The Billion Dollar Sure Thing by Paul E. Erdman

Author:Paul E. Erdman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Courier Publishing
Published: 2018-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

12

“SO we will need an additional $50 million in cash before we can proceed further, Mr. Rosen.”

“Fine, Herr Kellermann. I’ll see what I can do.”

The telephone went dead for a few seconds.

“You did understand what I said, Mr. Rosen.”

“Completely. I’ll be back to you this afternoon. Let’s say after lunch. You’ll be in?”

“Yes, yes.”

“Fine. Good-bye.”

Stanley burped, put on a pink shirt, a green tie, a blue suit, brown shoes with black socks. He placed a call to New York and went down to the Grill Room for a steak, well done, and some french fries on the side.

He actually enjoyed his lunch, while he mulled over Kellermann, the General Bank of Switzerland, and $50 million. So what else was there to expect? Everybody has to look after himself. And the aristocrats of the world were the first to learn this. That’s why they became aristocrats. To himself, over lunch, Stanley had no qualms about thinking of his big customers in the States. Sure, they were Mafia. But they were the aristocrats of their chosen line of business. They were the best surviving capitalists in the United States. They believed as fiercely in the system that made America what it is, as did the Rockefellers, the Harrimans, the Kennedys of past generations. Swiss bankers were cut of exactly—but exactly—the same cloth.

They used the cloak of piety plus the bank secrecy laws in the same way as the Mafia used bribes and the threat of secrecy or death. Both provided services that a greedy and essentially anti-law public wanted. Neither group of twentieth century capitalists could survive and prosper to that degree if vast numbers of people, in both low and high places, did not want and need them. The type of power that resulted by merit of their holding the keys to many different kinds of financial kingdoms was as close to invincible as you could get. There was no use fighting it. Bow your head, accept it for what it is, roll with the punches. Cooperate. Since you can’t join ’em, don’t be stupid enough to try to lick ’em. Just have enough money to keep up with them. Power and money. That was something that both the Mafiosi and the gnomes of Zurich respect. And money Stanley had. That’s why he enjoyed his lunch. In spite of the fact that his stomach was not exactly in A-1 shape.

The tummy trouble had started with that bender the week before. After fooling around in those bars in France and Germany right across the border from Basel until four in the morning, how could it have been avoided? That guy from Geneva sure had known them all: all the places, all the girls. And could he drink. Brother! Funny that the stomach business was hanging on so long. But still, it had been worth it. Anything would have been worth getting away from that hotel in Basel. Christ, what a stiff dump. And the manager! Boy, if looks could have killed when we turned up with those gals.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.