The Great Depression! / My Name Is Saria, and I Sleep Under the Overpass.

Even if it's just one afternoon, less than three hours, only ten thousand eight hundred seconds.

The two spent an afternoon playing on all the rides in the amusement park, but of course, it wasn't our little Goradya who had the most fun.

Instead, it's that scumbag boss, Mr. Huang, who's clearly an adult but still hogs a child's seat.

"When I was a kid, we didn't have these kinds of opportunities. Forget about amusement parks, I've never even had ice cream. I need to make up for it."

Before transmigrating, Huang Cao was a child from a poor family, and amusement parks were something that only existed in books. After arriving in this world, he didn't have time to play with children's things.

I am the dignified Utopia's leader! How dare you stop me from riding the rocking horse? Are your nine generations of relatives wholesale?

Now, he's had a great time at the amusement park, accompanying little Goradya.

So the two of them seemed like genuine friends who just wanted to have fun together, rather than someone who came with a mission.

This feeling made the little Captain Swordfish next to him very happy.

She will be five years old today, but she still doesn't have any friends.

"Big brother, are we friends now?"

Goradya asked, a little scared but also very excited, wanting to make her first friend.

Huang Cao downed all three ice creams in one gulp and answered without the slightest doubt:

"Of course we're friends, and we can be friends for life."

Friends for life?

Goradya began to look forward to her future life.

A few dark years were suddenly illuminated by a colorful light, and since Mom didn't seem to object, she must have agreed.

The underwater city has no sun, but at certain times it will turn off a large number of lights to simulate a nighttime environment, and at the same time lower the surrounding temperature.

The lights gradually dimmed, signifying that Goradya had to break free from her beautiful dream.

"Big brother, let's go back... Auntie must be getting impatient."

"Don't worry, I think she is indeed very worried right now, but not about your safety."

Goradya didn't understand what Brother Huang Cao meant, but she felt a strong urge to believe him.

"Goradya, would you like to visit other places after today? Or you can take this with you."

Huang Cao pulled a golden tea leaf from his pocket. "After you eat this leaf, you'll gain the ability to communicate with me wirelessly, but you can't tell your aunt, or she'll get angry."

"However, the choice is yours. Whether you eat me or not, you'll always be my friend, and that will never change, unless you stop being yourself."

Goradya took the golden tea leaf, which was no bigger than her thumb, from Master Huang's hand and swallowed it without thinking.

"I don't want to lose my big brother as a good friend!"

Goradya let out the loudest sound she had ever made since birth, besides crying. Although the sound was still very soft, it was firm and unshakable.

Huang Cao felt a surge of emotion; was this what it felt like to be unconditionally trusted?

Hratya, why are you so harsh?

Huang Cao held Goradya's hand, and the two walked forward together:

"Let's go, I'll come see you again this time next year. Let's go home now..."

"And in the days to come, you must stay true to yourself and not listen to your aunt's strange nagging. Just think of her as someone who's not quite right in the head."

Chapter 462: The Great Depression!

This year has been a very unforgettable one for Kristen, as her parents lost her forever in a laboratory accident.

But as sad as it was, Kristen had been exposed to such things since childhood, had a certain psychological expectation of this kind of accident.

Experiments always carry a degree of danger, let alone going directly into space.

Unable to overcome life's difficulties by dwelling on sorrow, all Kristen can do now, as a scientist, is move forward, even though she is only eleven years old.

The arrival of Huang Cao also had some positive effects on the girl's life, allowing her to enjoy a year more of family happiness than in the original story; otherwise, her parents would have met with an accident when she was ten years old.

"With these stocks, I can rebuild my laboratory..."

Kristen went to her parents' room and took out all the stocks they had accumulated over the years.

He entrusted someone he trusted to convert all these stocks into cash.

However, the client soon sent very bad news:

"Ms. Kristen, for some reason, the stock market is in a strange atmosphere today. Everyone is very frustrated, and it seems that the stocks we hold are impossible to redeem. The shares that can be redeemed are at extremely low prices, even less than a piece of paper."

What does "cannot be redeemed" mean?

Kristen felt a sense of foreboding; what if the client couldn't convert the shares into cash...?

The blonde dog's villa had already been mortgaged by her parents before the rocket exploded.

However, the market officials said that these shares could not be exchanged, or even if they could, the price would be extremely low.

Kristen, who was only a teenager, immediately went to the stock exchange.

The sudden arrival of the young girl brought no life to the lifeless exchange.

Even the girl herself was shrouded in sorrow.

The Great Depression that Huang Cao had predicted had begun.

First came the crash of a single stock, followed by a complete collapse.

All the economic bubbles have burst, leaving only a mess.

Through the messy, bubbly residue, people's feet finally touched the cold ground.

Nearly 70% of the money in the market is fake; it's practically non-existent.

Everyone wanted to recover their losses, especially the brokerage firm, which wanted to quickly get its funds back. However, they didn't expect that the collateral provided by the client simply didn't exist.

As for losing money, how can you expect the customer to compensate you when they're broke?

These banks' money has all been invested in the stock market, leaving them with absolutely no money in their accounts, making it impossible to even maintain the most basic savings business.

At the same time, companies involved in commodity mortgage lending and other forms of financing have also invested their money in the stock market.

After thorough screening and investigation, these companies discovered that the so-called collateral in their contracts, after being subcontracted multiple times, was nothing more than a gold coin.

A single gold coin can leverage the false value of thousands upon thousands of gold coins, and can even be used as collateral for contracts signed with others.

When the loan company received the initial contract, they felt like the sky had fallen.

The initial contract only specified one gold coin, but the second guarantee contract made with that gold coin converted its value into ten times the amount of money.

However, in the second contract, the original collateral was no longer explained; instead, the collateral became ten times the value provided in the original second contract.

This so-called value is essentially a loan of ten gold coins obtained from a bank or lending institution by using one gold coin as collateral.

These ten gold coins were then exchanged for a larger collateral contract, which was used as collateral to obtain a loan of one hundred gold coins. Later on, it might not even be necessary to use any money; all that was needed was to provide the collateral contract.

And so it went on like this, until that one gold coin became worth tens of thousands of gold coins, and everything in between was fake.

Until a mistake occurs in one step, the whole thing is lost.

Kristen mortgaged her house; the original contract had long since been transferred to who-knows-where, and now the stock market had completely collapsed.

She also wouldn't have the money to redeem the house.

In order to quickly recoup their investment and prevent bankruptcy, banks that provide mortgage and loan services are offering a large number of mortgage contracts at low prices in an attempt to recover some funds.

But since everyone is bankrupt, there's simply no money left to buy these cheap assets.

These assets also require maintenance costs, especially in agriculture and production.

Therefore, prices are still plummeting, and could even drop by thousands of times overnight.

Huang Cao had his eye on this period. If we count from the day Utopia Bank reached a friendly cooperation agreement with Columbia, six years have passed since then.

Our Master Huang has waited six long years for this moment, and now he can finally reap a huge harvest.

Utopia Bank does offer lending services, but it only provides small, short-term loans and does not accept collateral for secondary contracts.

Therefore, in the six years that Huang Cao has been in Columbia, its business has been almost unaffected, and it has even made a small profit.

The Columbia government quickly responded, with several major banks joining forces to inject large amounts of funds into the market and declaring that the crisis was only temporary.

Unfortunately, Columbia's ideology does not support banks uniting to stabilize the economy.

The major banks each have their own agendas, and their efforts are essentially equivalent to a few thumb-sized Dragon Head trying to fill the entire ocean.

Because rescuing the market requires sacrificing their own interests, Columbia's major private banks are unwilling to be the first to take the lead.

But what about the Columbia administration? Didn't they try to restore market confidence?

Since this is the first time they have encountered such a situation, many members of the Columbia Congress are still adhering to the principle of free market regulation, believing that the unseen hand will handle everything.

The president, possessing knowledge of Pre-Civilization, certainly knew how to resolve the crisis, but this country wasn't controlled by him alone; countless others depended on it for their livelihood.

People in this world aren't easily fooled.

So when the president tried to use the power of the central government to forcibly regulate the Columbia economy and market, a large number of members of Congress immediately accused him of wanting to become the emperor of Columbia.

Upon hearing this, the Columbia president's mind went completely blank.

No, the domestic economy is in such a mess, and you're still arguing with me about this?

Congressman: No matter what the economy is like, we won't starve, but how much power you actually have... that's something we need to discuss carefully.

Chapter 463: My name is Saria, I'm under the overpass with a small blanket.

The heads of Columbia's major capitalist families haven't quite grasped the situation yet, so they believe the president wants to use this opportunity to strengthen his own power and hang all the capitalists.

This is no ordinary president; we must take decisive action!

In the story, Kal'tsit also possesses knowledge of the Pre-Civilization, but she doesn't know how to make money, and when the Doctor returns to Rhodes Island, he finds that everything is gone.

So the same goes for the Grand President, because a country needs people to function, and the Terra are not people from Pre-Civilization.

Hunger, chaos, and helplessness.

These things have shaped Columbia as it is today; every gift in life has its price marked behind the scenes of fate.

The chaos in Columbia continues, and the president is numb to it all, so he can only turn his attention to the idea of utopia.

Huang Cao was busy with his free shopping spree in Columbia and had no time to listen to the bird's chatter; he was focused solely on buying things.

Strictly speaking, the Huang Cao had almost nothing to do with the Great Depression; it was simply because Columbia capitalists were exploiting people so ruthlessly.

Throughout the entire process, the Columbia capital market was the sole criterion; Huang Cao neither invested nor leveraged his investments.

Even five or six years ago, he was thoroughly ridiculed by Columbia.

Nothing can be avoided during an economic downturn; even Huang Cao didn't need to install a combination lock on his machine.

It was initially thought that the Columbia president would become a macroeconomic regulator, but unexpectedly, his congress has started to disagree.

It can only be said that you can't expect everyone to be Franklin. Even the man in his previous life had to rely on his family's influence to succeed.

This blue bird clearly underestimated the ignorance and greed on this land.

There are many smart people, but perhaps it's precisely because they are too smart that no one is willing to concede to anyone else.

Truly intelligent people must expend a hundred times more effort than before to reach the other side of success.

The brilliant president was clearly ruined by his own staff.

But it wasn't just the Columbia were stirring things up in Congress; Huang Cao's associates in Congress also played a role. It can only be said that this employee was worth the salary Utopia paid.

Huang Cao aggressively purchased land and houses in Columbia at prices a thousand times lower than before, while simultaneously bringing Utopia's machinery to a complete standstill.

The Great Depression was indeed real, but it doesn't mean that nothing was produced.

People living under the shadow of the Great Depression still need to eat, but the depression in this world is very different from that in the previous one, namely, food is really expensive.

Most people who participate in the stock market are urban middle-class individuals; ordinary people simply don't have the capital to invest.

If even eating every day is a problem, how can they possibly have the funds to invest in the stock market?

Their lives were also affected after the Great Depression.

Prices for meat and similar items rose across the board, but staple foods like grains and potatoes did not experience a temporary drop followed by a rise, as had happened in the previous life.