Although Simon's personal wealth grew very rapidly, he was never one to pursue short-term interests, so he naturally wouldn't veto Sophia's business strategy.
After a brief discussion, Simon added, "Also, Sophia, you should be able to guess that I've made a lot of money in the Japanese market over the past six months, so Melisandre Company can now start looking for other luxury brands worth investing in".
Sophia nodded and said, "I've been following various developments in the industry. There are some suitable targets, but it's just not the right time to act yet. Moreover, Gucci still has a lot of growth potential, so I don't think this is urgent. Investing in similar companies could easily lead to internal competition. Melisandre Company's next stage of expansion should focus on jewellery, watches, wine, or high-end cosmetics".
Simon leaned back on the sofa in a casual posture, flipping through the documents Sophia had just provided. "As long as you have a plan. I intend to return to my role as a boss as much as possible, just providing the money and waiting for the results".
Sophia smiled, knowing Simon wasn't in the mood to talk further. She stood up and said, "Then I'll go prepare dinner for the boss".
"Go ahead. Since you remember your duty as a Housekeeper, I'll give you a point".
Sophia shot Simon a soft glance and said, "I remember all my promises".
Without waiting for Simon's reaction, Sophia turned and walked away, her high heels clicking. Simon's gaze followed the Housekeeper's graceful figure as she disappeared down the hallway leading to the kitchen, thinking to himself, 'Just you wait, you little enchantress!'
Simon brought eight bodyguards this time, divided into two groups for 24-hour security.
With so many people accompanying him, Sophia selected several chefs and servants to handle the daily routine. Simon gradually realized this was unavoidable and stopped worrying about it. Since they would be entering and leaving the main villa, he only required that they be female, not too old, reasonably attractive, and stay out of his sight when not needed; everything else didn't matter.
Even for a short-term one-week gig, Sophia joked privately that Simon's requirements were actually quite high, yet the people she found exceeded his expectations. The two chefs and two maids were all white women in their 30s, with figures and looks well above average.
When they first arrived in Milan, the Housekeeper had secretly told Simon that these women were all single, her tone encouraging him to make a mistake.
Relatively speaking, given Simon's current wealth and status, such requirements were nothing; problems that money could solve were no longer problems for him. Simon had no intentions toward these 'vases' who were there purely for visual appeal. Some tabloids had long noticed Simon's penchant for hiring beautiful female college students to manage his houses, but it hadn't caused much of a stir because Simon never actually met these girls.
Simon was actually very cautious regarding women. He generally wouldn't touch those whose backgrounds he didn't know, who weren't smart enough, or who might bring him trouble. Simon could certainly handle trouble now, but he just didn't want to get involved in such annoying matters.
After dinner, everyone gathered in the living room to watch TV and chat. Before they knew it, it was late at night, and Sophia naturally stayed over.
With both Jennys present, naturally, nothing happened.
After staying in Florence for two more days, seeing that the time was right, Simon and his group set off on the afternoon of October 1st to fly back to New York.
According to the analyst team at Cersei Capital, the junk bond market crisis in North America would erupt in the first two weeks of October, as United Airlines had a massive $1.5 billion in junk bonds maturing in mid-October that needed to be repaid.
In the preceding years, United Airlines had issued over $6 billion in high-risk junk bonds to merge with several airlines, including New York Air, People Express, and Frontier Airlines.
The U.S. economy had not fully recovered from the heavy blow of the '87 crash, and Michael Milken being under investigation left these companies, which relied on repeated junk bond financing to maintain operations, with no way forward. Coupled with the sheer scale of United Airline's own debt, it was difficult to seek other financial support outside of high-risk junk bonds. Thus, the Cersei Capital team determined that United could not possibly fulfil its repayment obligations for this batch of maturing bonds and would have no choice but to default.
Once United Airlines defaulted on its debt, it would inevitably trigger a domino effect in the North American junk bond market.
Simon's memory of this crisis was more precise; this 'mini-crash' following the '87 crash occurred on October 13th. He also believed this date wouldn't change much. United's bonds needed to be repaid starting October 16th. Since they didn't have the money, no matter how much the company delayed, they had to announce the news before the due date.
October 13th happened to be a Friday. Announcing the default on this day would give the market a two-day buffer and also leave a final glimmer of hope for United: if the Federal Government intervened to prevent the financial markets from collapsing, United's crisis might be resolved. After all, two years ago, the Federal Government's bailout measures had been very timely.
In Simon's view, United's vision was destined to be a mere pipe dream; with a $200 billion junk bond market, the Federal Government couldn't possibly save it.
Since completely exiting the Japanese financial market in early July, Cersei Capital's sub-funds No. 6 through 10 had been secretly positioning themselves against the North American bond market over the past three months. To avoid attracting market attention as much as possible, Cersei Capital had only used about $3.2 billion of its $5 billion in capital during those three months.
Among the various financial derivative positions, Simon was more familiar with the more than 32,000 S&P 500 stock index futures short contracts accumulated over three months. Since it was certain that the North American stock market would experience a crash in mid-October, stock index futures remained the most reliable arbitrage product.
Beyond that, Simon simply didn't have enough professional knowledge or time and energy to manage the large number of complex short-selling contracts targeting the stocks and bonds of individual companies like Columbia Savings and Loan Association, United Airlines, American Newspaper Group, Drexel Burnham Lambert, and so on.
On this point, Janette showed a talent that surprised Simon. Though she was usually lazy, she could accurately keep track of a series of contracts with a total leveraged value exceeding $300 billion.
Just like the operation in the Japanese market, Simon didn't expect Cersei Capital's positioning to remain absolutely confidential.
However, during this period, the activity of short sellers in the North American junk bond market had clearly been noticed by major financial media, but information about Cersei Capital's involvement had not appeared in the press. Obviously, those followers who had heard the news privately were smartly keeping quiet while making a fortune.
The two arrived in New York. Janette used the excuse of conducting a financial audit of Westeros Company to appear daily at the Westeros Company headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, but she was actually there to directly control the Cersei Capital sub-fund team hidden within Westeros Company. Simon, meanwhile, focused on 'Ghost' and 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', which were filming in New York. Both films had started shooting in August and were expected to wrap around November.
Lower Manhattan.
In an apartment in Soho, 'Ghost' was filming some daily scenes of the lead actors.
Simon had spent the previous three days watching the dailies of both films and discussing revisions with the creators. Today, he spent the whole day on the set of 'Ghost' observing the filming. The new version of 'Ghost' basically had the original cast and director, so Simon wasn't very worried about the quality of the film.
Approaching the end of the day's shoot.
Demi Moore finished her last shot of the day and sat down next to Simon in the break area. After he finished a topic with the producer, she chimed in, "Simon, the song you picked, 'Unchained Melody', is so classic with the pottery-making scene. This movie's soundtrack album will definitely sell as well as 'the bodyguard'".
Simon smiled and said, "Just the soundtrack? You have too little confidence in this movie".
"Of course not, everything will be a hit", Demi Moore joked, then added, "It's almost time to finish work. Want to have dinner together tonight?"
Simon shook his head. "Unfortunately, I already have plans for tonight".
"Then tomorrow night. You surely won't be staying in Manhattan for just one day, right?"
Simon just shook his head again.
Demi Moore shrugged in disappointment. Seeing the producer on Simon's other side walk away, she leaned in and whispered, "Simon, in that case, I'm going to my trailer to remove my makeup. Do you want to come along?"
Simon didn't want any scandals like a certain best actor and actress having an affair on set that made the trailer shake and embarrassed the whole crew. Moreover, he might sample the "freshness" of the woman beside him, but he had no intention of getting too involved with her. So he smiled and said, "Demi, my assistant is about to bring me some documents. You'll have to go remove your makeup by yourself".
Demi Moore was rejected again, but she still didn't give up easily.
If she could establish a lover relationship with this young man who had already reached the pinnacle of federal wealth and held immense power in Hollywood, her future development in Hollywood would definitely be a smooth path. Thus, she persistently handed Simon a business card with her Manhattan address and contact information. Only after seeing him put it in his pocket did Demi Moore finally stand up and leave.
That evening was a Raybould Family banquet, mainly to introduce Simon to Joseph Sharp, the head of Sharp Consulting. Westeros Company had already confirmed it would become the largest financier of this political consulting firm, which provided polling and campaign plans for political parties. The first $3 million instalment was delivered last month.
Sharp Consulting also began providing assistance for the New York City mayoral election of David Dinkins, whom Westeros Company supported.
The "Federal Election Campaign Act" has very strict restrictions on U.S. campaign contributions. Business entities like corporations and banks are prohibited from donating to candidates, and individual donations also face various limitations.
However, over the years, through forms like Political Action Committees (PACs) and public interest campaign funds, American corporate giants and the wealthy class have never ceased their interference in political elections. Since both major political parties benefit from this, they naturally won't proactively seek to close these obvious loopholes; instead, the openings continue to widen.