of film sales and the opening of Disneyland in the Far East, the market value has dropped by nearly percent in the short term. eleven.

However, the company has been prepared for a long time and has ample cash flow. The response measures are appropriate, and in recent years, almost all of them have been taking the road of investment and production plus distribution. There is no too complicated guarantee and debt relationship, and the impact is not particularly large.

Although there will be losses. But under Ryan's advance warning, Disney's losses are relatively limited.

Giants in other industries, especially the financial industry, are not so lucky. By mid-September, the two remaining investment banks on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley. All had to apply to the Federal Reserve Commission to transform into a bank holding company to avoid risks.

With the transformation of Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley into commercial banks. The traditional term ‘Wall Street Investment Bank’ has disappeared as a historical term.

The federal government and the Federal Reserve have proposed a series of rescue plans, but they have aroused public dissatisfaction.

Sixty-five percent of the American people opposed the government's aid plan. They believed that the big banks first advocated a capitalist-style laissez-faire expansion, but now something goes wrong, they are asking for the socialist way to save the big banks from the national treasury. Capitalists, the people are unemployed, credit bankrupt and losing their houses.

This also laid the groundwork for the future occupation movement early.

As a media group second only to "Time Warner-AOL" in the United States, Walt Disney’s Burbank headquarters has successively appeared representatives of the White House and Wall Street. Ryan’s own phone calls have almost been blown up. In particular, the Jewish groups on Wall Street strongly request the media to release guiding public opinion that the market has begun to stabilize and improve...

The chief of staff of the White House and the head of the New York branch of the National Jewish Association visited Jenkins Manor one after another. Faced with the favors sent by the other party, Ryan would naturally not push the door.

To be precise, they belong to the same class, and safeguarding the interests of this class is a necessary choice, not to mention making Wall Street owe a lot of favor.

How can the domestic contradictions be transferred? The best way is definitely to find an enemy from the outside. The economic crisis has a huge impact. It is impossible for the public in the United States to be fooled by the media. If a public enemy appears, it will certainly disperse some of the complaints against Wall Street and the federal government.

When the major media groups, including Walt Disney and other major media groups that reached agreements with Wall Street, were looking for suitable external conflicts, some people hurriedly jumped out and acted as the best targets.

"This is God's punishment. This is a disaster that God has brought to the Americans. It is the evil result of Western countries' sanctions on Iran. Americans must pay for their foolish behavior!"

On September 20, at the OPEC conference, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again made remarks against the United States.

The whole world is accustomed to such words. If Iran jumps out and shouts a few words from time to time, that would be a weird thing.

But Ahmadinejad was clearly prepared, and he didn't come to the OPEC meeting to release the cannon.

"The West got our oil, but gave us a worthless piece of waste paper-the U.S. dollar! In order to deal with the economic crisis brought about by the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, Iran will convert a large part of its foreign exchange reserves into other currencies."

Even Ahmadinejad also strongly urged OPEC to launch a new currency by itself. "We should establish an Economic Cooperation and Development Organization and a trade bank, as well as carry out currency cooperation, and use the'single currency' for trade among member countries, and then in other countries and neighbors. Implemented in middle schools."

This sounds like a very good suggestion, but no one responded. If OPEC really launched its own currency, how would the United States react? Not to mention the constant disputes within the member states, even if a consensus is reached, I am afraid that war will break out in the Middle East immediately.

Iran and Ahmadinejad are clearly trying to drag all OPEC member states into the black water, using OPEC as a shield against the hostility of the United States and the entire Western society towards Iran.

The news spread back to North America and mainstream media reported on Iran’s rebellion. This nation’s public enemy occupies important sections of print media, television, radio, and the Internet. In the mainstream media’s rendering, it seems that the dollar’s ​​status will be destroyed in the next moment. The U.S. economy has completely collapsed, and the evil and tyrannical Iranians will completely occupy North America.

To a certain extent, the Iranian news in the mainstream media has distracted some people's resentment against Wall Street.

At this moment, the Pentagon announced that a training ship deployed in the Persian Gulf was hit by an Iranian ship, causing 3 soldiers to be injured. The training ship had to be abandoned due to severe damage and finally sank in Persia. In the bay.

Once the news was announced, there was an uproar across North America. Television stations and other Disney-controlled media took the lead in calling out the dispatch of aircraft carrier formations to the Persian Gulf.

The cloud of war over the Persian Gulf has diluted some of the impact of the economic crisis in North America.

"The status of the U.S. dollar as a world currency is not only related to the interests of the United States, but also to the interests of every ordinary citizen."

Looking at Taylor, who was holding Sandy, Ryan continued to say to Nicole, “The last person who wanted to challenge the status of the dollar was the euro. As a result, the Kosovo war broke out and the euro lost its best opportunity to challenge the dollar.”

"So..." Taylor's eyes left Sandy and looked at the couch here, "Iran has violated our bottom line?"

"You can say that." Ryan beckoned at his smiling daughter. "The status of the US dollar as a world currency is not only related to the interests of the federal government and Wall Street, but also the interests of each of us, so Iran It has touched the most sensitive nerve in the United States."

"The ship that sank in the Persian Gulf..."

"True or false is not important." Ryan interrupted Taylor. "The important thing is that the training ship has sunk to the bottom of the Persian Gulf. According to Western media reports, the Iranian crashed and sank. This is enough to divert the attention of many people. Power and sharp contradictions within Western countries."

"You always say these things to Alison." Nicole can't help but complain It's okay, I like these things. "It was probably Sandy who took a bite. After Taylor exclaimed, he kissed the little guy, "I will protect Sandy in the future." "

"Will the Federal Government send an aircraft carrier formation?" Nicole is not uninterested, "Is there really going to be a war in the Persian Gulf."

"It should not be in the short term." Ryan shook his head. "George Bush is about to step down. The economic crisis is still raging, and the government doesn't have that much energy, but..."

"After the impact of the economic crisis diminishes, it will be difficult to say." Taylor suddenly took over Ryan's words. "This is just a temporary transfer of part of the contradiction. After a while, the public will find that their lives have not substantially improved. , And even worsened, it will definitely target Wall Street again. If Iran makes provocative actions again at that time, both the government and Wall Street will be happy to see the outbreak of a local foreign war."

"Iran is now the best target and the most suitable candidate for the culprit in the United States." (To be continued...)

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