A little later, Lynch and the mayor had dinner together.
This was a very interesting phenomenon. Two months ago, if Lynch wanted to have a meal with the mayor, he had to wait in line for a long time.
But now, he could easily see the mayor anytime and anywhere, and cut the line to sit down with the mayor at any time, or have a meal with him.
Was this the result of Lynch's charisma, his knowledge, his moral character, and all his other outstanding qualities?
No, this had nothing to do with those excellent qualities. It was because he was rich, and because his development had been linked to the mayor's political program. They were a community of interests, and interests were the key to these miracles.
This was a very ordinary dinner. They didn't eat outside, but chose to eat at the mayor's house.
Eating and drinking outside at this time was not a smart thing to do. Who knew if a hidden reporter would come up with a big piece of news.
For example, if the mayor who was eating and drinking and the homeless who were about to freeze and starve to death on the roadside were placed on the same page, it would be enough to make people think of a lot of things that could make people angry.
So in order to avoid these problems, the mayor specially invited Lynch to his house for a meal. It was an ordinary family dinner, but the family dinner itself was not so ordinary.
"I heard from Mark that you're going to split up your company. Will this affect our next … plans?"
The mayor asked bluntly. After Mark told the mayor about the meeting, the mayor decided to ask Lynch.
He wasn't worried about money. As long as he was still sitting in this position, it would be easy for Mark to become rich.
For example, recently Mark had been negotiating with the city hall about the city's public transportation.
The bankruptcy of the public transportation company was still affecting the travel of the city's citizens. No company was willing to take this responsibility. Fortunately, Mark appeared at this time.
He was willing to take this responsibility. At the same time, in order to thank Mark for taking such a responsibility, the city hall was willing to squeeze out some subsidies from the not very rich finance to subsidize the losses of the public transportation company. At the same time, they also gave them a certain degree of tax exemption.
In order to show that this was a process without a black box, everything was transparent.
The mayor was not worried about how Mark's business was doing. He was only worried about whether his policies would be affected.
Lynch patiently explained the situation to him in a way that the mayor could understand.
"After the company is split up, we will let the professionals do their jobs. This will provide more jobs for society. Let me give you an example …" He paused. The mayor listened carefully and did not interrupt him.
"Based on the current situation, I have less than 30 business partners in each city. These people are enough to handle all the business."
"But after the dismantling, the number of workers needed to build a secondhand goods trading center in each city would range from several hundred to over a thousand!"
"This doesn't include the operations and management staff in the later stages. There will only be more of them, and this is just one company."
"For the auction company and the current parent company, we still need warehouses. Whether we rent them from others or build our own, we can provide more jobs for society."
The mayor had a rough idea of what was going on. He then asked a more pertinent question, "You've expanded so much. Do you have enough funds to keep up?"
Lynch shook his head. "There is no problem in this regard. If it were a few years ago, I wouldn't have done this. Just the expected land would be enough to bankrupt me, but now …"
He smiled and moved away from the table. The mayor's chef served the steak. He did not continue, but the mayor knew what he was talking about.
As the destructive power of the financial tsunami spread, the first to be affected was the real estate trade.
With the capital flight and the continued decline of social vitality, the standard of living in the city was unbearable. Many people were fleeing the city, just like a few years ago when they rushed into the city from the countryside, and left with their tails between their legs.
The demand for real estate continued to decrease, and the volume of real estate transactions hit a new low every week.
The sluggish real estate market would naturally lead to the decline of housing prices. It was almost the same as the stock market — the transaction price would become a coordinate in the trend chart. The lower the price trend, the more significant the speed and extent of people's price reduction.
It was many times easier to acquire a piece of land now than before. The mayor was in charge of the city, and he was well aware of this.
After knowing that these things would not affect his implementation of the policies, the mayor had a relaxed smile on his face. The problems he had encountered recently had been giving him a headache for a long time.
He said in a good mood, "The ideas you told me last time have a foundation to realize. We have made some breakthrough progress."
This was a little sweet for Lynch. He mentioned a name, a young man who was emerging on the diplomatic battlefield. What was more interesting was that this young man happened to be the president's son.
Some of the things that happened in the international community had not yet spread back to the country, but that day was not far away.
In the process of this young man attending an international conference, he encountered some unfriendly people. Those people used his father, the president of the Federation, to ridicule him.
The general meaning was that an isolationist supporter actually allowed his son to attend an international conference. Was this because the president had to compromise with the world due to domestic political pressure, or did his son stab his father in the back?
This was a very malicious ridicule. People were watching a good show, but the young man said something unbelievable. "Every era has its own choices. We can't force the mistakes of the era to be imposed on individuals. But as the son of a father and a young diplomat of the country, I will try my best to prove to everyone."
"What the Bayer Federation lost, what Mr. President lost, what we lost, I will win it all back, for everyone!"
Sonorous words, firm and unquestionable determination. His performance was completely different from all the previous diplomats of the Bailey Federation.
Those people would only avoid some malicious ridicule or even provocation. Even if it was too much, they would raise some things to the level of the country and then let it go with a few words.
Very few people would answer directly, and with such a different attitude. For a moment, people realized that the international policy of the Federation had undergone a huge change.
At the same time, the vice president of the Progressive Party had successfully reached some international cooperation and strategic intentions with some countries, and the premise of all this was to make the president of the Bailey Federation step down.
The change in the Federation's attitude also gave these people in the international community a lot of face. They had already tossed the president of the Bailey Federation out of office. If they continued to pester endlessly, it would only push the Federation to the opposite side of them.
The external side was ready, and the next step was to wait for the domestic consciousness and social attitude to be highly unified to complete the last step.
Now, the social opinion of the president was very strong. Under the propaganda of the politicians and the media, all the crimes were pushed to the president, and people were happy to do so.
Many people knew very well that the social unrest and the economic regression were not directly related to the president. He did not have the ability to destroy the country in one fell swoop.
But everyone was happy to do so, because only by doing so could they prove that it was not them who were wrong, but the president.
After all, isolationism was born to meet the needs of society. The mistake had already happened, so let those who could bear the responsibility bear it.
The more people hated the president with a common enemy, the more united the whole society was. Seeing that the second round of voting for the impeachment of the president was about to begin in a few days, many groups spontaneously went to the Buen Parliament Building to support the brave warriors who were not afraid of power.
Many people thought that this would be a turning point in the history of the Federation.
But … Lynch was not as optimistic as ordinary people. In fact, the Federation's economy was built on the international hot money in order to avoid the war. They wantonly invested in real estate in the Federation, which brought about the unprecedented prosperity of the Federation's financial economy.
Now that these people had left, they would not come back just because of the change in the international policy of the Federation. It would be impossible to return to the previous state without three to five years or even longer.
The speed of development would be beyond everyone's expectations. It was not fast, but slow, extremely slow.
"After these things are over, we will completely liberalize free trade to a certain extent."
The mayor ate a delicious steak and said one of the things that interested Lynch the most.
Lynch heard some of the problems in the mayor's words. He repeated, "To a certain extent?"
The mayor put down his knife and fork and nodded. "Some research experts and scholars in the party believe that there will not be another large-scale war in ten years. There may also be some changes in the way war is fought, from a war of force to an economic war …"
In this world war, economic war began to gradually come into people's attention, especially in the later stages of the war. Countries found that large-scale shelling of commercial and industrial cities was far more effective in the medium and long term than shelling of frontline positions.
The top leaders of the Progressive Party were a little afraid. Once free international trade was completely liberalized, some international hungry wolves might be introduced to inexperienced and resistant countries, so they only liberalized it to a certain extent.
"What about me?"
Lynch asked curiously. "How can I qualify for international trade?"