Manhattan Reborn 1978

new York.

Evening~

Manhattan, Blue Crystal Hotel.

In this hotel, which is the personal property of Giles Norton Morgan, there is a luxurious suite prepared for his mentor Professor Bartley all year round.

In order to welcome Professor Bartley back today, Pine arranged for someone to rearrange the suite, and also specially covered the professor's favorite single sofa with a cashmere cushion produced in Australia.

Therefore, when David saw what Pine had carefully prepared, he couldn't hold it back even after several attempts and joked to Pine.

"If you were a woman, I would definitely marry you home!"

"Hahaha~" Giles and Bloomer, the "best friends", heard David's "heartfelt words" and pointed at Pine and laughed.

Professor Bartley sat on the single sofa in the living room, glared at "bastard" David with a smile, waved to Pine, and asked him to sit next to him and start chatting.

David knew that he was a little "unbridled", so he quickly covered his mouth and nodded to Pine to apologize.

Bloomer was unwilling to give up such a good opportunity, so he "ran" behind David with two big strides, threw him on the sofa, and shouted to Giles.

"Hey~ Why are you still standing there?"

"Come here and help!"

"Here it comes~"

Giles, who felt that he had not interacted with friends for a long time, rushed towards the two of them with excitement on his face~

He pressed David's neck hard with his left hand to prevent him from "crying like a wolf and howling like a ghost" later. He skillfully reached around David's waist with his right hand and pinched the tickle, and asked loudly.

"Tell me what bad things you have done recently!"

"Hurry up and recruit from the real situation!"

"Uh... ow..." David was pressed down on the sofa, and his mouth was forcibly covered by Bloomer. He couldn't turn around to say something harsh or beg for mercy. .

Seeing that the three of them were having a "pleasant" interaction again, Pine deliberately pretended that nothing happened and asked Professor Bartlet about his experience of traveling by train.

Professor Bartlet listened to his three students "connecting emotionally", but without even looking at the three of them, he smiled at Pine.

"If Paul hadn't called me several times in a row and asked me to come back for this meeting, I might never have the opportunity to take the train from south to north again."

"You said I should thank him later at dinner?"

"Hahaha~" Pine smiled and shook his head slightly before continuing.

"If you really say that, Professor Samuelson will definitely feel that you are sincerely thanking him!"

"Haha~ maybe."

"When we were young, he was very thick-skinned. Even if he heard that we were sarcastic, he would not blush."

"Now that we are all old, he will definitely not do it to this extent..."

"Woooo!!"

Professor Bartley looked reminiscing, chatting with Pine about the "interesting things" that happened with his old friend Professor Paul Samuelson, and turned a deaf ear to David's "cry for help"~

Bloomer saw that David's face was red from holding back, and his expression looked like he was laughing or crying. Suddenly, he felt that without this guy's screams, the fun of "fixing" him was much less.

So, he glanced at Giles, and the two of them let go of David's head and neck in a tacit understanding, and immediately heard him shouting in a voice like "kill a pig".

"You two bastards!"

"Help...woo...woo!"

"Hahaha~" Bloomer and Giles laughed and enjoyed the miserable howls of "bastard" a few times, and immediately covered his head with the cushions on the sofa, and then hammered him several times with their four fists. , turned around and ran away. .

"..."

Pine tilted his head and looked at Giles and Bloomer who had "taken advantage and ran away", and sighed to Professor Bartley with some helplessness on their expressions.

"This meeting was originally going to be held at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington."

"But the Economics Research Department of the World Bank believes that this meeting was not officially convened by the imf, but Professor Milton Friedman wanted to convene experts from the economic circles of various countries to discuss whether they can find solutions to inflation in various countries. A good strategy..."

"Therefore, the World Bank, as a direct agency of the United Nations, has extended an invitation to Professor Milton Friedman and is willing to hold this meeting in the conference hall of the United Nations Headquarters. By the way, several permanent directors and executive directors of the IMF are invited to attend the meeting. .”

After listening to Pine's explanation, Professor Bartley nodded slowly and asked, "How many specific participants are there in this meeting?"

"If we go by the number reported by Professor Friedman a few days ago, it would be about 400 people."

"But I found out from the World Bank at noon today that the number of people who have clearly expressed their intention to come to the meeting has exceeded 700."

"This number is not the final number of participants."

"The number of people from Wall Street banks and investment banks who want to attend the meeting has now exceeded 200."

"Before the conference starts at 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, there may be senior central bankers, economic officials, economic experts and scholars from all over the world arriving one after another to attend the conference."

"Hmm..." Professor Bartley frowned, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of David getting up from the sofa, arranging his clothes, and raising his ears to "eavesdrop."

He found a more comfortable position for himself, tapped the armrest of the sofa with his fingers, and asked.

"Those people on Wall Street who want to attend the meeting would rather hear the speech of Paul Volcker, the representative of the New York Fed, right?"

"Yeah." Pine nodded with a smile.

"As the most important institution among the members of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was at the interest rate meeting of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC)."

"Wait a minute!" David suddenly spoke to his mentor before Pine finished speaking.

"Sorry, I forgot to tell you just now."

"We may have two more guests come over for dinner today."

"Who?" Professor Bartlet asked, shrugging without any surprise.

"Uh..." David scratched his head in embarrassment.

"Old Grandpa David and Bob."

"...Bob?"

"Correct!"

"He belongs to Grandpa Louis..."

"Oh~ I remembered him." Professor Bartley looked at David a little confused and asked with a smile on his lips.

"You kid, what do you want to do?"

David looked calm and explained: "He has been working in our company for several months. He has been busy doing market research on fructose syrup and has almost never rested."

"The recognition and encouragement from his family will definitely give Bob a greater sense of accomplishment than my praise."

"So I want to create an opportunity for him so that his family can see his hard work and growth."

"Is that why?"

"Yes!"

"..." Professor Bartley looked at the smiling David and was speechless.

Pine raised his eyebrows with a smile and asked following David's topic.

"What are the results of Bob's research in recent months?"

“Excellent!”

David cast a grateful look at Pine for the "assist" and continued.

"Since more than ten years ago, domestic corn production has begun to experience a serious surplus."

“For example: the states with the largest corn planting areas are Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Oklahoma States, Ohio, Missouri, Texas, etc..”

"They are all traditional agricultural states in central China, with open terrain, fertile soil and abundant water resources, providing more than 75% of domestic food output."

"It is precisely their geographical location and various historical factors that make it difficult for them to enjoy the development dividends of the Industrial Revolution that began during the Age of Discovery."

"Maybe someone might say~"

"The gradual spread of mechanized farming since World War II has allowed these states and counties, whose economic pillars are planting and animal husbandry, to get rid of the shackles of high labor costs and further expand their room for economic development."

David smiled wryly and spread his hands to his mentor, Professor Bartley: "You should have met some people and heard some things while taking the train this time."

"Since these agricultural states in the central part of the United States have launched large-scale mechanized farming, land consolidation has become increasingly serious, and the unemployment rate has increased year after year."

"Many small family farms have fallen into operating difficulties because they cannot afford to buy expensive large-scale farming machinery and equipment, and food prices are getting lower and lower. They have no choice but to give up their ancestral farmland and sell it to make a living."

"But...hehe~"

"For the past two decades, the country has been in a state of chaos and disorder."

"How can it be so easy to find a new job that can support the family and find another way to make a living?"

"Those farmers who have been living and working on farms for generations, after being forced to sell their land, can only enter the breeding industry that they are familiar with, and try to make their lives better little by little."

"But the domestic breeding industry has gradually entered a new era of industrialization, centralization, and technology in the past decade or so."

"My good friend Black Mike, his hometown is in Kansas."

"When he drove back to visit relatives at the end of last year, he discovered that clean and tidy new technological cattle sheds had been built in the large ranches he remembered."

“In these cattle sheds, cattle workers only need to patrol on time every day, put in feed, and check the health of the cattle, so that these cattle that lack outdoor exercise can produce high-quality beef with a marbled fat layer. .”

"And outside these cowsheds, the large pastures that were supposed to be for the cattle to forage and exercise have gradually turned into land dedicated to planting alfalfa, making it difficult to see the cattle grazing leisurely on the grass. Already..."

David looked at the thoughtful mentor, his expression slowly turned serious, and he whispered.

“The main raw material used in the production of peel syrup is cornstarch.”

"Corn starch contains polymers of glucose, and our common maltose and sucrose are also polymers of glucose."

"When we eat bread, we feel it has a slightly sweet taste."

"This is where the starch in the wheat is broken down into maltose and glucose by mixing with saliva."

"So if our body wants to obtain sugar from food, it must be obtained through the process of decomposing starch → maltose → glucose in order to supplement the body's needs."

“In 1957, chemists Richard and Earl added d-xylose isomerase to maltose extracted from corn starch to convert part of the glucose into fructose, and successfully produced fructose with a fructose content of 42%-55%. Fructose syrup.”

"Fructose syrup, as you can tell from the name, contains fructose and glucose."

"The sucrose we often use is also composed of fructose + glucose."

"So if you look at it from this aspect, fructose syrup and sucrose should be half brothers."

"But the production cost of fructose syrup, which can be produced through the chemical industry, has completely exceeded that of sucrose."

"Okay~" Professor Bartley "woke up" from thinking, waved his hand to interrupt David, turned to look at Pine and asked.

"What is he trying to do by telling this in a roundabout way? Do you know?"

Pine expressed that he was not clear about the art of tanshou.

"He always likes to talk in circles, and I'm used to it."

"Hahaha~" Professor Bartley pointed at David with a smile and complained with a slight sigh.

"Listen!"

"Even to us, you don't dare to speak freely..."

"If I ask you to speak a few words in public in a few days, some people will definitely think that you are an incompetent person who has nothing to say."

"Uh..." David rubbed his nose in embarrassment and nodded.

"You are right, I will definitely change it in the future."

"No!" To David's surprise, Professor Bartley shook his head slowly.

"How to express is also a very practical knowledge that requires continuous learning."

"You are now basically able to master what kind of people you face and what kind of words you say."

"But you still have to remember!"

"Concise, accurate and incisive expression can also bring you unexpected joy."

"I understand." David nodded very seriously this time, sat up straight and pondered for a while before saying.

“While I was familiar with the development status of the domestic sugar substitute industry, I unexpectedly noticed the huge development potential of fructose syrup.”

"As a sugar substitute sweetener, its performance in low temperature environments is far better than saccharin, aspartame and cyclamate."

“Moreover, the raw material for its production, corn starch, is very cheap, the production process is not complicated, and the output ratio is extremely high~”

"So it may become the most important food sweetener in the post-industrial era!"

"Although the eating habits of ordinary people in China are constantly changing, no one can refuse their favorite cold sweets and iced drinks."

"Especially people living in southern states like ice cream, ice cream, milkshakes, iced cola, juice, etc. very much."

"People living in the north prefer to bake small desserts, cakes and biscuits at home, including homemade birthday cakes, etc."

"They are all the best potential consumers of fructose syrup."

David paused briefly, organized his thoughts in his mind, and spoke faster.

"I once said that no matter in any era, people cannot live without the most basic needs of life~"

"Clothing, food, shelter, and transportation!"

"Delicious food is a basic need that humans always bypass."

"What to eat, how to eat, and how to eat well, feel full, and feel happier are things that almost everyone has to consider every day."

“I’m paying special attention to fructose syrup now, partly out of long-term considerations in this regard.”

"And the other part is the huge contradiction that will arise between land, population and food production in the next fifty years!"

"..." When Professor Bartley heard David mention this topic, he immediately understood the long-term plan mentioned by this boy.

He waved his hand to David and asked, "Fifty years?"

"What are you doing with such long-term plans?"

David smiled and spread his hands: "Because if nothing happens, I can live for at least fifty years."

“When traveling thousands of miles, the most important thing is to have the courage to take the first step.”

“After that, it’s about moving forward against all odds, persisting, persisting, and persisting!”

"Although it is thousands of miles away, it will eventually end."

“What you see is what you achieve.”

"The biggest obstacle is yourself."

"Choose to focus and think hard about yourself."

"But being alone all the time, I definitely wouldn't be able to hold on."

"So, I am willing to use sincerity to break the wall between people."

"Let my close friends walk with me through the next fifty years~"

David scratched his forehead with his fingers, pointed to the door, and smiled.

"For example: those two bastards who ran away just now."

"Hahaha~" Professor Bartley couldn't help laughing.

Pine also sat back on the sofa very relaxedly and smiled.