Chapter 182

Isaac thought Jonathan was hiding his tears of blood with a smile. Although he had interacted with Jonathan several times in the past through doc.u.ments and phones, this was his first time seeing him in person. Isaac asked for a handshake first.

“I have always been waiting for you to come,” Isaac said.

“I also wanted to thank you in person. We were able to withdraw from the oil market thanks to you,” Jonathan replied.

“I’m glad that you can think of it that way.”

“I’m serious. You must have worked hard raising that capital. It was an opportunity for me to realize why people admire the Rothschild family so much. It was hard to believe that the Rothschilds would have such power to control cash movement until all the transactions were concluded. You guys are amazing.”

As Jonathan stated, the Rothschilds had to draw money from all the banks around the world by placing the family a.s.sets as collateral. It was their only option to accept a number of pouring transactions.

However, it was worth it as full control of the oil market had come under Rothschilds, which was an unprecedented event in history. Even oil-producing countries were now walking on eggsh.e.l.ls, always paying attention to their family. For instance, OPEC[1] had to ask for their opinion and permission first in order to coordinate crude oil production.

Isaac had a hard time holding back his laughter because Jonathan’s nonchalant att.i.tude was funnier than any clown he had ever seen before.

“Are you okay?” Jonathan asked.

“...Ha…hahaha… I’m… I’m fine. I’ll talk to you later, then.”

Since Isaac had left in a hurry, he didn’t notice that Jonathan was shaking even more than him as the other man was also trying to keep a straight face.

***

(Back to Seon-Hu’s point of view.)

There are three categories in North American mortgage credit rating.

First Cla.s.s: Prime

Second Cla.s.s: Alt-A.

Third Cla.s.s: Subprime.

The term ‘subprime’ from the Great Recession, also commonly known as the subprime mortgage crisis, originated from this. People in the prime cla.s.s had affluent lives and stable jobs, but those in the subprime cla.s.s were poor. The reason why real estate loans became widespread, which were known as mortgage loans, among these people was simple. As I had once mentioned before, everything happened as causes and effects were intertwined.

Let’s think back to the moment I went back in time. Wait, never mind. Let"s think back to the Asian financial crisis, which the System defined as ‘after a tutorial.’

Investment banks and speculators worldwide had caused a foreign exchange crisis in Asia to attack Korea, but the fear didn’t stop in Seoul. It had unexpectedly hit Russia and South America too. At that time, the U.S. government was in trouble because the Asian economic crisis was heading toward them. Therefore, they defended themselves by lowering the interest rates by one notch as it was their last resort that worked as a step to stimulate the economy. Since they had lowered the interest rate, investors had no reason to invest in banks and bonds. Their money caused a dotcom boom, coupled with hopes for a new millennium.

All bubbles were bound to burst one day. Since the U.S. government felt like their economy would be in danger again as the dotcom bubble exploded, they lowered the interest rates one step further. Meanwhile, terrorists attacked their mainland, and they tried boosting their economy by lowering interest rates again.

However, lowering interest rates wasn’t an all-cure panacea. With interest rates falling to the bottom, people no longer felt a burden when they had to borrow money from banks. At this point, anyone could borrow money. Entrepreneurs would have used these loans for businesses, but it was obvious what the general public would do. They started borrowing money and purchasing the houses they had been eyeing. Therefore, the prices of houses jumped day by day. It was to the point that even people who were unwilling to buy a house had to get one.

That was how the North American real estate bubble occurred. However, the problem was that the forces that rode the bubble weren’t limited to the general public. Greed on Wall Street had begun to seep into society.

A typical income source of the banks was interests from their loans. By lending money, they earned interest, but they had begun lending money to those whom they shouldn’t have, such as the poor subprime cla.s.s. These subpar lending processes were only possible because they were hedging on the fact that housing prices would rise again next year, and that it was enough to hold the borrower’s house as collateral. The more loans a bank gave, the more interest and profit they gained. Thus, they began lending one hundred percent of the house price. In North America at this time, anyone could buy a house without spending any money, no matter how expensive the house was. On top of this, the general public’s greed was being added to the equation. Some tried taking a loan under the name of their parents who had pa.s.sed away, and the bank willingly lent money with a big, bright smile. Up to this point was the first stage.

A bank warehouse was not the genie’s magic lamp. Money in there disappeared instantly, so they looked for a way to secure cash. Therefore, they made collateral products that linked to the collateralized houses and sold them to investors. Then, they could finally secure cas.h.!.+ Up to this point was the second stage.

The first and second stages repeated infinitely like a Mobius strip. However, the most problematic part was that one of the big pillars of such a system was taken by the subprime cla.s.s who had purchased houses with interest instead of their own money.

Think about it. How could they borrow money without any worries? Because the interest rate was cheap. The answer was clear. If the government ordered banks to increase interest rates, these people had to follow, and from that moment on, the gates of h.e.l.l opened. If they didn’t pay their interest, they would lose their house. It wouldn’t be an issue if it stopped there, but the real problem was that even the products they bought by placing their houses as collateral would be gone as well.

That was how the huge crisis that numbed the world’s financial system began. You must be wondering why the elites just sat aside and watched this obvious problem happen. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty, but at the time, all of these financial products were entangled in a complicated way. There was also a scam show that hid the actual crisis to sell such financial products. Only a few people would have noticed this raked money beforehand, and they were not mainstream. In fact, I was one of the mainstream elites who created this.

Anyway, out of the 2.7 trillion dollars worth of mortgage business I had sold to the Rothschild family, 1.7 trillion money was directly related to the subprime cla.s.s people. In other words, all of that would evaporate soon.

“Keuk!”

Besides the capital the Rothschilds had brought in return for giving up the oil market, they had burdened themselves with a megaton nuclear bomb, the mortgage business.

In my past life, the Lehman Brothers were the key figures in the subprime crisis. Their bankruptcy was estimated to be at 670 billion dollars, and it was a historical record that would never be broken by anything until the Day of Advent.

However, they had now been ousted and had taken on supporting roles, so they actually should have thanked and bowed to me thousands of times. I had engulfed the subprime market with a bigger mouth than theirs, and the Rothschild family would clear up my vomit. The protagonist of this crisis was the Rothschild Group’s investment banking chain, not the Lehman Brothers.

“Keuk, keuk…!”

This year’s Bilderberg Club meeting was underway starting from today. I wanted to fly in immediately and watch the havoc unfold. People had said the 2003 conference was horrible, but they were wrong. This year’s Bilderberg Club meeting would be the worst ever. The Rothschilds would instruct the North American members not to raise interest rates, but the U.S. government wouldn’t let them do it as they could no longer stand by the real estate bubble. There would be no reconciliation between them, and neither side could back down. Thus, there was a high possibility that the Bilderberg Club was about to be shattered.

That was why I sent Jonathan to the club. He carried lots of invitation letters, and I had already named the new club. Since the Bilderberg Club was named after the hotel they had held the first meeting near Amsterdam, the new club’s name would be ‘Jeon-il Club.’ The Jeon-il Club’s first conference would be held at the Jeon-il Hotel in Saemangeum Resort next year.

***

Jonathan buried his face in the pillow as soon as he entered the room.

“Hahahaha! Hahahahaha! Oh gosh, I’m going crazy.”

He couldn’t stop laughing and even rolled around on the bed with a pillow in his arms while kicking his feet in excitement. He barely managed to calm down and walked toward the window.

Despite Seon-Hu’s saying that his groups had a great influence in the Bilderberg Club, they had somehow been isolated like loners. The center was, of course, Isaac Rothschild. If someone who wasn’t aware of the Bilderberg Club looked at the conference, they would have thought it was a social party hosted by the Rothschild family.

“Enjoy it as much as you like, idiot.”

When Jonathan was muttering out the window, someone knocked on the door.

“Would it be okay if we talk for a bit?”

It was Gillian and his wife, Jessica. However, Jessica was trying to stop Gillian, but Gillian stepped into the room with a stubborn face. Jonathan felt like he knew why Gillian had come because of the name that he had heard of occasionally: Odin. Jonathan didn’t know the truth at first, but he soon realized that it was one of Seon-Hu’s other aliases while talking to Joshua.

“I’m so sorry. I just can’t stop him. Ah, you haven’t even unpacked yet,” Jessica said.

“There’s nothing to unpack.”

Jonathan used his chin to point at a bag he had brought and walked toward it. He took out a small envelope and handed it to Gillian.

“I’m glad you came. He told me to give this to you first.”

“What is this?”

Jonathan shrugged with a smile. There was only an invitation letter in the envelope, and Jonathan spoke to Gillian, who was opening it.

“Odin sent it.”

Gillian froze and stared at Jonathan.

“He wanted to thank you as you have completed his difficult requests. Check it out. You were the first one Odin invited.”

Jessica clasped Gillian’s hand, and his hand stopped trembling immediately because of his wife’s warmth. Jessica nodded to Gillian, and he finally opened the envelope.

[Date: May 5th, 2009

Location: Jeon-il Hotel, Saemangeum Resort, South Korea.

Host: Na Seon-Hu (Jeon-il Club)]

“You have met him before, Gillian. You have met Odin… I mean you must know Seon-Hu as Ethan.”

Gillian’s eyes widened at Jonathan’s words.

1. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. ☜