Stark didn't comment on Alvin's blind confidence in him...
Judging by Alvin's stubborn act, Stark could tell he wasn't completely clueless.
Stark himself was no more than a dabbler in finance, but he still had a basic sense for these things...
Alvin's South America Plan was a different matter from Steel Digital...
Steel Digital's arms orders were booked a year in advance, but it needed manpower and supplies, and involved transportation, finance, and a whole chain of industries...
It was no exaggeration to say that Steel Digital had brought all of Detroit back to life!
Steel Digital was extremely profitable, but the industries it stimulated were even more valuable, and it had always operated within the rules.
But once the South America Plan took shape, it would become a colossal interstellar trade and finance monster!
It would use cheap agricultural products to trade with aliens for high-priced goods.
It sounded like a lucrative business, and it really was, but that wasn't how the world's financial books worked...
Especially at a time when the countries of the world could barely manage a trip to the moon!
Perhaps in a few years, an uncontrollable financial monster would take shape.
Given its trading volume, the cost of agricultural products would be almost negligible.
The financial systems in a place like South America were far too fragile...
In those circumstances, one wrong move could trigger an upheaval!
That was the last thing someone like Alvin wanted to see...
It was also the last thing the countries of the world wanted to see!
The very real problem was that a "global-scale" trade had to be shared and absorbed by the entire world.
If a single company monopolized the trade channels, the end result would be countries printing money to buy supplies, followed by quantitative easing,