Chapter 409 Pain and Happiness
In "The Wolf of Wall Street", there are more male characters and relatively few female characters.
Mainly the protagonist’s second wife and first wife.
The role of the first wife is a small supporting role, played by Sister Shitou, who is still a little Kami.
The Second Wife is the heroine, starring Scarlett Johansson.
It is now 2008, and Scarlett Johansson has not yet been invited to star in the Marvel superhero movie Black Widow, and has not yet become a globally famous actress.
Since her debut, she has been working in the field of art films.
It’s just that most of the American actors’ acting skills are too poor. I have been working in the field of art films for more than ten years, but there has been no improvement.
Then I started filming commercial films, and I was either on the road to fighting against the street or on the road to fighting against the street.
It was precisely because of confusion that Marvel invited her to play the role of Black Widow.
Marvel has always adhered to the principle of "picking up the slack" when selecting actors.
In short, the actors who catch Marvel's attention in Hollywood are basically actors who have been in Hollywood for many years and have become famous for their acting skills, but their value has plummeted.
Find an actor with good acting skills to star in the film with a low salary.
Actors who meet Marvel's casting requirements are Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson and other street actors.
Although Robert Downey Jr.'s salary in "Avengers: Endgame" was as high as 50 million US dollars, in fact, when he starred in "Iron Man 1", his salary was only 500,000 US dollars.
The reason why he was able to get a salary of US$50 million later was because Robert Downey Jr.'s "Iron Man" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it was difficult for Marvel to change the role and could only give him a high salary.
In fact, whether it is DC or Marvel superhero movies, in addition to being canceled at the box office, the only thing left is that the actors’ salaries have increased too high and they have to be restarted.
In the original timeline, in fact, if "Iron Man" starring Robert Downey Jr. was programmed, a few more films could be made.
However, the salary of 5,000W was too high, so the filming was completed and we are waiting for the restart.
Scarlett Johansson was chosen by Marvel because she is a street actress.
And she was able to get the role of the heroine of "The Wolf of Wall Street" because she is an art film actor with a low net worth.
The film salary is 100,000 US dollars, and he has appeared in many art films. Although his acting skills are not good, they are not bad either.
Although this character is a heroine, she doesn’t have much importance.
If the role was important, it would not have been the turn of Harley Quinn, who had only acted in a few movies within a few years of her debut, to play this role in the original timeline.
Mid-September.
"Shu, let's have a party together in the future." Scarlett Johansson said to Wang Shu with a smile before leaving the set.
As the filming progresses, her role has been completed.
"Okay." Wang Shu agreed with a smile.
The young widow has a curvy front and back, and her appearance is not as good as Waterloo, but overall she is quite good-looking.
Matt Damon’s team casting is something.
In the original timeline, the heroine of "The Wolf of Wall Street" was played by Harley Quinn.
The young widow has many similarities with the young Harley Quinn in terms of figure and sexiness.
If the casting of "The Wolf of Wall Street" was based on the original timeline, there would be nothing wrong with this character.
"Then it's settled." Scarlett Johansson smiled back at Wang Shu, turned and left the set.
After leaving this time, unless reshoots are needed, I will not come back to the crew again.
"No problem." Wang Shu responded with a smile and watched the widowed sister leave.
At the end of the day's shooting, Matt Damon went to Wang Shu for a drink.
"Shu, do you know? Something big has happened, something big has happened in the stock market!" Matt Damon said impatiently with an exaggerated expression as soon as they sat down.
“What happened to the stock market?” Wang Shu looked confused.
Matt Damon was so excited, of course he knew what was going on.
It's just that he was busy filming, so in theory he was blind to what was going on outside the window, so he pretended not to know.
“Don’t you know?” Matt Damon said excitedly, “Lehman Brothers is bankrupt!”
On the morning of September 15, 2008 (Monday), Lehman Brothers filed Bankruptcy, U.S. stocks fell nearly 5%.
Although the financial sector was hardest hit (banks and insurance companies saw their stocks fall by about 10%), no other industry was spared.
Credit spreads soared and credit flows came to a standstill.
Over the next week, markets and policymakers struggled to parse the ripple effects of Lehman Brothers, to no avail.
Because various relationships and risk exposures are too complex and too opaque.
At the same time, various reports show that the financial crisis is impacting the economy, causing a sharp economic decline.
As the producer and leading actor of "The Wolf of Wall Street", Matt Damon also has money invested in the stock market, so he has always been paying attention to the stock market.
At the beginning of 2008, cracks began to appear in the economy and market.
U.S. manufacturing, retail sales and employment reports were all relatively poor.
Next, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch inevitably issued loss announcements, with substantial write-downs of US$22.2 billion and US$14.1 billion respectively.
The ratings of Ambark Financial Group and Urban Bond Insurance Company were downgraded. The two bond insurance companies jointly underwrite bonds worth approximately US$1 trillion and have a large exposure to subprime mortgage securities.
As of January 20, the S&P 500 Index was down about 10%.
The global stock market situation is even worse, with a larger decline.
On January 22, the Federal Reserve held an emergency meeting and lowered interest rates by 75 basis points (0.75%) to 3.5%, citing "a weakening economic outlook and increased downside risks to growth."
A week later, the Fed cut interest rates again by 50 basis points, citing "considerable pressure" on the financial sector, "increased contraction" and a credit crunch for "businesses and households".
The two rate cuts constituted the largest monthly decline in short-term interest rates since 1987.
The Senate also passed an economic stimulus package (approximately US$160 billion) to implement tax rebate policies for low- and middle-income families to stimulate demand.
The stock market rebounded, but the Federal Reserve's sharp interest rate cut failed to reverse the previous decline.
By the end of February, stocks were back to where they were before the Fed intervened. Credit and economic conditions continue to deteriorate.
Banks announcing large writedowns include American International Group ($11 billion), UBS Group AG ($14 billion) and Credit Suisse ($2.8 billion).
In the first 10 days of March, the stock market fell about 4.5%.
The U.S. stock market has always been booming. Even if there were such fluctuations, most people did not think that there would be a financial crisis.
Then, the Fed announced a new $200 billion program called the Term Securities Lending Facility, which allows financial institutions, including large brokerage firms, to borrow cash or Treasury securities against higher-risk assets, including non-government mortgage-backed loans. securities.
The market responded enthusiastically to the liquidity injection, with U.S. stocks recording their largest single-day rise in five years (about 4%).
This dose of chicken blood made American stock investors excited.
However.
The value of the $200 billion in non-performing assets that the Fed is hoarding will be greatly reduced as the home foreclosure rate and debt default rate soar.
And the money behind the scenes was taken from the people, using the poor's money to fill holes for the rich.
If money increases (such as the Federal Reserve printing money), but people's income does not increase, then everyone's purchasing power will decrease, and everyone can only be allocated fewer resources, which is actually equivalent to being Robbed of wealth.
The economic situation continues to weaken, reflected in economic data being lower than expected.
Unemployment continues to rise, consumer confidence continues to decline, borrowing growth continues to slow, housing default and foreclosure rates continue to rise, and manufacturing and service industry activities continue to shrink.
At the same time, financial institutions announced a new round of write-downs, with UBS at US$19 billion, Deutsche Bank at US$4 billion, Urban Bond Insurance Company at US$2.4 billion, and American International Group at US$7.8 billion Dollar.
Oil prices continue to climb (reaching $130 per barrel at the end of May) and the dollar continues to fall.
These moves exacerbate the Fed’s dilemma.
On the one hand, the Federal Reserve needs to maintain its loose monetary policy to avoid economic contraction and further deterioration of the financial environment.
On the other hand, they need to deal with price stability concerns.
The minutes of the Federal Reserve's April meeting reflected this, with the committee acknowledging that "it is difficult to grasp the appropriate policy stance under current circumstances."
In June, the S&P 500 fell 9% as surging oil prices led to a sharp rise in inflation, as well as renewed credit problems in the financial sector and poor economic data.
As far as credit issues are concerned, at the beginning of the month, S&P downgraded the credit ratings of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, saying that it had lost confidence in the ability of these banks to repay financial debts.
Then there were rumors that Lehman Brothers was seeking emergency funding from the Federal Reserve.
Moody's announced that American City Bond Insurance Company and Ambark Financial Group (two of the largest bond insurance companies in the United States) may lose their AAA ratings (which will seriously harm their ability to provide new insurance).
At the end of the month, Moody's downgraded both insurance companies and placed Lehman Brothers under credit review, while home foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies - the underlying factors causing the stress - continued to accelerate. .
Due to the credit crunch, the unemployment rate soared to 5.6% (the largest monthly increase in 20 years), manufacturing activity fell for four consecutive months, and the consumer confidence index hit a 16-year low.
At the same time, the consumer price index showed that the overall inflation rate rose to 4.4% in May, the largest increase in six months.
Poor economic growth and rising inflation expectations have exacerbated market concerns about stagflation.
The market continued to slide in the first two weeks of July, oil prices rose, credit ratings were downgraded by a series of financial institutions, writedowns continued to expand, and housing data was poor.
Financial stock prices have entered a state of free fall.
In mid-July, the market rebounded as oil prices fell sharply (increasing the Fed's room to ease) and policymakers took a series of interventions to increase market confidence in the financial industry, most importantly bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
As of July 15, shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had fallen nearly 75% in less than a year.
The crisis is coming, it is undeniable, and it needs to be solved urgently. After intense behind-the-scenes negotiations, the Treasury Department persuaded Congress, and on July 23 Congress passed a bill authorizing the use of an almost unlimited amount (Paulson chose the word "unspecified") of funds to assist Fannie Mae and Real Estate. the United States (capped at the overall federal debt limit) and expand regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The Treasury Department was essentially given a taxpayer-backed blank check to do whatever it took to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac solvent.
In early August, falling oil prices and the Treasury Department’s unprecedented intervention measures brought short-term relief. U.S. stocks rose slightly in August (about 2%), and financial stocks fell only 1%. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac The stock price stopped free-falling.
This is the key point. After a series of measures, the root cause of the credit problem and its feedback mechanism to the real economy have not changed, but the stock market has stabilized! ! !
Therefore, U.S. stock investors increasingly believe that the financial market is stabilizing. Many people are confident in the prosperous U.S. stock market and do not believe that a financial crisis is approaching.
Then, in the first week of September, oil prices fell sharply, which was both good news and bad news.
On the one hand, falling oil prices have eased inflation concerns and also benefited U.S. consumer spending, with airlines and retailers particularly benefiting.
On the other hand, falling oil prices reflect weak global economic growth.
Furthermore, the U.S. stock market only fell 2.5% this week, which corresponds to the rapid decline in oil prices, which is not unacceptable.
At this time, many people, including Matt Damon, still have confidence in the ever-growing U.S. stock market.
Unexpectedly, on September 15th, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.
When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, some high-quality money market funds suffered losses, especially the Prime Reserve Fund, whose net asset value fell below $1 on September 16.
Investors pulled money out of fear that other funds would also lose money.
As funds flowed out, funds had to liquidate their holdings of commercial paper.
As a result, hundreds of billions of dollars supporting daily operations of the company were exhausted within a few days.
After the net value of the main reserve fund fell below $1, a series of bad news followed.
Treasury's Ken Wilson received a call from Northern Trust at 7 a.m., followed shortly thereafter by calls from Black Rock, State Street and Bank of New York Mellon, all saying they had experienced runs on their money market funds.
At the same time, General Electric broke the news that it could not sell the notes it held.
Then, Coca-Cola Chief Financial Officer Muhtar Kang called and said that the note could not be extended and the $800 million quarterly dividend would not be paid this weekend.
Even AAA-rated industrial and consumer products companies can't roll over their bills!
The crisis quickly moved from Wall Street to Main Street.
At this time, anyone with some information channels realized that something was starting to go wrong.
This is why Matt Damon is so excited, so excited that he can even accept a loss in stocks.
The U.S. stock market is experiencing a major earthquake, and a financial crisis is looming.
During this period, he happened to be a producer, produce and star in the finance-related film "The Wolf of Wall Street".
This is so damn appropriate for the occasion.
Although the lower the stock fell, the more he lost.
But Matt Damon is in pain and happiness, and even hopes to fall as hard as possible.
Because the worse the U.S. stock market is, the more appropriate "The Wolf of Wall Street" will be.
(End of this chapter)