The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 338



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338. Silent (2)

The vote for free school meals was not the only referendum that would change history.

To put the world economy in perspective, a much larger referendum was being discussed in Greece.

“The Greek government is saying it will hold a referendum on leaving the eurozone and declaring a default.”

“The European fiscal crisis is slowly showing signs of accelerating.”

“The euro has decided to support 50% debt relief and a bailout of over 100 billion euros, but the Greek people are strongly opposing the austerity plan proposed by the euro.”

We knew full well how vicious the calls for austerity were.

Everyone in the country was keenly aware of how much Korea suffered from the austerity demands of the IMF.

“Perhaps because it is Europe, the atmosphere is very different from when Korea received IMF support.”

“It is said that the IMF is also reflecting on itself that it made excessive demands for austerity when it supported Korea. So, it is said that it has relaxed its demands for austerity in this support for Greece.”

“The Greek people are not accepting even the relaxed conditions.”

“In fact, Korea should be considered an exception. Among the countries that received IMF support, Korea is the only one that accepted all demands and recovered its economy.”

The history of the Republic of Korea was a series of hardships and adversities.

Overcoming crisis was engraved in the people’s genes.

So we could not criticize other countries for not doing what we did.

“The European stock market is going to be very turbulent.”

“The euro has not changed much yet, but it is expected to fall significantly the moment the Quantum Fund takes action, and European stock markets are already falling. The European STOXX index is expected to fall by more than 10% this year.”

We had already bet on the European financial crisis.

A system was created to increase profits as the euro fell and European stock markets fell.

“The situation in Southern Europe is likely to be even more serious.”

“There is a new word that arose. PIGS refers to the four countries with huge debts, and they are also countries whose stock prices are falling significantly.”

PIGS or PIIGGS.

It refers to Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, which are in a national debt crisis.

Later, Ireland and the United Kingdom were added, and the six countries were called pigs.

“How can we have some fun?”

“We have already set up huge nets throughout Southern Europe. When Quantum Fund gives the signal, all we have to do is pull up the nets and catch the fish.”

“It’s going to take a while to pull the net up so much.”

“You just have to raise the nets sequentially. First, start with the nets installed in Greece, then in Southern Europe, and finally, all over Europe. You can realize profits starting next year, and all work can be completed within three years at the latest. This is planned to end.”

Three years wasn’t that long of a time.

Moreover, if they realized profits from Greece next year, they could repay the debt they had borrowed from fintech banks.

“It doesn’t matter if a few fish slip out of the net, so make sure you proceed quickly and safely.”

“Even if we spill the fish, Quantum Fund will pick it up on its own, so don’t worry. And as the Chairman said, we have also spread our nets for Greek shipping companies.”

Greece was even about to declare default.

If the Greek government went bankrupt, there was a very high possibility that Greek companies would go bankrupt or be on the verge of bankruptcy.

“Shipping companies with too much debt should just accept ships, and only acquire shipping companies that are likely to be able to survive.”

“We are already discussing this with Dimon. Isn’t Dimon the world’s best expert in mergers and acquisitions?”

“Dimon is an expert not only in mergers and acquisitions, but also in increasing the value of a company.”

Dimon was also deeply involved in this project.

Since they loaned us an astronomical amount of money, we could only receive the principal and interest if this project somehow succeeded.

Therefore, I had to unconditionally comply with the request made by Han, and I was using the limited time I had to analyze Greek shipping companies and come up with estimates.

“But there are variables. If Greece really holds a referendum to withdraw from the eurozone and declare a default, and if it passes, the plan will have to be drastically revised.”

“You’ll never make that decision right now. It’s a kind of blackmail. They’re threatening other European countries that they’ll declare bankruptcy if they don’t provide more support.”

“Even if there are threats, you have to stay within the line. Now Greece has gone far beyond the line. Not only Wall Street, but investment companies in Europe and Asia are all criticizing Greece.”

It was an inevitable choice for Greece.

To be precise, it had to be seen that the Greek political world was acting as the people wanted in order to survive.

The Greek people thought that the financial crisis occurred because of the Eurozone.

Therefore, Greek politicians had no choice but to make the move of leaving the Eurozone.

“What will change if you curse? The euro will provide a lot of support to Greece by the end of this year at the latest. We will have to prevent it from leaving the eurozone at all costs.”

“Then we will just ignore the Greek referendum and continue with our plans.”

“Please tell the Quantum Fund that there is a 0% chance of a referendum happening. Of course, if there is a change in government, that possibility may arise, but tell them that I am confident that it will not happen under this Greek government.”

Greek economic crisis and European fiscal crisis.

The preliminary work was half-finished, and now all that remained was to collect the money.

* * *

The summer of 2011 has arrived.

While Greece was making noise over the referendum, a referendum was about to be held in Korea.

“Chairman, the date for the referendum on free school meals has been set. It is said that the referendum will be held for Seoul citizens on the 24th of this month.”

“The ruling party seems to be expecting to win the referendum.”

“I think I believe in the results of the opinion poll. The approval rating for selective free school meals is about 20% higher than for free school meals for all.”

The head of the planning office said as he handed out the results of the opinion poll.

In a typical election, results would be similar to opinion polls.

However, in the case of referendums, there was a variable called voter turnout.

“Even if the approval rating is higher than 20%, votes cannot even be counted if the voter turnout does not exceed 33.3%.”

“Chairman, do you think the voter turnout will not exceed 33%?”

“This vote has degenerated. Instead of being a vote for free school meals, it has become more of a vote for the re-confidence of the Mayor of Seoul. People who do not want to be re-appointed will not go to the polls, and those who vote will inevitably be labeled as supporters of the ruling party. The vote has been made.”

South Korea’s elections were based on secret ballots.

It was common to not know which party a co-worker supported or what his or her politics were.

However, this was an election that put a lot of pressure on voters because they could know which party they supported just by going to the polls.

What if there is a lot of pressure?

Of course, voter turnout was bound to fall.

In particular, since it was a sensitive topic such as free school meals, I had no choice but to want to hide my inclinations even more.

“But will the mayor of Seoul step down as mayor as promised?”

“I took a gamble with my political life, so I had no other option but to resign.”

“Then the Seoul mayoral by-election will be held soon.”

“What is the current approval rating for political parties among Seoul residents?”

“The National Economy Party is in first place, and the ruling party and the opposition party are almost tied together.”

The National Economy Party’s approval rating was still on an upward curve.

While the ruling party and the opposition party were fighting over topics such as free school meals, the National Economy Party saved the lives of Korean residents in Japan, so it was a natural result.

“If we can continue the current trend until the by-election, the National Economy Party will be able to produce the mayor of Seoul.”

“For that to happen, shouldn’t we have a good election strategy?”

“The strategy for this election is silence. We decided to remain silent on the topic of free school meals and only propose policies focused on the economy.”

Silence is golden.

This was what an ancient Greek politician said.

However, this famous saying was not widely used in the political world.

Politicians were people who represented the voices of voters, so they should not be sparing in their words.

However, on the topic of free school meals, it was possible to absorb moderate votes just by remaining silent, so we decided to use the silence strategy this time.

“If the current approval rating can be maintained, it is true that the National Economy Party will have an advantage in the election. But wouldn’t the competitiveness of its personnel be somewhat inferior to that of the major political parties?”

“Governor Choi Jae-seok will solve the lack of personnel competitiveness. And the National Economy Party’s Seoul mayoral candidate was also a person who participated in the evacuation operation for Korean residents in Japan. If we highlight that, we will be able to sufficiently reduce the gap.”

The Seoul mayoral by-election was by no means favorable to the National Economy Party.

Looking at the local elections held a few months ago, Seoul was the region that lost by a margin of over 10%.

But in just a few months, the composition changed completely.

It was the National Economy Party that took active action in response to the great disaster of the Great Japan Earthquake, and the public showed a lot of support for it.

“And just because the National Economy Party is silent doesn’t mean we are silent. Let’s spread the image of the two major parties fighting over free school meals through social media and portals, and on the contrary, promote the National Economy Party’s video of evacuation of Korean residents in Japan on a large scale. Especially. “Please edit and expose the video of the candidate for mayor of Seoul.”

“We will do our best to further increase the approval rating of the National Economy Party during the by-election.”

What if the National Economy Party takes over the mayor of Seoul?

Governor Choi Jae-seok would also be able to make a big decision to become president.

* * *

August 24th came.

Normal elections tend to focus more on counting votes than on voting.

However, in the case of this election, it was very important whether the voter turnout would exceed 33%, so greater attention was paid to the voter turnout.

“As of 12 o’clock, the voter turnout is 13%. The ruling party expects that the voter turnout can sufficiently exceed 33%.”

“The dream is really big. Most of the supporters would have finished voting in the morning. But seeing that only 13% of votes were cast, I think it will never exceed 33%.”

“The result of analysis by the artificial intelligence team is also the same. It is predicted to be around 23-26%, and the margin of error is 5%, so it will never exceed 33%.”

There was no way that a political party could not have predicted the outcome that even artificial intelligence had predicted.

It was just a circuit of hope, and there was a high possibility that the ruling party was already sensing defeat.

“Now we need to prepare in earnest for the by-election.”

“We will begin planning for the by-election in earnest as soon as the voting results come out.”

The result was obvious even without looking.

When I received word that the polling place was not busy, I turned off the TV and focused on work.

The European fiscal crisis, which was much more important than the by-elections, was beginning to intensify.