You Can Still Make a Killing by Nicholas Pierpan

Author:Nicholas Pierpan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2012-03-18T16:00:00+00:00

Act Two

Scene Fourteen

Sir Roger’s office, First Brook Capital.

Sir Roger You can’t be charged!

Jack I’m not going to be charged.

Pause.

Jack I might be charged. I don’t know.

Sir Roger Our investors are fucking nervous like the rest of the world and now I’m going to have the FRA in here going through all our books, interviewing my people, smearing our name in the press –

Jack It will blow over.

Sir Roger Reputation is everything in this business.

Jack Is it?

Sir Roger stands up in disgust at this remark and pours himself a whisky.

Jack Are you going to stand by me?

Sir Roger pours another whisky and hands it to Jack.

Sir Roger You made a mistake.

Jack I’m sorry.

Sir Roger Well then … it’s a good thing you’re indispensable.

He chinks glasses with Jack.

And innocent, right?

They drink.

Jack Yes.

Sir Roger Of course, if they convict you your career’s history and we never met.

Emma buzzes.

Emma (voice) Your one o’clock is here.

Sir Roger And work doesn’t stop just because you’ve picked up a stench.

Jack stands.

Sir Roger Stick around, this person is just your type.

Emma returns, followed by Kim.

Sir Roger Kimberly Lopez?

Kim Kim.

Sir Roger Roger Glynn.

They shake hands. Kim does not shake hands with Jack.

Sir Roger Goldman Sachs. Green Forest…

Kim Yes.

Sir Roger So what can I do for you?

Kim I was recently gathering investment to bid on a couple companies …

Sir Roger I read the documents you sent. This is exactly the kind of thing we’ve been doing, very nice. So what do you need, some help?

Kim No, I was all ready to do these deals on my own, I’ve already raised the funding …

Sir Roger And?

Kim I realised I was wasting my time.

Sir Roger Why? They looked shrewd. Perfect.

Kim They’ll provide a tidy profit, but that’s when I realised: all these collapsing firms are small fry when you consider Britain’s banks. The world’s largest bankrupt institutions, and now’s the time to make a move on them.

Pause.

Sir Roger You’re having a laugh.

Kim Think about it: in America there’s a stimulus plan building roads and schools, but here it’s just the banks getting money in that massive bailout.

Sir Roger Okay.

Kim But the UK bailout hasn’t worked, share prices are collapsing, investors are paranoid because Northern Rock and Bear Stearns are long gone and they saw Lehman sink. So if you’re Lloyds or RNBS, do you really believe the government is going to save you with a second bailout? It’s still a totally chaotic situation, so …

Sir Roger Yes?

Kim A lot of people own bonds from those two busted banks.

Sir Roger Too bad for them. They’ll probably never make their money back.

Kim I want to sell them credit default swaps.

Sir Roger considers.

Jack That’s crazy. Sell swaps on those bonds? Too risky – the media would have a field day.

Kim You don’t know that.

Jack We’ll end up in the papers for gambling on a defunct RNBS, and if we succeed then we’d be making money off a collapsed bank. The press would kill us for it. Roger, you can’t touch this, no way.

Sir Roger I

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