dognovel Chapter 415: My Mother-in-Law's Troubles
Chapter 415: My Mother-in-Law's Troubles
Between 10 and 20, it was time for university students to take their final exams again.
After Huang Xiaochuan finished taking attendance that day, a student stood up and asked a question.
"Professor Huang, final exams are coming up soon, and you haven't given us any key points for economics yet!"
His words resonated with the other students.
Huang Xiaochuan glanced at them and withdrew his hand that had just reached for the chalk.
Huang Xiaochuan's fingers lightly traced the lesson plan. Chalk dust fell softly onto the dark brown cover. He looked at the more than forty pairs of expectant eyes below the stage and pondered for a moment.
Then he asked, "Classmates, have you noticed that the steamed buns in the cafeteria have gone up by one cent?"
Before Huang Xiaochuan could ask what caused this, a boy in a white short-sleeved shirt in the last row of the lecture hall subconsciously chimed in, "It must be because pork prices have gone up again."
"Why didn't the price of the braised fish chunks at the small restaurant on the second floor go up?" After asking this question, Huang Xiaochuan opened his teacup and took two sips of tea.
After finishing his tea, Huang Xiaochuan spoke again, his gaze fixed on a girl who was relatively close to him: "Xu Meng, you mentioned the substitution effect in one of your assignments last week."
The girl whose name was called by Huang Xiaochuan sat up straight: "Because steamed buns have steamed bread as a substitute, but there are fewer substitutes for braised fish chunks?"
The lecture hall suddenly became noisy, with discussions rising and falling.
Huang Xiaochuan smiled slightly, picked out a red piece of chalk from the chalk box, and drew a steep supply curve on the blackboard.
While saying this, he also mentioned in the news last month that the feed industry had implemented a reasonable price increase.
As Huang Xiaochuan spoke, an economic model quickly appeared on the blackboard.
"Isn't this the key point of Chapter Two!" the class monitor suddenly exclaimed. The room fell silent abruptly as countless eyes turned to the "elasticity theory" repeatedly outlined in red circles in the center of the blackboard.
The quick-thinking students immediately opened their notebooks and started copying it down; this was definitely a question that would be on the test.
Huang Xiaochuan threw the remaining chalk stubs back into the chalk box, then patted the chalk dust off his hands and sat down in a chair to leisurely drink tea.
Just as get out of class was about to end, Huang Xiaochuan saw Xu Hui's face flash by the door and then disappear.
He went outside and looked around. When Xu Hui saw him come out, he smiled and said, "Academician Wang is looking for you. I know you have classes and it's inconvenient to call, so I came to tell you."
"You could have just asked a student to pass on the message; why did you make a special trip in this sweltering heat?"
Xu Hui waved his hand: "I've been in the office all morning, so I'm just taking a walk around. Otherwise, I'll feel rusty."
"Alright, I've delivered the message. Mission accomplished, it's time for me to head back."
After saying that, Xu Hui waved his hand and left.
Huang Xiaochuan touched his nose, turned around and went back to the classroom. He didn't need to guess what the old man wanted to talk to him about; it must be about his thesis again.
Two months ago, when the mentor and apprentice were discussing the current domestic and international economic situation, Huang Xiaochuan pointed out that behind the current prosperity of the Four Asian Tigers, there was actually a huge crisis hidden.
Wang Deyi then asked Huang Xiaochuan to conduct in-depth research on this topic. Fortunately, Huang Xiaochuan only had a few classes per week, so he had plenty of time to do this.
Huang Xiaochuan completed the paper in less than two months. The paper is titled "Vulnerability under Economic Prosperity".
He believes that those countries, which many economists call the “Asian Miracle,” have serious economic risks.
These countries mainly include Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Korea. These countries all experienced average annual GDP growth exceeding 7% between 1980 and 1995, earning them the nickname "Asian Tigers" among economists. Their defining characteristic was the massive influx of foreign investment that fueled the boom in manufacturing and real estate.
These countries' rapid development relied excessively on foreign investment, especially Southeast Asian countries that attracted short-term foreign debt through high interest rates. In Thailand, for example, foreign debt accounted for 60% of GDP in 1995, with short-term debt accounting for more than 50%. Most of these funds flowed into non-productive sectors, such as the real estate industry.
(The above data was purchased by Zhang Yun from some economic research institutions in the United States at Huang Xiaochuan's request, and also referenced some academic papers in economic journals.)
What's even more critical is that these countries have pegged their currencies to the US dollar. Once the dollar strengthens, it will undoubtedly lead to a decline in export competitiveness and a widening of trade deficits. Therefore, Huang Xiaochuan predicts that these countries will inevitably incur account deficits this year, thus creating a fixed exchange rate trap.
Huang Xiaochuan also pointed out in his paper that the financial systems of these countries are very fragile. According to relevant institutions, the financial institutions in these countries are poorly regulated and have over-lent to the real estate and stock markets. The non-performing loan ratio of Thai banks has reached 12%, and the situation is even more serious in Indonesia.
Moreover, in their pursuit of rapid development, these countries have neglected fundamental principles and liberalized capital flows before establishing sound financial regulations, which has created significant hidden dangers.
One of Huang Xiaochuan's purposes in writing this paper was to prevent the future of China from repeating the mistakes of these countries and to allow the country to take preventative measures in advance.
His other purpose was to take advantage of this opportunity to make some quick money. That's why he hadn't handed the completed paper to his teacher yet. He didn't want to make the paper public for the time being, but only wanted to provide feedback to the higher-ups through special channels as a reference.
Wang Deyi spent more than an hour reading Huang Xiaochuan's paper. After finishing, he didn't say anything or ask Huang Xiaochuan a single question, but instead fell into deep thought.
The paper had a profound impact on him. The data was detailed and accurate, and the model deductions were easy to understand. This was no ordinary paper; it was practically a prediction of a major economic event that was about to happen.
What he was considering at that moment was what impact such a thing would have on China.
He thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a solution, so he looked at his disciple.
Seeing Wang Deyi looking at him, Huang Xiaochuan stated his thoughts directly: "Grandpa, I need to discuss something with you. I don't want to publish this paper for now. I want to work on this first, you know what I mean!"
As he spoke, Huang Xiaochuan jokingly made a gesture of rubbing banknotes with his hands to Wang Deyi.
Wang Deyi's arm, which was propped on the table, slipped, nearly pulling his own beard off. That wretched disciple! He's blinded by greed.
However, after thinking about it, Wang Deyi agreed: "Whether you publish it or not is up to you. Anyway, the paper is yours. But I need you to rewrite a paper for me based on this one. The main content should be: what impact would a regional financial crisis, as you see it, have on our country, and what measures our country should take?"
"Okay!" Huang Xiaochuan readily agreed, which was also something he had originally wanted to do.
After the final exams, Huang Xiaochuan's teaching duties for the semester were considered finished. All that remained was to attend some departmental meetings and complete some other miscellaneous tasks.
In mid-July, the sun was blazing. As evening approached, the sun-baked road surface continued to radiate heat. Water trucks diligently sprayed water along the road, ringing their bells, and water vapor mixed with dust instantly rose from the scorching surface.
Huang Xiaochuan, sitting in the car, saw everything clearly. When he got home and opened the gate, just as he had guessed, Da Gun didn't come to greet him. He guessed that Da Gun was probably enjoying the air conditioning in the living room. Even a dog knows where it's most comfortable to stay.
Since Uncle took Grandma and Aunt away, Little Stick went to Uncle's house. Now only Big Stick is left at home. Huang Xiaochuan feels that it is a bit lonely, so he has asked someone to help it find a girlfriend, planning to end its single life as soon as possible.
The maid, Sister Hua, was already waiting at the door. She took Huang Xiaochuan's briefcase from him.
"Sir, you're back! Your wife's mother is here and is talking to her in the living room."
Huang Xiaochuan nodded to indicate that he understood. Yu Xiang had already called to tell him, and this was something they had discussed a few days ago. His mother-in-law, Zheng Aiying, wanted to come to Shanghai for a few days, mainly because she missed her daughter.
After Huang Xiaochuan entered the room, he kicked away the big stick that was trying to curry favor with him.
"Mom! When did you arrive?"
Seeing her son-in-law return from get off work, Zheng Aiying stood up and replied, "I arrived this afternoon, Xiao Chuan, you're off work already?"
"Oh, Mom, why are you standing up? Please sit down!" Huang Xiaochuan was flustered when he saw his mother-in-law stand up to greet him, so he quickly helped her sit down again.
After Zheng Aiying sat down, Huang Xiaochuan asked Yu Xiang, "Did you call Yu Wei? Tell them to come over for dinner tonight."
Yu Xiang replied, "I've already called them. They should be here soon. Go take a shower and change your clothes while you're at it."
After saying goodbye to his mother-in-law, Huang Xiaochuan went upstairs to take a shower and change his clothes.
When he came downstairs again, Yu Wei and Tang Yuan were already in the living room.
Zheng Aiying came to Shanghai for two purposes: one was to discuss Yu Wei's wedding, and the other was to address Yu Xiang's delayed pregnancy. As for Yu Min's wedding, it was already scheduled for next month, so she didn't need to worry about that.
For Zheng Aiying, the most important thing right now is that Yu Xiang has not gotten pregnant.
In her and Lao Yu's view, a child is very important to Yu Xiang because it is related to whether Yu Xiang's status in the family will be stable in the future. Moreover, the son-in-law's family business is too big. Having a child means that this family business will have an heir. So this matter has been weighing on Zheng Aiying and Lao Yu's minds, but the two of them have not made any progress yet.
How long has it been? There are so many shotgun weddings out there these days, it seems like getting pregnant is so easy. At first, Zheng Aiying thought the two of them weren't considering having children yet, but after asking around, it turned out that wasn't the case.
So Zheng Aiying took a leave of absence to stay in Shanghai for a while. Firstly, she wanted to urge her eldest son-in-law and eldest daughter to have a child. Secondly, she wanted to buy some things for Yu Min's wedding and also to finalize the marriage of Yu Wei and Tang Yuan as soon as possible.