章節 34: Playing Big
Saying goodbye to the Ches, Margaret brought Josh and met one of the hosts of this party, John Leibler.
"Good evening, my little sweetheart. I'm so glad you could come. You're as beautiful as ever!" The amiable-looking old man greeted Margaret warmly and gave her a gentle hug.
Next to him were two people, one of whom Josh had met before. David, who had previously tangled with Margaret, was looking at Josh with an unfriendly expression.
The other was an old man of similar age to John Leibler.
"Thank you, Uncle John. By the way, let me introduce you. This is Josh, the one I mentioned to you," Margaret said after greeting John, then introduced Josh to him.
"Hello, Mr. Leibler. I'm Josh Kane. Nice to meet you!" Josh said calmly.
"Not a bad young man. Have fun!" John looked him over and nodded slightly, then reached out his hand.
This handshake indicated that John had preliminarily accepted Josh, at least not rejecting him.
Of course, this was more for the sake of Margaret, his close junior.
Josh naturally reached out his hand and respectfully shook hands with him.
"By the way, let me introduce you. This is Alonzo Emery, my old partner." After shaking hands, John introduced the elderly man next to him. As for David?
John was well aware of his son's temperament. If Margaret and David could get along, he would naturally be happy, but Margaret was clearly not interested in David, so he wouldn't go out of his way to find fault with Josh for the sake of his useless son.
Jokingly, who would be foolish enough to cause trouble for a guest at their own party, regardless of how poor or lowly they were or how the situation turned out? As the host, he wouldn't have a good reputation.
And although David was a playboy, he understood this truth. Despite his unkind gaze at Josh, he didn't come forward to provoke him.
"Hello, young man. If you have any legal issues, you can come to me!" Compared to John's casualness, this Emery lawyer was much more enthusiastic.
Although lawyers have a high status in the United States, they ultimately provide services to capitalists. Although she has been relatively low-key in recent years, Margaret was previously a wealthy heiress with a strong reputation in Chicago's upper class and was very rich.
And he knew that this widow had recently received a large compensation from the insurance company... because he handled the matter.
So Margaret was also one of his big clients.
Looking at the money, Emery was naturally more enthusiastic about Josh.
After chatting briefly with this prominent lawyer and exchanging business cards, Josh and Margaret left.
The main purpose of this kind of party was to recognize faces and exchange business cards.
If they really wanted to talk business, they wouldn't do it in this kind of setting.
Later, led by Margaret, Josh met some Chicago business and political figures.
As time passed, the party officially entered the main event.
Since it was a fundraising party, political figures' passionate speeches were necessary.
The main speakers were the mayor of Chicago, a Democratic senator from Illinois, and a military representative.
"Josh, do you think we can win this war?" Margaret asked Josh, looking at the senator giving an impassioned speech on the stage.
"Of course, the United States will ultimately win this war," Josh replied without hesitation, as he was familiar with the course of history.
Although Josh now knows, thanks to Margaret, that she has traveled to a parallel universe, the overall historical trajectory of this world is likely to remain the same.
Unless he was extremely unlucky and ended up in the world of "The Man in the High Castle,"... But even if he did, Josh didn't need to worry too much because he was of Austrian descent.
Speaking of which, the identity of Austrians during World War II was quite unique.
In the Axis powers, Austrians were naturally close to Germans because of their cultural and linguistic similarities and because a certain failed art student was of Austrian descent.
On the American side, the Austrians were considered to be invaded and were not given the same attention as the Germans.
"How many bonds do you think we should buy?" Margaret asked, feeling more confident now that Josh had such strong faith in America's ability to win.
"If possible, I think the more, the better!" Josh thought for a moment and whispered in Margaret's ear.
Josh was very intentional with his words.
During this period, if one investment project was guaranteed to make a profit, it would undoubtedly be the purchase of federal war bonds.
The profit margin was as high as an astonishing 100%.
Of course, to achieve a profit of 100%, there were conditions to be met.
During World War II, the American way of purchasing war bonds was to buy them at 75% or 50% of their face value and redeem them ten years later.
For bonds with a face value of $25 and $50, the purchase price was 75%, while for those with face values of $100 and $200, the purchase price was 50%.
In other words, if you bought a $100 bond, you only had to pay $50 for it, and ten years later, you could redeem it for $100.
Of course, if you wanted to redeem the bond before the ten-year term was up, you could do so, but the interest would only be calculated at a compounded rate of 2.9% every six months based on the actual purchase amount, resulting in much lower returns.
Furthermore, during World War II, there was no need to worry about inflation regarding American war bonds.
Because of the victory in World War II, the United States obtained the world's largest gold reserve and used it to establish the Bretton Woods system.
Before the Bretton Woods system collapsed in 1971, the status and value of the US dollar were equivalent to gold, with an extremely low inflation rate.
Therefore, in 1943, even if you bought a lot of bonds, you didn't have to worry about being unable to keep up with inflation when you redeemed them in 1953.
"Do you really have that much confidence?" Margaret asked.
"Why? Do you have any ideas?" Josh asked, a little surprised by her expression.
"I'm thinking, should we go big?" Margaret replied.
As she spoke, Josh immediately understood what she wanted to do.
Like those charity galas and such in the future, buying war bonds could also be compared.
If you become the person who buys the most bonds, do you think you will be recognized by the high levels of American society?
Would you be taken out and used as an example for publicity?
This would not just be buying some bonds but buying a special pass.
Of course, with Margaret's wealth, she couldn't become the biggest buyer in America. Although there were not many billionaires in this era, there were definitely more than a few.
Margaret could not compete with those people.
But if it was just for this fundraising event, then it was not impossible to become number one.
"Do you have confidence?" Josh asked.
"I do have some confidence. After all, we held a fundraising event at the end of last year, and the highest amount purchased was only two million. I don't think it's possible to exceed that number this time, so I think three million should be enough for the first place!" Margaret said.
Upon hearing this, Josh couldn't help but nod. It was true that the United States did not issue war bonds until after formally entering the war in November 1942, and from then until December 1945, a total of eight issuances were made in the span of three years.
So even those top billionaires could not buy hundreds of millions every time. How would their businesses be sustained?
Buying one or two million bonds each time was normal.
Therefore, three million should be enough.
But at the end of the fundraising event, when the senator announced the highest amount of war bonds purchased, Josh was completely stunned.
"Josh Kane, three million dollars!"
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