Li Jie had some guesses about Bai Hongwen's purpose, which was nothing more than about the financial crisis. During this period, from some of the things that Shi Mu and himself occasionally mentioned, it was not difficult to see that Bai Hongwen had prepared for the worst.
In the study, Bai Hongwen was silent for a while, looking at Li Jie with inquiring eyes. He was curious about how his adopted son in front of him judged that the financial crisis was coming despite the lack of information.
Li Jie accepted the probing gaze of Bai Hongwen with a calm expression. It was clear to Li Jie what Bai Hongwen was wondering, but he did not intend to explain. He pretended to be sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai and remained silent.
After a while, Bai Hongwen was the first to speak, unable to hold himself back any longer.
"Tiandong, what do you think of the current situation?"
Li Jie shrugged: "There's nothing interesting to see. This storm is already unstoppable and it will only break out sooner or later."
Bai Hongwen let out a light sigh and asked with great interest: "Oh? How can you see that?"
"Uncle, you must have read the financial reports of Merrill Lynch and Citigroup at the beginning of the year, right?"
Bai Hongwen nodded slightly. It can be seen from his attitude that Bai Hongwen already has a plan in mind. This question is most likely to test himself. If he passes his assessment, he may be able to inherit the Bai family in the future.
However, Li Jie didn't value the Bai family's property very much and just wanted to end this meaningless conversation as soon as possible, so he changed the topic.
"Then I wonder if my uncle has paid attention to the American Congress. Some congressmen are proposing to reform the compensation system on Wall Street?"
Bai Hongwen didn't pay too much attention to this point. Wall Street's high salary mechanism has been criticized for a long time, and he had heard about it for a long time. But what he was most concerned about was when the crisis would break out. He didn't have the time to explore the cause yet, but
In order not to discourage the young people's enthusiasm, Bai Hongwen still pretended to be all ears.
Seeing this, Li Jie continued: "Merrill Lynch disclosed bad debt losses of up to 14.1 billion US dollars in its financial report at the beginning of the year, most of which were due to subprime loan business.
In October last year, former CEO O'Neill resigned due to the US$8 billion loss in the mortgage-backed securities business. However, when he was forced to resign, he also received a total of US$160 million in options and stocks, and his bonus in 2006 was as high as US$47 million.
US dollars.
And this is not an isolated case. CEOs of AIG, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers and other companies received bonuses not much less than him.
Not only the management, but also the overall salary of the employees below is also jaw-dropping. The annual salary expenditures of large investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley mostly exceed tens of billions of dollars, most of which are paid in the form of bonuses.
The high-risk, high-return compensation model leads to excessive incentives. In order to pursue high bonuses, employees are often more willing to invest in high-risk products, such as loan securitization of certain derivative financial products.
The most incredible thing is that this crisis has caused huge losses to most companies, but the salary of these personnel has not been greatly affected."
The salary structure of Wall Street's top executives includes basic salary, dividends, stock awards, options and other subsidies. Salary and subsidies only account for a small proportion of income, and most of them are in dividends, stocks and options.
Take the salary of the CEO of Goldman Sachs in 2007 as an example. His basic annual salary was only US$600,000, with dividends of US$26.7 million, stock awards of US$25.9 million, option awards of US$16.44 million, and other subsidies of US$380,000. The total annual income was
Up to more than 70 million US dollars.
In the subsequent conversation, Li Jie focused on the issue of Wall Street compensation reform, but did not mention a word about the issue that Bai Hongwen was most concerned about.
In the end, Bai Hongwen couldn't bear it anymore and asked the question he wanted to ask bluntly. As a result, Li Jie gave him a Tai Chi kick and kicked him back. In his opinion, compared with other companies that had not yet noticed the crisis, Bai Hongwen's leadership
The Bai Group's response has been good enough.
Although Li Jie does have a way to make the Bai Group do better, and it is not impossible to even turn the crisis into a turning point, why should Li Jie do this? Anyway, as long as the Bai Group does not fall in this crisis.
The secret conversation between the two people in the study stifled Bai Le'an who was outside. He was very eager to know the content of their conversation, but he was afraid of annoying his father. The study room at home was extremely soundproof, even if he pressed his ears tightly against it.
No sound could be heard from the door.
Bai Le'an was in a dilemma, wanting to go in but also feeling uneasy.
Suddenly, footsteps came from behind the door. Bai Le'an immediately took a few steps back, and then quickly pretended to be walking towards the study.
With a click, the door of the study room opened. Li Jie glanced at Bai Le'an lightly, then withdrew his gaze and went downstairs on his own. Bai Le'an's little moves could not be hidden from him.
After entering this world, Li Jie chose to practice the same as the Invisible Guardian World, focusing on practicing his hands and ears, in an environment where guns were rampant. If he wanted to resist the army by himself, he would have to practice to a Grand Master, but this was simply a
It's an impossible task, so it's better to keep your hands steady and your ears sharp.
Since Bai Le'an experienced the intimidation with his eyes last time, he is really a little afraid of Li Jie now, and he doesn't dare to stop Li Jie for questioning like before, so he walked to the study and knocked on the door, and then walked into the study cautiously.
When Bai Hongwen saw Bai Le'an, the smile on his face couldn't help but soften a little. No matter how good others are, how can he be as good as his own son? He did consider Li Jie's intention just now. If Li Jie can pass his consideration, he doesn't mind putting him
Part of the Bai family's property was distributed to Li Jie.
However, Bai Hongwen was a little dissatisfied with the other party's response. It was completely impossible to say that Li Jie had not discovered his intentions. Based on his subsequent actions, the meaning was self-evident.
.
This kid didn't want to talk about what he was interested in at all. He had been in a high position for a long time, and he was an elder. Bai Hongwen was really embarrassed.
'It's just a little fox, that's all. Anyway, I've made all the preparations I need to make, so let him go.'
"Dad, what were you talking about just now? Why did it take so long?"
A smile appeared on Bai Hongwen's face: "What? If you have anything else to ask me for? Isn't your pocket money enough? If it's not enough, just ask your little mother for it."
Bai Le'an looked a little disappointed when he didn't hear the answer he wanted to hear. He rolled his eyes and said.
"No, no, I spend very little money now and it's enough. Why don't I care about it?"
How could his son Bai Hongwen not know what he was thinking: "It's not what you think, I just briefly talked about some business matters, and you didn't understand even after I said it. Okay, you go back and go to bed early."
.”
Bai Le'an snorted softly, the disappointment in his eyes was palpable. People who were equally disappointed like Bai Le'an were Su Mingyu who had just returned to the Su family's old house. The cause was Su Mingcheng's words. Compared to Su Mingyu's disappointment, Su's mother was elated.