Chapter 590 Hot Issues

Of course, it does not mean that these oil companies will immediately choose to default after the crude oil price rises to the "default window".

After all, if they default, they need to pay 20% of the contract amount.

That is to say, in addition to the crude oil they have delivered to the BFT Fund since March, the 20% liquidated damages of the total contract of 60 billion US dollars still need to be paid.

In this way, these oil companies need to weigh whether the oil price will continue to rise, or remain within the "default window", or whether it will only rise temporarily and fall back soon.

If the oil price does not enter the "default window" for a long time, then they can bear certain losses and insist on supplying goods.

Therefore, it will take at least one month to judge, and these oil companies will make a decision on whether to default based on the comprehensive judgment of factors such as the trend of crude oil prices.

Another possibility is that they will choose to negotiate with the BFT Fund, or increase the selling price, or reduce the compensation amount. This also depends on the attitude of the BFT Fund at that time to choose what decision they will make in the end.

The 25 billion pounds that the BFT Fund initially received was converted into approximately 52.5 billion US dollars.

Of this, $30 billion was deposited in the banks designated by the oil companies as the "margin" for the oil orders, and the rest of the funds were invested in gold futures and spot.

At present, the BFT Fund has made nearly $10 billion in profits just from the rise in gold prices. If it can get 20% of the liquidated damages from the oil orders, then so far, the BFT Fund's profits will be able to reach more than $22 billion, which has exceeded the 30% rate of return.

In the future, these funds can be invested in "bottom-fishing" after the full outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis, which also means that the BFT Fund will eventually complete the return of 50 billion pounds and related interest to the British government, which is completely no problem.

However, Barron's ambitions do not stop there. The BFT Fund will not only be used for investment profits and the final return of funds to the British government. This fund can also be used as one of the carriers for his future investment layout, and he will continue to inject funds into it later.

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"I think the London government's response to the subprime crisis is not effective. London is one of the world's financial centers. The storm has deeply involved the banking industry. We need to abandon some of our liberal practices and try our best to help banks overcome difficulties..."

On TV, Joe Harriman, dressed in an intellectual way, said to the camera:

"Of course, this is not to support the banks, but to avoid too much impact on ordinary people. After all, once panic spreads, its destructive power is huge. I think those bank boards that made mistakes should bear the consequences of these mistakes."

This year is the election year for the London government. The Greater London election will begin at the end of April and the beginning of May.

To be precise, this year is the election year for the local councils in England, including the elections for the mayor of Greater London, the city council, and the district councils of its 33 districts.

Unlike the election for the prime minister, the election for the mayor of London is a candidate system. Its campaign has started a year ago. The two candidates with the highest support rate are the Labour Party candidate and the current London Mayor Ken Livingstone. He has served two terms as the mayor of London. If he wins this year, it will be his third term.

Another person who is also Barron's acquaintance is Johnson, the Conservative candidate. Basically, the new mayor of London will be chosen between Livingstone and Johnson.

Interestingly, in fact, not only British people living in London are eligible to vote in the election of the mayor of London. The election rules for the mayor of London stipulate that any citizen of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth or the European Union who is over 18 years old and lives in London can apply to participate in the mayoral election.

Well, that is to say, if you are a citizen of other EU countries, as long as you can prove that you have lived in London for a long time, you can still participate in the election of the mayor of London and vote for the candidates.

That is why the official website of the London mayoral election provides services in up to 17 languages, and Chinese alone includes traditional and simplified Chinese...

Of the two candidates, Barron will naturally support Johnson, not only because he knows that Johnson won the election and was elected mayor of London in his previous life.

It is also because Johnson is considered to be Barron's "own man", while the current mayor of London, Livingstone, who is famous for his eccentricity and tough style, has a very ordinary relationship with Barron.

Don't forget that when acquiring the London Stock Exchange, Livingstone stood on the opposite side of Barron...

After Cameron became the leader of the Conservative Party in 2005, Johnson served as the education secretary of the "shadow cabinet". However, in order to prepare for the election of the mayor of London, he resigned from the position of education secretary of the "shadow cabinet" in July last year, and then the Conservative Party officially confirmed his candidacy in September.

In addition, Joe Harriman will also participate in this local council election.

In the last election, Joe Harriman was elected as a member of the Islington District Council in Greater London. This time, she will participate in the election of members of the London City Council.

Therefore, Joe Harriman is also very active during this period.

With her age of less than 28 and her identity as a minority woman, she will become the focus of the Conservative Party.

So this time Joe Harriman is bound to win.

Of course, she will definitely get Barron's strong support...

From the current situation, the Conservative Party is coming on strong this time, and its support rate in the local council is very close to that of the current ruling Labour Party, so it is very likely to be an upset.

If the Labour Party loses this local election, then they will be very passive in the parliamentary election two years later.

The subprime mortgage crisis has greatly affected the banking industry in the United States, and the banking industry in Europe has also been implicated.

As one of the global financial centers, the impact of this financial crisis on the banking industry and some policies to deal with the crisis are hot topics in this London mayoral election.

Including HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays Bank, these important banks in the UK have been affected by the subprime mortgage crisis and suffered huge losses, so the corresponding stock prices have fallen significantly compared with the same period last year.

Even Standard Chartered Bank, which did not intervene in the investment of subprime mortgage-related debts and did not suffer too much loss, was affected. Its stock price has fallen by more than 15% compared with the highest point last year...

This is already the best performance among the major banks in the UK.