Capítulo 1370: Chapter 660: Look, the Sun Is Setting

The Prime Minister was the only one left in the office, slowly collapsing onto the sofa. His gaze fell on the shareholding documents of Scottish Power, the words “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” at the top of the document appearing especially ironic in the dim light.

…

As the traders in London Financial City finalized the last transaction on their screens, Manuel Garcia of “Silver Wing Capital” added three more control codes for British assets to his private account.

This time, they targeted the power grid hub in Northwest England!

Those high-voltage towers standing on the moors once transmitted energy to Manchester’s textile mills and Liverpool’s shipyards. Now, they’ve become targets in Silver Wing Capital’s financial report with a “yield of 18%.”

“While Downing Street is still debating whether to introduce a foreign acquisition review bill, we’ve already acquired a 25% stake in the Cheshire substation.”

Garcia reported to his superior on the other end of the phone, while behind him, the electronic screen was scrolling the real-time yield curves of British government bonds. That steep upward arc looked like a knife slicing through the British economy.

The instinct of capital is always faster than the decisions of politicians.

While the Prime Minister was pounding the table at the Cabinet meeting, demanding to “guard the baseline of national assets,” the Qatar consortium had quietly acquired the operational rights to the container terminal at Southampton Port through three offshore companies. Meanwhile, Wall Street’s hedge funds used “debt restructuring” as a guise to take over the mining licenses for four century-old coal mines in the Welsh Valley. Those black coals that once supported the Industrial Revolution had now become collateral for the hedge funds at Luxembourg Bank.

The more deadly infiltration occurred in the unseen sectors.

A telecom company registered in Singapore, under the pretext of “technology upgrade,” acquired shares in three submarine cables connecting the European Continent to Britain. MI6’s technical experts warned in a secret report: “This means that 70% of cross-border data transmission in London Financial City will pass through the other party’s server nodes.”

But this report was buried at the bottom of the Prime Minister’s desk because the Treasury Department needed the promise of “1,500 new jobs” from this company to embellish quarterly data.

Britain’s weakness is never the sudden drop in GDP figures, but the realization of loss of control over the economic lifeline when the crisis hits.

At the budget hearing, the Chancellor of the Exchequer trembled as he read out a set of data to the parliamentarians: “In the past year, the total foreign investment in the UK reached 3.7 billion British Pounds, with 83% concentrated in the energy, transportation, and communication sectors… Our foreign exchange reserves are no longer sufficient to repurchase any of these core assets.”

No sooner had he finished speaking, than the journalists in the audience began flipping through records. The British Pound to US Dollar exchange rate fell another 0.5 points, marking the fifth drop this week.

Investment?

Damn it, it’s an acquisition!

This weakness even permeates the most basic areas of livelihood.

The Prime Minister sat in his Downing Street office late at night.

“They’re not even bothering to hide it anymore.”

The Foreign Secretary confided to the Prime Minister privately after returning from Brussels, where the European Commission had refused the UK’s request to “delay the opening of the energy market,” while the arrogant EU trade commissioner conveniently held 100,000 shares of preferred stock in Silver Wing Capital in his personal investment account.

The torrent of capital never shows compassion. As the smoke in Belfast had not yet dissipated, international rating agencies suddenly announced a downgrade of Britain’s sovereign credit rating from AA+ to AA, citing “uncertainty in debt repayment ability due to domestic turmoil.”

This downgrade meant that the interest costs of British government bonds instantly increased, requiring an additional 20 million interest payments annually for every 1 billion British Pounds borrowed.

Ironically, the main purchasers of British government bonds were precisely the capital predators like Garcia.

“Using their own government bonds to finance the acquisition of their assets.”

Listen!

The Sun Never Sets…

It seems like it’s about to fall!

…