The Fourth Disaster Begins at the Dawn of the Millennium

Unstable power supply not only brings huge losses to ordinary people, but also some so-called capitalists are deeply affected. Whenever they have the chance, they will criticize the incompetence of the San Francisco City Government. When the mayor advises them to calm down, these capitalists and business owners almost roar in response:

"Calm down? My company has lost millions of dollars because of the power outage! Employees are complaining, production is unstable, and customers are leaving. How can we stay calm?"

Entrepreneurs can criticize the mayor to his face, while outside the streets are bustling with protesters holding banners and chanting slogans, demanding that the government immediately resolve the power supply problem.

"Lower electricity prices!" "We want stable power supply!" "Save our businesses!" Various slogans came one after another, merging into a sea of ​​anger.

The mayor of San Francisco is not the only one who is worried. Many people in California, including the governor of California, are also worried about their incompetence in dealing with the power supply problem. They are also annoyed that among the people who failed the exam, there is a person who scored 70 points. That person is Los Angeles Mayor Underwood. How can he make the power supply in Los Angeles basically stable?

After a private investigation, they came to an outrageous conclusion: Underwood used his "succubus" ability to persuade an electric power company under the One World Group to provide stable power supply to Los Angeles. That electric power company did not engage in such outrageous operations as "hoarding" electricity, and even though it did not make any profit (the electricity price was still higher than normal, and it actually made a fortune, but not as crazy as other electric power companies).

"What tricks did Underwood use to prevent the other party from making a lot of money like Enron... Did he and the boss of One World Group use backdoors to exchange ideas?"

Chapter 230: Feeling the “Charm” of Electricity Marketization

As early as the 20s, under the lobbying of interest groups, US energy regulation entered the "deregulation period", and the free and open California decided to be the "first to try" in the energy field. In 90, California passed the AB1996 bill and initiated the restructuring of the electricity market.

A key step in the restructuring was the separation of power generation from transmission and distribution. To ensure that there were competitors other than the current utilities, Act 1890 required California's two largest utilities (Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison) to sell at least half of their power plants.

Another important measure of this reform is the establishment of a spot electricity trading market, the California Electricity Exchange. The California Electricity Exchange will set hourly electricity prices based on the auction prices of the day before and the day of electricity transmission. In addition, California has also opened up the transmission network, and any power plant can access the regulated transmission network and transmit the generated electricity to users.

As initially expected, wholesale electricity prices did drop during the initial period of electricity marketization. For example, in many cases, electricity was actually free in California between 1 and 2 a.m. This means that the value of power plants owned by utility companies has dropped. In this case, they believe that future spot market electricity prices will gradually drop due to competition, and it is profitable to sell power generation facilities as early as possible, so they continue to sell. Since this is conducive to competition in the power generation market, the California Public Utilities Commission, as a regulator, naturally supports it.

In this context, American companies such as AES, NRG Energy, Dynegy, Duke Energy and Enron have all joined in the action of purchasing power plants to expand their market share in California, and here, a new "player" in the energy field has also emerged: Power Plant, a subsidiary of Universal Group.

By the year 2000, energy giants like Enron did not take new entrants like PowerWorks seriously at all. At that time, Enron was preparing to "go on a killing spree" in the California electricity market! At least it was going to make a few billion dollars.

As early as 1999, Enron conducted a small experiment. On a certain day, it sold 2900 megawatts of electricity to the California Power Exchange and chose to use a transmission line called "Silver Peak" to transmit this electricity to California. This transmission line carefully selected by Enron has a huge trap. The "Silver Peak" line can only transmit 15 megawatts of electricity at a time, that is, this line can actually only transmit 0.5% of the original power.

So, the next day, the California Electricity Exchange could not get enough electricity. So the California Electricity Exchange, which was dealing with the emergency, had to rush to find alternative electricity. Because the California Electricity Exchange was forced to buy a large amount of electricity in an emergency, the electricity price in California rose by 70% in an instant.

The experiment was a great success!

Enron predicts that California's electricity prices will not fall in the future, but will rise, because California's demand for electricity is increasing, but the supply of electricity has not kept up. California's economy is still developing rapidly, and the population has increased by 13%, especially the development of Silicon Valley computer companies and emerging network companies, which has led to more and more electricity needs in California. Due to the power trading rules of the California Shopping Fund, most of the electricity needed by utility companies is forced to be purchased from the spot market, so any power shortage will cause electricity prices to soar.

As a result, Enron began to buy a large number of low-priced electricity options in the West, and signed cooperation agreements with several companies including Montana Power, Baoying, El Paso Power, etc. Many utility companies and electricity suppliers outside California were willing to cooperate with Enron. After all, no one would be unhappy to make money together.

But there is one company that has remained silent about its intention to cooperate with Enron, and that is the new player Power Works. Power Works not only participated in the acquisition of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Southern California Edison's power plants, but also did the same thing as Enron: continued to buy a large number of low-priced electricity options. Oh, they also cooperated with Los Angeles' municipal utility company, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, to start updating the infrastructure of transmission lines and distribution networks.

From the perspective of Enron, everyone from the mayor of Los Angeles to the board members of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (nominated by the mayor) was "troublesome". Since Underwood became the mayor of Los Angeles, he has been eager to strengthen the local power supply and energy storage capacity in Los Angeles, as if the power crisis was about to come. And the efficiency was so amazing that Enron could not understand it.

"What? The mayor of Los Angeles, the city government, the board of directors of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the power plant are all on the same page? How come you don't argue about launching a project? I've never seen anything as fast as yours in the United States. What about your building permits, emission permits, and water use permits? What about environmental assessments and approvals? Shouldn't these things take several years? How come you finished them in just a week?"

The changes in Los Angeles were just a small episode. In May 2000, the temperature rose faster than ever before. California entered summer early and the power supply in the entire state began to become tight. Before May, the electricity price was still fluctuating between US$5 and US$5 per 24 kWh. Now the price has risen to US$40 per 750 kWh.

Enron and their friends began the prelude to making a lot of money. "So far, so good, except Los Angeles..."

When the power companies were defeated, California was forced to enter a Level 7 emergency because the power reserve was less than 6%. In June, electricity prices remained at a very high level, emergency states became more and more common, and power rationing became more and more common. This was the first power rationing in California's history since World War II.

Power outages have gradually become the norm, and many city residents have had to get used to rolling blackouts. In San Francisco, traffic lights failed, causing traffic jams. The public transportation system was also affected by power shortages, subway and tram services were interrupted, and passengers were forced to find alternative transportation methods. In San Diego, many small businesses, especially restaurants and retail stores, had to face increased operating costs and were forced to shorten business hours or temporarily close.

The operation of enterprises has also been seriously affected. Silicon Valley technology companies, which rely on a continuous power supply to maintain the operation of servers and data centers, face the risk of production interruption. Some companies have to invest in expensive backup generators to ensure the continuity of critical businesses. The Silicon Valley Manufacturers Union, composed of high-tech companies, threatened that if the power supply problem is not resolved, the company will consider withdrawing from Silicon Valley and moving to Los Angeles, which is more reliable.

People's quality of life declined significantly during this period. Power outages seriously affected families' daily activities. Air conditioners and electric fans became necessities in extreme temperatures, but insufficient electricity prevented these devices from operating normally, especially among the elderly and those in poor health. This situation can easily lead to heat stroke and heat stroke.

The power shortage also poses a major threat to medical services. All non-emergency surgeries are postponed, and the pressure on emergency rooms is doubled. Power outages put critically ill patients who rely on life-support equipment (such as oxygen supply systems) at great risk and endanger the lives of patients; secondly, sudden power outages during surgery may cause the operation to be interrupted, increasing the risk of complications and death; finally, power outages will cause drug storage equipment to fail, affecting the effectiveness of vaccines and other refrigerated drugs. Although many hospitals have backup generators to maintain power supply at critical moments, there is no sign of a solution to California's power crisis. We can't make backup generator power supply a normal practice.

During the serious power crisis in California, Enron continued to sell California electricity to other states, and then bought it back from other states after the price of electricity rose. This is because California's policy set a price cap for electricity in the state, but there is no limit on electricity from other states. After going around in circles, California had to buy emergency electricity at a higher price.

At the same time, in many cities in California, due to the aging of transmission equipment and high temperatures, some power lines caught fire, causing California's electricity prices to soar again from the original outrageous basis, which gave Enron a way to make more money. So Enron called the power plants affected by them and told them to shut down all power when appropriate, or use the excuse of repairing equipment. Many power plants began to overhaul together, artificially creating a larger power gap, causing California's electricity prices to scream!

Chapter 231: Damn! A "visible big hand" appeared in Los Angeles

In fact, because the power crisis came too quickly, Los Angeles was not fully prepared. Many energy storage projects are still under construction, existing power lines are still being renovated, and power plant expansion has not been completed. Los Angeles has also suffered the impact of the California power crisis. The Hollywood sign still stands on the top of the mountain, but its brilliance seems to have been overshadowed by the current predicament.

Los Angeles Mayor Underwood finally finished filming his part in "Captain America" ​​elsewhere and immediately flew back to Los Angeles. He was about to hold a much-anticipated press conference to announce a series of measures to deal with the power crisis.

This was a press conference jointly attended by the Los Angeles City Government, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (a public utility company), and PowerWorks. When the California power crisis first hit California, Los Angeles citizens and entrepreneurs immediately realized the gap between Los Angeles and other cities in California (especially San Francisco) through comparison.

Although Los Angeles also immediately announced a series of power-saving measures, such as requiring government departments to increase air conditioning temperatures and reduce unnecessary lighting, and calling on citizens to reduce air conditioning use, turn off unnecessary appliances, and use electricity at off-peak times, in general, it will not lead to a bad situation such as subway suspension, road lighting shutdown, store closures, factory shutdowns, school closures, hospitals unable to perform surgeries, and emergency services not being responded to. Even if power rationing is unavoidable, the entire Los Angeles will be under the strong control of the municipal government, and will be orderly, with advance notice, rather than sudden power outages.

The more people look at Underwood, the more they like him. It's not just because of his appearance, but because of this person. Although it seems that he has not done anything, it seems that he has done a lot in obscurity. For example, as early as 1999, the city government passed a bill to provide subsidies for families installing solar panels; and when the California power crisis came, the city government was able to use compulsory means to prioritize electricity for public utilities and residents' lives, rather than the very capitalist "highest bidder wins" approach, let alone issuing a statement saying "the government does not owe the people anything, and the people should learn to save themselves."

When Underwood stood in front of the microphone, the entire press conference fell silent.

"Dear Los Angeles citizens, I know that the past few months have been difficult for each of us. The unstable power supply has affected our lives and work, and made us feel anxious and uneasy. But at the same time, some energy company executives have taken advantage of our suffering to make ill-gotten gains, and even made a lot of nonsense in the media, claiming that the difference between California and the Titanic is that the Titanic was silent but the lights were on. These company executives have all been to college, but they don't understand their responsibilities to their fellow citizens."

There was a small uproar among the reporters in the audience. Everyone knew, of course, that it was the top executives of Enron who were making such outrageous remarks in the media. So what was Underwood going to do here, to "fire" at Enron? Oh, that's not surprising, because Underwood is just that kind of person, a person who makes outrageous remarks from time to time and "bombards" anyone he doesn't like. Such a person is also liked by media reporters because he can bring explosive points and news traffic.

Now, Underwood has revealed his cards and is ready to fire at Enron, the energy giant.

At the press conference, Underwood held a thick stack of documents in his hand, claiming that he had obtained some evidence (of course, whether it was evidence or draft paper, no reporter went forward to check). He criticized Enron for deliberately restricting electricity supply to push up prices by manipulating the electricity market, making huge profits, and undermining the public's confidence in the electricity market and enterprises. This is not only unethical, but also illegal.

Underwood then announced a series of things to show that the Los Angeles government was fully prepared to fight the power crisis and companies like Enron. Underwood also called on everyone to unite and overcome the crisis together.

He praised the hard work of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which diligently distributes electricity to the city, so that the city's life and production are not in chaos. "It's not like San Francisco, where there are car accidents everywhere because of the lack of electricity in the traffic lights, and it's not like other cities in California, where residents are always easily trapped in elevators and need to spend a lot of money to ask the fire department to rescue them..."

Underwood also praised many community groups and citizen groups for helping the city government carry out energy conservation and environmental protection activities among the people; praised the "Prometheus Data Lab" for helping Los Angeles calculate and predict power usage in real time, making power distribution plans in advance, and improving power efficiency and reliability; of course, he also emphasized his thanks to the Power Workshop company that provided Los Angeles with a stable source of electricity:

"PowerWorks is an amazing company, really, really amazing. They have the best people, the most advanced technology, I mean, really advanced. They acted so well and so responsibly during this crisis. They could have taken advantage of the situation to make a fortune, like Enron did, but they didn't, they only made the profits they deserved. That's what I call an excellent company!"

When Underwood, as the mayor of Los Angeles, publicly criticized Enron, it was already mid-November 2000. California was facing an electricity crisis, with about a quarter or more of its power generation capacity idle, and the shutdown rate was almost three times that of the previous year. The reason for the shutdown of power plants was maintenance and emergency repairs. But everyone knew that their real reason was to deliberately drive up electricity prices.

In California, the only company that can provide stable electricity is PowerWorks, which supplies electricity to Los Angeles in a way that goes against market rules (only 70% higher than before the power crisis, not dozens of times higher like other companies). When other cities in California also wanted to buy electricity from PowerWorks, they were told that PowerWorks had limited power production capacity and had signed a large number of contracts with the Los Angeles City Government, giving priority to Los Angeles' power supply.

So, apart from the beautiful scenery in Los Angeles, California's power crisis continues from summer to winter, and it seems to be the same this Christmas, and even until next year.

At this time, in a local talk show in Los Angeles, Underwood spent more than ten minutes on stage, narrating the ins and outs of the power crisis, and then played the role of the boss of an xx energy company on the show, saying in a simple, straightforward but funny way, "If I were the CEO of an energy company, what kind of crazy operations could I do to mess up California's electricity and make a fortune?"

This exposed almost all of Enron's operations.

If the people of Los Angeles just cursed Enron after watching TV, after all, the loss was not big. But the ordinary people who were deeply affected by the power crisis, the angry Californians, did not just curse. They took up banners and signs and took to the streets to protest, demanding that California close the free energy trading market and severely punish speculative gamblers like Enron. Some media said that many of these people who took to the streets were mobilized by Underwood's speech. It is unbelievable that a mayor of Los Angeles could mobilize so many people from other cities to protest on the streets with just his mouth.

The mayor of Los Angeles took the lead in criticizing Enron, which is a bit problematic, but not a big deal, as Enron also has President Bush Jr.

In November, President Bush said in front of the media: "There is no problem with high electricity prices. We are a free market, and letting the government control prices will not solve the problem." The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was under political and public pressure and ordered an investigation into the matter. However, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission did not really want to investigate Enron because the members of the committee basically supported the complete deregulation. Therefore, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also believed that there was not enough evidence to prove that Enron manipulated the market.

At the same time, although Underwood's "firing" brought some trouble to Enron, it also brought some trouble to Underwood.

Enron took decisive action, buying large pages in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, inviting some economists and market liberals to criticize the mayor of Los Angeles for excessively interfering in the free market. How can they bring up the old path of "Keynesianism" under the banner of "neoliberalism"? Didn't Russia also pay a certain price for market liberalization? These are all very necessary pains. Underwood was advised to take care of himself and continue to be a good "Hollywood actor" and not to distort the market by making random moves; some people also questioned Underwood's motives, believing that these measures were more for personal political interests rather than public interests.

Underwood acted completely indifferent to all this. Because the noise created by Enron will soon disappear, along with Enron. Behind Underwood is the power of the entire organization. The power controlled by the organization is enough to launch panic actions against Enron in the market, such as large-scale concentrated short selling (the capital controlled by Oneworld Group is a world apart from that in 1997); or spreading negative evidence (Black Ops players eavesdrop, steal documents, and conduct simple business wars!). As long as the corporate warriors launch this round of charge and find that the Wall Street tycoons of Enron, who are beautiful on the outside but rotten on the inside, still cling to Enron, then of course they will "jump ship" as soon as possible.

"Get ready for Enron's stock price to scream!"

Chapter 232: Preparing for the Precision Blast of "An Ran"

Night fell early in New York. The Manhattan skyline outlined a glittering outline in the dark night. The lights of the high-rise buildings were like stars, reflecting the city's never-ending pulse. Howard, a senior employee of Enron, drove his black Mercedes slowly into the underground garage of a luxury apartment building in the Upper East Side.

Howard saw in the mirror that his eye bags were puffy and he looked ten years older than his actual age. In recent months, Enron's affairs had left him with almost no time to take care of other things. The company's trading department was simply going crazy. In order to "save the company", Howard tactfully asked Enron's CEO to stop immediately because the people of California were too angry. There had been a flood of abuse and protests, and politicians had also stood up. If Enron continued to take advantage of California's power crisis to make huge profits, it would not be just the mayor of Los Angeles, Underwood, who would stand up and fire at Enron. If the matter got out of hand, more and more institutions would come to investigate Enron, and by then, Enron's massive bad debts would sooner or later be exposed.

But the CEO was indifferent. In order to earn excess profits and get huge bonuses, Enron's trading department fell into a frenzy. No one listened to the advice, and sooner or later, disaster would come. Howard, who had already boarded the pirate ship, could not jump off immediately, so he could only quietly keep some evidence in his hands in case it would be useful in the future...

The elevator dinged and stopped at the top floor. Howard walked out of the elevator, took out his key and opened the door of his apartment. He habitually reached out to press the light switch on the wall, and suddenly, a strange feeling came over him.

The lights came on, and the warm yellow light instantly filled the entire living room. Howard's pupils suddenly contracted, and his body froze in place. On his luxurious leather sofa, there were two masked men sitting. Time seemed to freeze at this moment. Howard felt his heart pounding, and cold sweat instantly soaked the back of his shirt. His brain was working rapidly, trying to understand the situation in front of him. Was this a robbery? Kidnapping? Or... He didn't dare to think about it.

Howard's first reaction was to run away. He turned around and reached for the door handle. At this moment, an iron-like hand grabbed his arm tightly. Howard turned his head in horror and saw a tall figure appear behind him.

"Don't be nervous, Mr. Howard," the man behind him said softly, and gently locked the door, "We just want to talk to you."

"Who are you? What do you want?" Howard tried to make his voice sound calm, but his trembling tone betrayed his inner fear.

The two people sitting on the sofa stood up, and one of them walked towards Howard. "Mr. Howard, we know you have some very important documents in your hands," he said in a low and calm voice, "Specifically, it is a memo about how Enron manipulated the California electricity market to make huge profits, and how to use these huge profits to fill the hole of the company's huge losses."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Howard tried to deny, but his voice sounded weak. "I have a responsibility to protect the privacy of the company."

"Mr. Howard," the other masked man spoke up, his voice sounding much younger, "We all know about the existence of that document. You can choose to cooperate, or... we have other ways for you to cooperate."

As early as when the masked men said the names of the specific files, Howard knew that they must have a lot of information (because the players had already targeted the workplaces and homes of Enron's senior officials and related financial, auditing, and legal personnel, and knew who held what secrets), and he could not hide it from them. Howard is also a decent person, and once those masked men use other methods, it will be disgraceful.

At the same time, Bai Shani MacLean, a reporter working for Fortune, had just finished overtime and returned home. The moment she entered the door, she received an anonymous call. The caller claimed that he was a "warm-hearted citizen with a sense of justice" and was willing to provide MacLean with some very explosive materials. If MacLean wanted it, she would receive it tomorrow morning.

What if McLean didn't want it? There were plenty of media and reporters to work with. Enron wasn't some omnipotent company. Was it worried about not being able to find reporters to work with?

Fortune magazine published an article titled "Is Enron's Stock Price Overvalued?" It first pointed out that Enron's finances had a "black box" and then questioned Enron's legendary rise: "No one can figure out how Enron made its money! The reason is that Enron has always refused to provide any revenue or profit details to the outside world on the grounds of 'guarding against competitors', and protected these details in the name of trade secrets." The Fortune article further questioned: In Enron's annual report, the profit figure of the "Assets and Investments" item is always a mystery. Fortune believes that Enron manipulated its profits through the amount of asset sales in the "Assets and Investments" item.

Soon after, the Wall Street Journal also released news, revealing that the limited partners managed and controlled by Enron's chief financial officer Andrew Fastow had conducted various complex hedging transactions with Enron involving Enron's assets and stocks. Not only did it directly cause Enron to lose up to $3500 million, but it also made Andrew Fastow personally profit millions of dollars. This kind of related-party transaction with obvious conflicts of interest made the market's confidence in Enron increasingly unstable.

The "blasters" who were preparing to "bomb" Enron did not forget to give the Internet platform a heavy punch. At this time, Google (which was invested and controlled by players as early as 1998) had become the default search engine of Yahoo, which was one of the most popular portals in the world at that time. When someone searched for news related to Enron on the Internet, the top content was an article from a famous investment website TheStreet.com, which disclosed the complex transactions between Enron and two other affiliated companies and pointed out that these complex contracts posed a fatal risk to Enron's debt ratio and stock price.

The market's confidence in Enron was increasingly shaken, and any slight disturbance could cause Enron's stock price to plunge. So, the most deadly knife of the corporate warriors stabbed up. The group of "Wolf of Wall Street" players and NPCs commanded by Cao Boyuan began to short Enron on a large scale and firmly. According to regulations, the New York Stock Exchange must regularly summarize and publish the number of short positions of listed companies' stocks every month to help investors and the public understand the market's short interest and sentiment on certain stocks.

So, people saw Enron being shorted on a massive scale.

If it were just ordinary institutions shorting, there might be room for maneuver, but Cao Boyuan's role in the game and the group of "Wall Street Wolves" he led were "notorious". People in the industry still remember that it was this group of people who took the lead in the charge in late 1999, and it was from them that the financial shock that led to the "Internet bubble" began.

"Have they pointed their knives at Enron?" Those Wall Street investment institutions still on the pirate ship Enron were panicking. They were not completely unaware of Enron's mess. Once the market panic and the trend of selling were triggered, a company like Enron would definitely not be able to withstand it. What should they do? As the saying goes, it is better to die with a friend than with me. One word is "retreat". If you add another word, it means "retreat quickly!"

Chapter 800: billion market value evaporated

"We should have spent this year in a gorgeous New Year's party, and the company should have reached another new peak, instead of ending up like this today..."

In downtown Houston, the conference room of Enron's headquarters building was filled with a tense and anxious atmosphere. The company's stock price continued to fall, and Enron was in a life-or-death situation. The spacious and bright conference room, which should have been full of vitality and innovative spirit, was now shrouded in an invisible haze. Outside the tall French windows, the Houston sky showed a gray color, as if foreshadowing the coming storm.

The conference room was packed with Enron employees, from ordinary staff to senior managers, and everyone's eyes were focused on CEO Jeffrey Skilling standing on the podium. Skilling was wearing a well-tailored gray suit, and he still looked calm and confident, as if everything was under control.

Skilling cleared his throat and glanced at everyone present.

"Colleagues," Skilling began, his voice strong and confident, "I know that recent rumors about our company have been unsettling for many of you. Yes, our stock price has indeed experienced some volatility."

He paused, noting that several people exchanged worried glances. "But I want to tell you that this volatility is only temporary, a temporary miscalculation by the market. Enron's fundamentals remain solid, our business model remains strong. In fact, I believe that the market has significantly underestimated our value."

"Our innovation capabilities, our market position, and our future development potential are all undeniable facts." Skilling's voice became more passionate. "The market has temporarily lost its mind just because of some media rumors, but they will soon realize how big a mistake they have made."

He paused and looked around to make sure everyone was listening. "So, what's my advice?" Skilling asked, and then without waiting for anyone to answer, he continued, "Buy the dip! Yes, you heard me right, now is the best time to buy Enron stock. I personally believe that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I am sure that in the near future, when our stock price recovers, you will be glad you made the decision today."

As Skilling finished his speech, the conference room erupted in warm applause. The faces of these "wolf-like" employees glowed with hope again, and they believed that the omnipotent "Wolf King" Skilling would handle all the troubles.

Skilling smiled and waved to everyone, then walked down the stage. However, the moment Skilling turned around, his expression suddenly became gloomy. He walked quickly to the side door of the conference room, where his personal assistant was waiting.

Then he delivered a directive that was completely different from what he had just advertised: "Sell them all, as quickly as possible."

Everyone was trying to seize the opportunity to leave the market and trying their best to trick fools into buying in. However, there were too many smart people in the stock market. If you wanted to leave the market completely, you had to compete with other smart people. Time and speed were particularly important. This was especially true for companies like Enron, which had already seen a situation where "a broken drum was beaten by thousands of people".

First, Fitch announced that it would reassess Enron's credit rating and might make a downgrade decision, and Standard & Poor's announced that it would downgrade Enron's credit outlook from "stable" to "negative." This had disastrous consequences for Enron, because once its credit rating dropped below the investment level, billions of dollars of debt would immediately mature early, putting the company into a fatal debt repayment crisis.

Within a week, Fitch Ratings announced that it would downgrade Enron's credit rating from "BBB+" to "BBB-", which was only one step away from junk bond rating, as it could not obtain reliable financing. As its financial crisis deepened, Enron began to contact private investment institutions and energy trading companies in the same industry to seek at least $20 billion in capital injection to overcome the crisis.

At this time, when Enron's debt was only one step away from becoming junk bonds, a miracle suddenly appeared. No one knew what tricks Enron had used. In short, Denon officially announced that it would reach an agreement with Enron, and Denon would acquire Enron through a stock swap worth about US$70 billion, inject US$15 billion into Enron before the acquisition, and inject another US$10 billion into Enron when the acquisition was completed. It seemed that Enron had grasped a life-saving straw!

But...how could OneWorld, which was already prepared to eat meat, bring Enron back to life?

The panic in the market had already formed, and the news of Enron's financial fraud had been widely disclosed. Even if Enron announced various good news, the market would ignore them as "cheating". Enron thought that its stock price would recover after the news of the merger and acquisition was announced. Just when many people were generally optimistic about Enron's future, the situation took a dramatic turn for the worse. On the first day after the news of the merger and acquisition was announced, those financial capitals directly controlled by Oneworld Group and those not directly controlled by Oneworld Group launched full-scale attacks on Enron in the stock market, and Enron's stock price fell 28% within a few hours after the opening.

Then, the credit rating company dealt a fatal blow to Enron. Standard & Poor's downgraded Enron's credit rating to "junk"; at noon, Moody's also made the same decision. The market had completely lost confidence in Enron. After Enron's credit rating was downgraded to "junk", it triggered the condition that "Enron must immediately repay the billions of dollars of debt borrowed through its affiliated companies." Enron no longer had a place in the market.

So, within one day, Enron, which had been falling for more than a month, had a big drop, falling to $0.26 per share, setting a historical record. It was a straight drop. Just half a year ago, Enron's stock price was hovering at a high of $90, and was regarded as the most dazzling star by Wall Street and investors.

Andrew Fastow stared at the large screen TV on the wall with dull eyes, which kept scrolling the latest stock market news. Enron's stock price, which once reached as high as $90, has now fallen below the $1 mark. At this moment, the door of the apartment was suddenly kicked open. Fastow jumped up from the sofa in horror and saw four burly strangers breaking in. He didn't understand how they broke into the door silently.

"Andrew Fastow?"

Fastow felt a chill running up his spine. He subconsciously took a few steps back until his back was against the cold French window. "Who... who are you? What do you want?"

The four men did not answer, but quickly approached him. Fastow wanted to run away, but he found that his legs seemed to be filled with lead and he could not move. Before he could react, two strong men had grabbed his arms on the left and right.

"Wait! What are you going to do?" Fastow screamed in horror, but his voice seemed so weak in front of these people. For more resources, please add QQ: 389 9 4 33 120 This book is constantly updated

"Mr. Fastow, I'm sorry, this is just business, not a personal grudge." Fastow suddenly felt dizzy, knowing that the shameful things he had done at Enron were finally coming back to haunt him. For many years, he had used complex accounting techniques and offshore entities to hide the company's huge debts and whitewash the situation. The company's top management had hinted that he, the CFO, should take all the blame, but he refused. Why, just because he didn't want to take the blame alone, the company's top management was going to deal with him so roughly like the gangsters in the 1930s?

"Which son of a bitch ordered you here? Kenneth Skilling?" Two strong men dragged Fasto to the balcony. Fasto struggled desperately, but his thin body seemed so powerless in front of these well-trained strong men. His feet left marks on the smooth floor, his shoes fell off during the struggle, and his shirt was torn into a mess. They dragged Fasto to the edge of the balcony. The bitter autumn wind messed up Fasto's hair and blew away his last hope. He looked down at the street dozens of floors below, where the pedestrians and vehicles became so small, like toys. Fear overwhelmed him like a tide, and cold sweat soaked his whole body.

At this critical moment, the door of the apartment was pushed open again. Several more agile figures rushed in. They moved quickly and subdued the two strong men guarding the door in the blink of an eye. The two people on the balcony obviously did not expect this situation, and they were stunned for a while. Fastow seized this opportunity, used all his strength to break free from their control, and staggered back to the room.

The newcomers didn't waste any time talking and started working straight away. Their movements were clean and efficient, and in the blink of an eye, the four intruders were subdued to the ground.

"Mr. Fastow, this place is no longer safe," one of the men said, "Given the current situation, we need to take you to a safe place."

At the same time, in the player chat group, someone asked:

"Can this operation really make this guy say something?"

"Anyway, Enron is really planning to let him take all the blame. Even after all this, he still refuses to cooperate? I am also an accountant in the company. If the boss is planning to let me take the blame, send me to jail, or even send me to death, I will fucking kill the boss. Even in this situation, if he still cares about Enron, then I think it's better to throw him out."

"It would be best if we could work together happily. This guy basically did all the fake accounting for the company. He knows too well the true value of Enron's assets, its liabilities and potential financial risks. If he can cooperate well, we can get more inside information and easily identify high-quality assets that are underestimated or ignored by the market, which will give us an advantage in the subsequent acquisition of Enron's assets. That's 500 billion worth of domestic and foreign assets... If we can buy the most Enron assets with the least money, Power Plant will become one of the American energy giants overnight..."