The Chaebol Returns To The Presidency 1967 [EN]: Chapter 180

180. Bullshit

The stock exchange trading floor.

The Dongjin Construction buyers were pacing anxiously.

“Why is it sliding like this? It’s down 30% in a week. There’s no bottom!”

“Well, it dropped exactly as much as the 30% discount, so isn’t this the bottom?”

“That would be a relief.”

“You know, you have to be careful with stocks undergoing rights offerings.”

“Sigh, I was too greedy. Other stocks usually plunge after the announcement and rebound immediately, so I bet on that, but now I deeply regret it.”

“You’ll have to participate in the rights offering.”

“The rights offering?”

“If it doesn’t rebound, you’ll have to subscribe to the rights offering and sell to break even. Do you even have the money for that?”

“The rights offering isn’t the problem right now. I bought it with 3x margin, so I need to liquidate first.”

“Oh, that’s a big problem.”

“Sigh, if it doesn’t go up by the liquidation date in two days, I’ll get a forced sell-off and be wiped out!”

“That’s terrible. Margin trading can ruin you. Oh, Dongjin is starting to rise!”

“Where, where?”

The price rose by 5% and was announced.

“Finally, the rebound has started!”

Soon after, it hit the upper limit [the maximum price increase allowed in a single trading day].

“Yes, that’s it!”

The faces of the retail investors, which had been gloomy for days, lit up with smiles.

The retail investors in the gallery applauded Dongjin Construction.

“Let’s go, keep going!”

The retail investors, who had been worried about the plunge, sold off their shares as soon as they reached their break-even point, and Tiger Fund bought them all up.

On the other hand, the hornet, the mastermind behind the operation, was in a frenzy as if their nest had been stirred up.

“Goddamn it! What is this? Why is it suddenly jumping up! Hey, didn’t you keep selling? Were you drinking coffee at the teahouse?”

“No, boss! It was rising slowly, so I kept throwing sell bombs [large sell orders] to suppress it, boss. But they kept snapping them up and slowly went upwards, boss.”

“You idiot, that’s because you were throwing them little by little!”

“I threw half of my holdings, boss.”

“Half? Then throw the rest, you moron! Use all the ammunition you have to buy and crush it! If you don’t have enough, use margin and bet everything! Pour it in!”

“Even margin?”

“Don’t make me say it twice, you punk!”

“Yes, boss!”

He bought the remaining half of the purchase money with margin and threw it at the upper limit.

The upper limit was broken at once, and it plummeted.

“See, you punk! It works like a charm! There’s no match for volume! Huh?”

“Boss, it’s slowly rising again?”

The stock price, which had fallen to -2%, digested all the sell orders and then rose sharply.

“Shit! Buy and pour it in again!”

They bought high and sold low several times, and their principal dwindled until they couldn’t use margin anymore.

However, the stock price steadily trended upward, drawing waves.

It closed at +5% that day, recording the highest trading volume ever.

The cumulative loss of the hornet’s account, which bought at the highest point with margin and sold at a low price, was -70% compared to the principal.

The hornet gang gathered at a street stall to vent their anger.

If the operation was successful or went well, they would have gone to a room salon [a type of Korean hostess bar], but today, they were grateful even for a street stall.

“Wiped out! Who the hell received all that volume?”

“To receive 8 billion won, including margin, it must be a very big player, boss.”

“This is definitely not an individual. Someone is trying to screw me over!”

“We need to change our strategy, boss!”

“What, how?”

“We’re out of ammunition, so we can’t pull the stock price down. Let’s give up the operation and just take the price difference. A strong buying force has entered, so it seems like it will rise for a while. We need to get our principal back.”

“If we pull out now, we’ll almost be wiped out, so that’s the only way. Okay, listen up, everyone!”

“Yes, boss!”

“Cancel the operation. Watch it rise and sell without being noticed when I tell you to.”

“Yes!”

However, the time to wait was only 6 days until the liquidation date.

It had to rise 30% in the meantime to get close to the principal.

But….

*

The next day, the trading floor.

The hornet turned pale.

The stock price fell in steps and eventually closed at -5%.

“Why is it plunging now!”

In the end, it fell for six days in a row and closed at -20%.

“Agh! I’m ruined!”

On the liquidation date, the hornet’s operation accounts were liquidated due to forced sell-offs, and they received a notice that they would be seized if they did not repay the -20% margin within fifteen days.

When the force was forced to sell, Tiger Fund returned the stock price to its original position.

*

A few weeks later.

The hornet, with greasy hair and dressed like a beggar, was staggering down the street in broad daylight, blowing on a soju [Korean distilled spirit] bottle and shouting.

“Damn it~ Who took all my money! Who dares to rob the great hornet!”

He couldn’t even report it because he was afraid that the stock manipulation would be revealed.

He suffered the same fate as he had inflicted on the retail investors.

Screech~

The taxi driver, who had braked suddenly, opened the window and cursed.

“Hey, you son of a bitch! Are you crazy and want to die! If you want to die, die alone without blocking other people’s way, you bastard!”

“Run me over! Come on, run me over with your car!”

“Crazy bastard! Ptooey! What an unlucky day.”

Vroom~

The hornet took off his shirt and lay down at the intersection.

The police rushed over and arrested him.

In this way, Tiger Fund bankrupted two more large stock manipulation forces and became a public interest anchor, buying more than 10% of each listed stock along with the National Pension Service.

Unaware of this, emerging stock manipulation forces obtained inside information, bought up shares of Taeyang Corporation, and drove up the price as if they had been waiting for the announcement.

“Yahoo~ Upper limit! Let’s go for three consecutive upper limits~”

However, sell bombs poured in just before the market closed, and the stock price plummeted, eventually closing at -2%.

“What is this? Why is it suddenly plummeting?”

The force cut their losses and ran away with a loss of -12% (up to -36% including margin).

If a company was doing well and its performance improved, but the stock price did not follow, it was pulled up accordingly, and stocks that soared without performance were invariably deflated with sell bombs.

Investors now began to use the company’s performance as a trading standard, rather than aiming for luck, information, or force surges.

Meanwhile, Tiger Fund was classified as a quasi-institutional investor and was not investigated for large-scale sales and purchases.

*

A public health center in Yunnan Province, China.

“Cough, cough!”

Patients coughing were waiting in a long line.

A woman carrying her sick daughter on her back pleaded.

“My daughter is very sick, can’t we go in first?”

“No way! Everyone here is on the verge of death. They have a fever.”

“Get in line!”

“Oh, I’m going to die waiting.”

The doctor measured the patient’s temperature.

“39.5 degrees! Everyone has a high fever.”

The patient said weakly with hollow eyes.

“Doctor, I couldn’t sleep a wink because I was cold, shivering, had a fever, and was coughing.”

“It’s just a cold.”

“This is no ordinary cold. My mother can’t even move. Can’t you make a house call?”

“As you can see, there are patients lined up, so I can’t even think about making house calls. It’s a common cold, so I’ll prescribe a fever reducer, take it together.”

When the woman arrived with the prescription, her mother had already passed away.

The woman who came with her daughter on her back also had to shed tears of blood the next day when her daughter died.

*

Chinese Institute of Infectious Disease.

The researchers had a meeting.

“The number of deaths is soaring. This is not a simple cold. We suspect that the Asian flu is re-emerging.”

“The Asian flu? This is a big problem!”

The Asian flu, which first started in Guizhou Province, China, in late 1956, spread to the United States via Hong Kong and then to the rest of the world.

It was prevalent until 1958, killing at least 1 million people worldwide, an estimated 2 million.

The Asian flu’s virus strain was a recombination of avian influenza (presumed to be geese or wild ducks) and human influenza viruses, so deaths soared due to the emergence of a new virus that was not immune.

Britain hurriedly manufactured and injected vaccines, but the distribution speed was slow, and eventually, the Asian flu itself mutated and died out on its own.

“I will report to the Party immediately!”

“Report immediately, and never announce it to the media. We can’t be used for the propaganda and agitation of imperialists who are talking about China’s responsibility!”

“Yes, I will report it in strict confidence.”

But they didn’t know that this was a new type of disease different from the Asian flu.

*

South Korea, a rural village.

The east was dawning dimly.

Fields with manure on the mountainside were spread out, and under them, women were drawing water from the village well to cook breakfast.

However, the women drawing water looked weak, as if they hadn’t eaten anything.

“Did Hongseong’s wife also go to the toilet all night?”

“Did your family do that too, sister? My child has a fever, so I’m going to draw water and go to the doctor.”

“I’ve been having diarrhea since dawn, so my legs are shaking and I’m seeing stars.”

“You really don’t look good. Oh my, you’re sweating like rain.”

Another woman tilted her head.

“By any chance, does Jeonju’s wife also have diarrhea?”

“Everyone else is fine, but only her parents-in-law are. They’ve been going in and out of the toilet all night.”

“Oh, this is unusual. Wait! Diarrhea and fever, this is definitely typhoid fever! Typhoid fever is going around!”

“Typhoid fever?”

“If everyone in every house has diarrhea, this is typhoid fever!”

“Oh my, this is a big problem!”

“Please lift this water jug. I’m too tired to lift it alone.”

“You’re not feeling well, can you lift it?”

“I have to carry a water jug, or I’ll die.”

The woman, who was helped by another person, walked a few steps with the water jug on her head, but her vision went dark and she fell forward.

The water bucket overturned, and the woman collapsed and slumped.

“Anseong’s wife!”

“Sister!”

*

As a result of the epidemiological investigation by the public health center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was typhoid fever.

The fertilizer given to the fields had seeped into the village well, and Salmonella had spread throughout the village.

In the past, there were many places where straw ropes were set up at the entrance of the village due to typhoid fever and cholera in the summer [traditional Korean quarantine practice].

When you get typhoid fever, you vomit waste up and down, and the whole house stinks, and you have a high fever, hallucinations, confusion, and seizures, so the saying ‘acting like a typhoid patient’ was created.

When typhoid fever broke out, villagers used to drink feces as a preventive and curative medicine [a folk remedy, reflecting limited medical knowledge].

Typhoid fever was a waterborne infectious disease with a mortality rate of 25% if left untreated.

However, nowadays, there is a cure, so the mortality rate has dropped considerably, but typhoid fever occasionally occurs in rural areas without water supply or in unsanitary meals and restaurants.

*

The Presidential Office.

The President was looking at a morning newspaper with an article about typhoid fever infection.

“Typhoid fever, a disease of underdeveloped countries, is still around in the 70s.”

At this time, the chief of security came in and reported.

“Your Excellency, seven bodyguards have taken sick leave due to Apollo conjunctivitis (acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis) [a highly contagious viral infection of the eyes].”

The President asked.

“Is Apollo conjunctivitis prevalent even though it’s not summer yet?”