Rebirth 76: Industrial Internet Empire

2001 9 Month 11 Day.

Yang Mo got up earlier than usual. He didn't go for morning exercises as usual. After a brief wash, he stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window uneasily...

At 5:50 in the morning, a hint of fish belly white just appeared on the horizon. Silicon Valley, where coders gather, has not yet woken up from its slumber. There is not a single person on the road.

"Beep beep..." A harsh phone ring rang in the living room, suddenly breaking the tranquility of the early morning...

After Yang Mo sighed, he turned and walked to the living room and picked up the phone on the coffee table.

Lin Xi's somewhat panicked voice came from the phone: "Yang Mo, turn on the TV! Big news. A few minutes ago, two United Airlines Boeing planes crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York..."

Yang Mo turned on the TV, and almost all the TV stations were playing the same scene: two Boeing planes, one after another, crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York within ten minutes!

Machines were destroyed, people were killed, buildings collapsed...

The announcer repeatedly announced in an extremely solemn voice:

"Now a quick news. At 7:59 this morning, a Boeing plane flying from Boston Logan International Airport to Los Angeles was hijacked. After changing its flight route several times, it flew at 8 kilometers/km at 46:790. The plane crashed into the 94th to 98th floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center at a speed of hour. The jet fuel on the plane exploded violently. The casualties are currently unknown!"

"Seventeen minutes later, Flight 17, also flying from Boston's Logan Airport to Los Angeles, was also hijacked and crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center..."

Bad news came one after another. A total of four passenger planes were hijacked...

About half an hour later, Lin Xi, Li Heping, and Qian Ning drove to Yang Mo's house almost at the same time.

Everyone was silent and stared at the TV screen with solemn faces.

After a while, Yang Mo stood up, turned off the TV and said, "The Twin Towers have collapsed, but the sky has not fallen. Why are you all looking so sad?"

"Mr. Yang, although the short CFD and stock index futures positions we hold are unprecedentedly beneficial, after all, there are thousands of lives! We have to mourn for a while..." Qian Ning said.

"Go back after mourning! You may be very busy today!" Yang Mo said expressionlessly.

"What are you busy with! I just received a notice that the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade are all shut down!" Qian Ning said disapprovingly.

"The shutdown will make you even more busy! Brokerages are afraid that they will come to you all over the world to terminate the contract. Just tell your relatives and friends that you are safe and shut down your phone!" Yang Mo said.

"Terminate the contract? How is it possible?" Qian Ning asked in confusion.

"Lin Xi, please explain to him what the force majeure exemption clause is!" Yang Mo chuckled.

“According to the provisions of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the party suffering force majeure may terminate the contract or delay performance without assuming liability!” Lin Xi said.

"Huh? Then all our careful arrangements were in vain?" Qian Ning asked unwillingly.

Lin Xi shook his head and said: "Not necessarily. According to the latest judicial interpretation of the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission, under normal circumstances, securities transactions do not apply to force majeure exemption clauses. If you want to terminate the contract, a force majeure event must make the performance of the contract impossible. To terminate a contract, and in securities trading, there is generally no force majeure event that prevents the contract from being continued to be performed! Instead, it applies to delayed performance clauses, such as suspension of trading, which causes force majeure to temporarily hinder the performance of the contract, and the transaction can be delayed!"

"Lin Xi, if the brokerage reduces its holdings and terminates the contract, how sure are you of winning this lawsuit?" Yang Mo asked.

"If they simply propose to terminate the contract for difference, I am 90% sure that I can win, but I am afraid that they will mainly delay the performance of the contract..." Lin Xi said after pondering for a moment.

Before he finished speaking, the phone in Yang Mo's pocket kept vibrating, and Yang Mo pressed the hands-free button: "Mr. Yang, this is James Gorman. I need to meet with you as soon as possible to have a chat. It’s about CFDs!”

Yang Mo smiled bitterly and said: "Mr. Gorman, I'm very sorry. I can't meet with you right now. Such a sudden change requires Zhiyuan Group to formulate various emergency plans. Regarding the CFD business, you can first send someone to Zhiyuan Investment Communicate with the Risk Assessment Department!”

...............

It took a long time for Gorman to put down the busy phone. It had been a long time since he became executive chairman of Morgan Stanley and no one had hung up on him.

"Your Excellency, President, has Yang Mo agreed to meet? What should we do now?" McHarvey asked anxiously.

Gorman shook his head and smiled bitterly: "As expected, Yang Mo refused to meet! Mike, make a special trip to San Francisco to try to meet Yang Mo and explain our plan to terminate the contract. In addition, let the risk control department continue to press Pay the deposit, and the legal department will prepare for the worst and prepare for a series of lawsuits that may follow."

…………

Monday, August 2001, 9.

The New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, which had been closed for four trading days, resumed operations one after another, setting a record for the longest market closure since World War I!

Before the market opened, the Federal Reserve and major European central banks announced interest rate cuts of 0.5 percentage points each to boost investor confidence.

In the hall of the New York Stock Exchange, every investor looked solemn, as if waiting for the doomsday judgment...

After three dull gongs of "Bang Bang Bang", the early trading opened.

As everyone expected, selling orders continued to emerge, and there was almost no buying order in the entire market.

Less than half an hour after the market opened, the Dow Jones index fell by more than 200 points, and the Nasdaq fell by more than 150 points. Investors were like frightened investors, and their last trace of luck was shattered!

Panic spread rapidly, and more and more people joined the ranks of selling regardless of the cost, and every stock they held became a hot potato...

As of the noon closing, the Dow Jones Index fell 684 points, a drop of more than 7%, and fell below the 9000-point mark.

Under Yang Mo's deliberate guidance, the Nasdaq Index has long deviated from its historical track, falling a full 226 points, a drop of more than 14%, and falling below 1300 points...

The three major indexes plummeted, setting the biggest single-day points drop in the 100-year history of the New York Stock Exchange!

Panic enveloped the entire securities market, trampling each other like an avalanche and fleeing. Investors could only see the stocks they held depreciating like a high dive, but they could not sell them...

Everyone knows in their hearts that this is just the beginning...