[Chapter 891: Behind the Scenes]
"Allocating spots based on GDP contribution?"
"Yeah, did you know they've been doing it like this for hundreds of years?"
Little Bush fell silent. His dad was an expert on China, but he was just a regular guy. During his time in the capital, he barely thought of anything other than food; other stuff just didn't seem worth mentioning to him.
Now, he realized he had been mistaken. While China's technology might be lacking, their theoretical foundations were solid.
"The old-timers took it for granted, hiding behind the scenes so long that they really thought they were gods."
Alan Greenspan shrugged off Paul Volcker's complaints. The old guys always liked living in their own world. If you talked about the internet to them, they'd think you were crazy.
"Paul, don't you find the guy kind of interesting?"
"What guy?"
"He really has started to dive into entertainment, you know? I heard NBC is reorganizing, and White Media has set up a separate entertainment division.
Ha! They took the bait and now they're stuck on the hook, essentially spitting out the line as well."
Paul Volcker sighed in resignation. The old dudes thought they had put a lot of stock in William White, but their judgment was still off-base.
They wanted to hide behind the curtain while others went out to fight. Haha, they were thinking too highly of themselves.
"Alan, they have to choose.
Les Moonves, Murdoch, and Conrad Black--those three combined might not even be a match for White Media."
"Yeah, the trend is set now. The hardest part is that his achievements are not limited to media. It's time to make a choice again."
"Haha, choice? What choice? William White alone can outperform a whole group, plus with White Oil on his side, I can't deal with this. The stakes are just too high."
Petersburg was initially just the name of a hotel. Later, Shell led a group of oil tycoons who came together for warmth.
In 1911, the massive Standard Oil Company was forced to split up. Even looking back from today's perspective, that company would still be one of the largest.
The Rockefeller family had a fortune of 1 billion dollars back then, and the value of Standard Oil was at least 3 billion.
What was $3 billion worth back then?
The GDP of the U.S. was only about $30 billion a year. If you measure it by modern standards, you'd realize how terrifying that number truly was.
In 2018, the U.S. GDP was roughly $20 trillion. Ten percent of that would be $2 trillion. So, the initial Standard Oil was equivalent to having twenty apples bundled together.
Let's not even get into loathing; Rockefeller himself must have felt quite conflicted. Having too much money could easily turn one into a target.
After World War II, Standard Oil was split into thirty-four companies yet remained a subject of major attention.
If greedy capitalists got hit, nobody would shed a tear for them.
The post-war world was a polite way of saying it looked like a war zone. Many countries were reduced to rubble, their national identities hardly recognizable.
The U.S. originally had no issues but decided to take on China anyway. The outcome was disastrous; they didn't gain a single advantage and ended up being schooled by China instead.
The Petersburg Club was founded under such circumstances. Its initial purpose was clear: no way were they letting the poor folks take their money. Simple as that.
Consider this: the head of the club was Ben Had, the chief of Shell. Ironically, he used to roll with the likes of little mustache.
White supremacy, elite supremacy--that was the ethos of this club. From oil moguls to the IMF, from the Federal Reserve to Washington, the influence of this group was simply staggering.
How did the Hunter family get played?
You'll know nothing if you think they were just playing in the oil game; they were messing with the silver industry instead. What if they didn't fall? What would the Petersburg Club do? Use their resources to bury them?
Haha, one Rockefeller family, one Rothschild family, paired with a Morgan family, what on earth did the Hunter family think they were?
They quickly wrapped up the Hunter family, leaving the old-timers confused for a bit. They thought the new family forces would become some kind of vassals.
Unfortunately, they collided with a real anomaly.
Not just you old-timers hid behind the scenes. William White also preferred not to be in the spotlight. Being a major puppet master is always better than being cannon fodder.
Cough cough, joining the Petersburg Club seemed like a great choice, right?
Wrong. This was William White's most torn-apart aspect, and the same thing came to conflict for those in the Petersburg Club.
William White had half-Asian heritage, but that part didn't matter because his father was traditional American. However, not finding a wife from an equally prestigious background was a major flaw.
William White had three sons, and their mother was also mixed race. Cough cough, if they added it up, it became closer and closer to a concentrated lineage.
Isn't that nonsense? Didn't they say there was no racial discrimination?
Haha, just kidding. The Petersburg Club publicly stated they didn't accept Asian or Latino members. As for people of color, that's something for you to think about.
Naturally, William White wasn't one to appease them. If he ended up below anyone, that would be quite the disgrace.
"Tanner, do you think these guys are racists?"
"Cough cough, doesn't feel that way; it's weird. Ben Had is supposedly washed up; he should look down on the Jewish people. How did the Rothschild family fit into this?"
"Tsk, they must be quite good at compromise. Otherwise, they wouldn't have come together like this."
"Yeah, I feel they're just posturing. Strip it down, it's really just about sticking together. As for those politicians, it's just mutual exploitation.
However, their security system is pretty tight. Don't even talk about reporters; sometimes even the local police don't know what they're up to."
"Haha, next time, let's call in a fire report. Just don't actually burn anything; wouldn't want to freak out a couple of old-timers."
"Cough cough, got it."
"Well, you get back to it."
Tanner was wrong, though; there were so many people in there that it practically was a shadow government; how could it be simple?
For example, oil was at sixteen bucks a barrel now. If these guys decided to raise prices, it wouldn't take even a month for oil to reach their target.
So Rockefeller was only pretending to be affected by the crisis. What about the oil crisis? It was just their group stirring the pot.
However, they did seem to be lagging behind in media. Murdoch and Les Moonves had always been pinned down by William White.
Everyone could see it was not that William White couldn't handle them; it was just he didn't want to.
The Justice Department's anti-trust issues aside, if he didn't have a worthy opponent, his media enterprise could also head toward mediocrity.
William White was struggling with this, and Conrad Black and Murdoch weren't doing much better. William White had begun a price war with them that lasted a year.
Five cents for a paper wasn't just a couple of people involved. In fact, every paper in London had begun to drop prices.
"Robert, do you think I should go find William White?"
"Haha, don't worry; he won't see you. Don't look at me like that; it's not that he dislikes your status.
You just can't make any decisions; that's just how it is, and I can't either. So, Conrad, let's just accept that reality."
*****
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