America: My Time

Chapter 1559 Fear Under the Counterattack
Chapter 1549 Fear Under the Counterattack

Enron was not the only one targeted; WorldCom and Pacific Gas and Electric Company were also targeted by Hurricane Capital. The financial reports detailed their questions and provided detailed calculations of the companies' financial statements.

"A madman! This guy is a madman! How dare he do this?" Faced with John's counterattack, even the old guys were getting restless. They hadn't expected John to dare to do something like this, to directly overturn the other party's table and expose their secrets. But these secrets were full of falsehoods, causing the stock prices of these companies to plummet.

"I told you long ago not to push things too far, but you wouldn't listen. Now look at WorldCom and Enron, both are in crisis, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company is no exception. It didn't commit fraud, but its financial situation is even more precarious. You're always so self-righteous, thinking you have everything under control, but you've controlled nothing. You always want more profit, but you haven't focused your energy on one thing. Now that problems have arisen, how are you going to clean up this mess?" Morgan calmly looked at Rockefeller, completely unconcerned by the man's anger. This was all their own doing. If these old guys didn't handle this well, no one would dare step into their contest with John again. After all, pawns are too easily eliminated. With such a raging crisis, who would dare to oppose John!
“Morgan, just shut up. We did underestimate John’s abilities, but do you really think we could fight this guy even if we focused all our efforts on one thing?”

"Heh, your mindset is flawed. Why do you insist on opposing John? Why don't you choose to cooperate with him? You always say you've been impacted by John, but every time you mess things up. You've never succeeded since the beginning of the game world. If you weren't so domineering and instead chose a gentler approach, trying to cooperate with John, things wouldn't be like this now. You always want to have it all to yourself, which is why you've suffered such an impact."

"Alright, stop this nonsense, Morgan. You've seen the situation. If this continues, the consequences will be severe. There has to be a solution. You should understand that if things escalate too much, it will affect the entire US economy. We need to resolve this issue as quickly as possible." Although unwilling to compromise, reality forced Rockefeller to do so. Besides, he had already compromised once; another time wouldn't be a big deal!
“I know what you’re worried about. You’re worried that John’s acquisition of Pacific Gas and Electric will affect your plans, right? You’re just worrying too much. Do you think those guys at Donald’s would give John such an opportunity under these circumstances? Do you think they would accept John’s acquisition of Pacific Gas and Electric? John doesn’t even have such an idea. After all, he doesn’t have a good relationship with Donald’s, especially those guys in California.”

Morgan's statement is true. John had previously moved most of his businesses from California to Oregon, which had a significant impact on the Donalds, especially in California. Hollywood was broken up, and some companies in Silicon Valley also left. With such deep conflicts between the two sides, even if John wanted to acquire Pacific Gas and Electric, it would be impossible for him to succeed. The Donalds would definitely step in to block it, so the acquisition was not going to work!

“Morgan, you’re wrong. I’m not worried about Pacific Gas and Electric, after all, that’s a power system issue. I’m worried about WorldCom. I’m worried that John Gazprom is gaining control of the communications field and competing with us for the communications market. Moreover, this guy is developing too fast. We haven’t even squeezed out all the benefits from the previous generation of technology, but this guy wants to upgrade to a new system. This is something we old guys don’t want to see.”

"It's too late to say anything now. John's plan has already begun. The tests have yielded good results. If you can't accept it, there's nothing I can do. After all, this isn't something I can interfere with. And don't forget, while Bell Labs is very strong, the Europeans are no slouch either. If they succeed first, you should know how serious the consequences will be. John's early intervention is understandable. Even if the world collapses, it won't affect the overall situation. All you care about is your own interests being harmed!" Morgan didn't mince words with these old guys, directly stating their thoughts. These old guys only cared about profit!
“Morgan, that’s going too far. We’re not like you, able to emerge unscathed from the dot-com bubble. We suffered significant losses. Under these circumstances, we certainly can’t afford any more losses! You and I might not care, but can others? So many families rely on those shares. John is ruthlessly putting them to death!”

"Heh, who are you trying to fool? This is a normal business battle. From the moment they made their investment choices, they had to bear all the consequences. If WorldCom hadn't participated in the actions against John, they wouldn't have suffered any losses. Since they did it, they have to pay the price for their actions, unless Mellon is willing to take responsibility for them. Don't forget, we just reached an agreement with John, and it was with the approval of all the upper-class people. If you want to interfere, you have to be prepared to bear all the consequences."

At this moment, Morgan's voice turned gloomy. He was very dissatisfied with Mellon's attitude. After all, this was an agreement he had personally completed. How long had it been? Someone wanted to go back on their word and try to play tricks. Wasn't this a slap in the face for Morgan? Did they really think Morgan was easy to bully?
“Morgan, don’t be angry. Mellon didn’t mean it that way. He was just a little agitated. After all, too many people were involved this time, and Mellon suffered a lot of losses. Actually, we all feel the same way. We have to admit that John is a prodigy. What he can do, we can’t do. Just as you said, we were indeed too greedy. But as an old family, you should know how much pressure we face in the face of John’s rapid rise.”

“Rockefeller, don’t use these reasons. They’re useless. You were the ones who begged me to negotiate with John. The agreement has only been signed for a short time, and someone’s already having ulterior motives. If you’re not afraid of John’s retaliation or the breach of the agreement, I can turn a blind eye. You’ll have to bear all the consequences then, and I will definitely not interfere again.”

Faced with Rockefeller's explanation, Morgan showed no sign of backing down. He couldn't afford to back down on this matter any further; if he did, things would truly spiral out of control. Morgan knew perfectly well how mad John was. Before witnessing John's plans in Asia firsthand, he hadn't paid much attention. Only after seeing them did he realize how thorough John's preparations were. With the conflict reignited, they were facing a John who had truly gone mad!

“Alright, you have a point. We won’t go back on our word, and we certainly won’t break our promise. The consequences are indeed something we can’t afford. But John has gone too far. His short selling of major tech companies, and his targeting of companies like WorldCom and Enron, have caused us considerable trouble and given us a huge headache!” “Rockefeller, if only you had listened to me back then! If you had listened to my advice, none of this would have happened. I told you you could have given up the stakes and gotten John to back down, but what did you say? You refused. You insisted on seizing that profit. What’s the use of saying all this now? This is your own choice, and you will bear all the consequences. The agreement clearly states that John is not targeting Wall Street or the semiconductor industry, and you cannot do anything about it. If John finds any fault with you, you will bear all the consequences.”

Morgan had no choice but to be assertive. If he remained indifferent at this point, he would be standing against John. As an ally, he had to shoulder the responsibilities of an ally. Therefore, no matter what, Morgan had to stand by John's side this time and protect John from the schemes of these old guys. He would not let them drag him into it again!

Without waiting for Rockefeller's reply, Morgan took a deep breath and continued, "You should think this through. John is not in the United States. If you insist on playing with fire, then you should be prepared for a counterattack. If any further problems arise, I will not intervene, and you should not come to me again. I have done the best I can."

Seeing Morgan's attitude, these old guys sighed inwardly. The reason they did this was to bring Morgan into the picture, hoping that he would step in again to salvage some of their losses, or even persuade John to show mercy and let them escape from danger.

Now that the dot-com bubble has burst, everyone here is under immense pressure. After all, they all invested heavily when the internet was booming, and now that the bubble has burst, they have suffered heavy losses. If they are hit again in their traditional industries at this time, the consequences will be even more severe, and they will be severely damaged!

The happier these guys were when they ousted John from the forefront of the internet, the more they regretted it now. They never imagined that their good times would be so short-lived. Unfortunately, it's all over now, and they can only face it. With Morgan's stance, even the old guys like Rockefeller had no choice but to accept their fate!

“Alright, we’ll do whatever you say. We absolutely won’t interfere or give John a chance to make a move. But there’s one thing I want to understand: if Morgan really wants to cooperate with John to push forward with the next stage of communication standards, you should know how much this will affect us. Although we’ve made some profits, compared to our previous investment, the returns haven’t been significant!”

Upon hearing this, Morgan's expression hardened, and he said in a deep voice, "It's true. If I could, I wouldn't want to accept Bell Labs' upgrade of communications either, but everything is out of our control. Europe is catching up too fast. If we can't get ahead, they'll control us. Don't you know how serious the consequences would be? At least we haven't faced any suppression or resistance from John's side, but if the Europeans control everything, do you think that's still possible? I don't believe you don't know how profitable the overseas market is!"

"Are these Europeans crazy? Aren't they worried about their investments going down the drain? Don't they understand that technological updates don't need to be this fast? We're already trying our best to control everything, but these guys just have to go against us!" At this moment, someone couldn't help but curse, because just thinking about the funds needed for the upgrade made their hearts ache!
"There's nothing we can do about it. After all, the Europeans aren't on our side, and even the British aren't. Those guys are afraid of John's encroachment on their territory. You know, John has already taken control of the British Isles and Northern Europe. Do you think they wouldn't be afraid that John would further shrink their living space? Over the years, John hasn't accumulated the returns from his overseas investments. Instead, he's directly increased his overseas investments. So how could the Europeans not be anxious? Especially after this dot-com bubble crisis, they were directly plunged into the crisis and suffered huge losses!"

"What losses have the Europeans suffered? They're all acting independently, so how much could they possibly lose?" someone said dismissively. After all, the Europeans are indeed all ambitious and greedy, and none of them want others to control their markets, so they've all been frantically investing huge sums of money in the internet, and now they're all dumbfounded! But in the eyes of the American conglomerates, such losses are insignificant, after all, they're just small fry.

"You're wrong. The losses from the internet are minor; the real problem is their losses in semiconductor chips. Even we're being suffocated by John's dominance in the semiconductor chip field. Do you think the Europeans will be unscathed? Think about John's presence in Europe. Whether in communications or personal computers, they've all been suppressed by John. How could those guys not invest heavily in researching their own semiconductor chips? Profit is a powerful motivator. For those guys, they all want to drive us and John out of Europe and seize control of their markets. So when the dot-com bubble burst, they also suffered huge losses, but they fared better than us. They were less affected, while we were more severely impacted." At this point, Morgan sighed, his heart heavy with worry.

(End of this chapter)