Chapter 1103 - Highway Robbery

At the New York Stock Exchange, there was another exclamation in the lobby.

The Seattle Trailblazers that carried countless optimism by investors fell below the issuance price at opening.

The company’s primary business focused on the exploration of extraterrestrial planets, as well as the search for a habitable planet. Due to major breakthroughs in space telescope technology, many investors viewed them as the Columbus of the new century. Not long ago, the Noah’s Ark Fund invested $200 million in this company, and on the date of its initial public offering, this bizarre incident happened.

Although it wasn’t rare for stocks to fall below the issuance price on the first day, it was rare for the stock price to be slashed in half, especially for a company that carried such a positive forward guidance.

What made this situation even more odd was that it was the second Silicon Valley aerospace company to suffer a hard landing on the date of initial public offering in three days.

“God, you can’t do this to me. I bet everything on it!” A man in a suit was holding his head in pain, he was on his knees while his eyes were bloodshot.

No one sympathized with him. Most of the people there felt the same despair.

The entire NASDAQ sector plunged, as if all the companies related to the aerospace industry overnight no longer possessed any value.

Countless investors’ mood plummeted along with the downward trendline.

Compared with those who used their own money to invest, many professional managers who worked for investment banks and funds or even prominent figures stood there.

Their expressions were more or less somber. They knew very well that a failed investment could mean the end of their professional career, which meant their luxury homes might be taken by banks and they might not even afford to pay back their credit card balances. As the capitalists’ hounds, once they lost their sense of money, they were useless.

Not just NASDAQ .

The Dow Jones Index, known as the economic barometer, was also brewing a storm. Many people began to decrease their holdings. In a zero-sum game, once the selloff began, it was impossible to close the floodgate.

On the same street, not far from the New York Stock Exchange in the Morgan Stanley Building, Daniel Morgan was reading the newspaper in his hands with a gloomy expression.

Without any warning, he suddenly scrunched up the newspaper and threw it into the corner of the office, he screamed, enraged.

“Fifty percent defense tax? Shameless robbers—this is a highway robbery!”

When Celestial Trade brought together Hua, Russia, and Frankberg to form the Earth Defense Alliance, he wasn’t concerned. After all, without the participation of the world’s largest economy, what was the use of an alliance?

If the Earth Defense Alliance could really stand on the first line of defense selflessly, he was more than welcome. With the economic strength of the four major powers and more than 20 small countries, it would be impossible to burden the defense as they must squander money on fortifications and battleships without any return.

By that time, Wall Street with a war chest of capital could become the savior again and take the Alliance’s fruits of labor as their own.

And the introduction of the defense tax put Morgan in a hot seat.

Since the collapse of the Rothschild consortium, global mining giants such as Vale and BHP were on the brink of bankruptcy due to cashflow issues. Future Mining almost swept and took control of one-third of the world’s commodity market, and they stole the market share previously that belonged to Vale and BHP Group through cheap and high-quality ore.

Especially rare earth metals produced from the Moon, which overtook Hua’s market share and made Xin the world’s largest exporter of rare earth metals.

Without any exaggeration, once the 50% defense tax was introduced, the global commodity market would suffer damage no less than a magnitude seven earthquake.

Of course, that was for the non-members.

It wasn’t just Daniel Morgan who was furious; the Capitol’s reaction was similar.

Hill’s economic adviser read the true intentions of Celestial Trade with just a glance.

They were taking the fruits of other countries’ interests and transfusing them to their own space industry! Of course, they alone couldn’t digest the fruit, so they also invited other countries to the feast.

If this was an era of space competition, developing the aerospace industry was just a means to boost national confidence, so it wouldn’t matter. But with the profit prospects of the industry surging at an exponential rate, the Capitol must respond.

Needless to say, the space industry parks in Silicon Valley and Seattle had already exceeded 1 trillion USD in value. If they were kicked off the space elevator, the loss would be instrumental.

“The risks of the economic crisis have emerged, and we might not see anything in the short term. But if this defense tax persists for a long time, the gap between us in the space industry will only grow. Before it’s too late, we must do something!”

“I propose to impose economic sanctions on Xin on the grounds of suspected trade protectionism!”

At a regular meeting in Congress, a congress member stood up and spoke fiercely.

Economic sanctions—the term which was drastically different from antitrust investigations. If antitrust investigations were rifles, then economic sanctions were nuclear weapons. Based on the market size of both countries, both would suffer. It was ultimately depended on who could last longer.

In the exploitation of third world countries, economic sanctions often worked wonderfully. Using poverty to force the compromised had been a common trick since the Cold War era.

However, in Congress this time, there was surprisingly no reaction and different perspectives emerged.

“Now our top priority is to negotiate with Celestial Trade to minimize the impact of the defense tax on our space industry, rather than let the conflict escalate further and spread to other areas.” A Republican member stood up and raised objections.

Quickly, another Congress member stood up.

“I concur. If it eventually turns into a trade war, I believe we can win in many fields, but in the tech sector, we will suffer a tremendous loss. Especially in the virtual reality network—no modern country can leave the network, and we can’t afford this loss at all.”

“In addition, there’s a very crucial point,” the Congress member said, who looked around at the other members. He said helplessly, “At this time, the sanctions against the Earth Defense Alliance are simply unjustified from the public’s perspective. Before the meeting, I paid attention to the official website of the Capitol. The application for the Capitol to join the Earth Defense Alliance has exceeded 20 million signatures…”

Everyone looked at each other in shock.

What they were most worried about had finally happened.