The Shadow Tycoon
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 154: The Bonds No One Redeems
“Mr. President, at present we have no shortage of trouble...”
The Chief of Staff in the Cabinet glanced awkwardly at the report in his hand. “This time, the Victorious Powers alliance has refused to redeem our war bonds on the grounds that they currently lack sufficient funds. The Defeated Powers say they need time, perhaps several months.”
The severe expression on the President’s face eased slightly. He felt this was good news. “Several months? That isn’t a problem. As long as they’re willing to redeem them, it isn’t a problem.”
But the Chief of Staff was clearly not as happy as the President. He forced out a thin smile. “But some of the intelligence we’ve obtained claims that several of the defeated cores are printing more cash to fight their current financial difficulties.”
The President’s expression grew serious again, even a little hateful. Clearly, he understood what that sentence meant. No one understood better than he did the chain of changes brought about by printing more currency. There was no doubt that these Defeated Powers also intended to repudiate the debt. Their method was merely different from that of the Victorious Powers.
Suppose the Baler Federation officially purchased ten billion in bonds from the Defeated Powers. Before this, the Defeated Powers’ currency had been equal in value to the Federation thor. After the war ended, the Defeated Powers would redeem these bonds according to the standards at the time the war bonds were issued, for instance by redeeming Defeated Powers currency worth twenty billion Federation thor, or some other figure.
But now the Defeated Powers were printing more cash. This would inevitably cause the value of Defeated Powers currency in the international currency market to collapse. Along with the Defeated Powers’ “defeat,” a currency that might once have traded one-to-one with the Federation thor could, under all kinds of negative news and inflation, become one hundred to one, or even one thousand to one.
By the time they printed the money until it was worthless, the redemption of perhaps ten billion in war bonds might be worth less than one million Federation thor.
The Victorious Powers could refuse redemption outright. The Defeated Powers also had their own methods to avoid greater losses. For a time, this gave both the President and everyone in the President’s Cabinet a headache.
In truth, this was not even the most terrifying part. They had received news that a portion of the Victorious Powers’ war bonds had already been redeemed. Some small countries that had stated their position during the World War and chosen sides, but had not been on the front line, had received redemption at the first possible moment.
If no one had received redemption, the Federation government could still say this might have to do with internal conditions within the Victorious Powers alliance. They could not produce so much money in a short period, after all, widow’s pensions for millions of dead people alone were enough to trouble them for a while, never mind all the damaged cities.
But the fact that they had redeemed some of them instead made the Baler Federation’s international standing extremely awkward. It gave people a very direct impression: the Baler Federation had been targeted.
With this comparison, the domestic situation in the Federation was also very likely to take a sharp turn downward. Worse still, all of this was because of the Federation Conservative Party’s long-standing isolationist policy. Once people believed that the policy promoted by the President had caused the current situation, the Federation Conservative Party and the President’s Cabinet would have to bear enormous pressure.
What they had previously regarded as the most suitable policy for the Federation in the international community would instantly become the greatest mistake of this President’s Cabinet because of these international relations.
The people of the Federation, these citizens who had enjoyed peace and quiet, would not understand the President’s Cabinet’s painstaking intentions. They were very likely to turn around and accuse the President’s Cabinet of creating the terrifying domestic trend. Those jobless people would also accuse the President’s Cabinet, saying it was precisely because of their isolationist policy that the Federation had become an excluded country, and that this had triggered so many current problems.
The will of the people was never stable. It always changed constantly to fit the selfish and narrow demands of the people.
Thinking of countless people holding protest marches outside the Presidential Palace made the President’s head ache. “Do not let this news leak for now. Also, have our diplomats continue negotiating with them. Even if they don’t redeem everything, as long as they make some kind of statement, that will do.”
At this moment, the Secretary of State gave a light cough. The President looked at him with some displeasure. With a bitter smile, he asked, “Mr. President, what position are we supposed to use to persuade them?”
With one sentence, the displeasure on the President’s face turned into pain. Even he himself began to doubt whether isolationist policy had been right after all. Though it had looked very good in the previous years, now he was not so sure.
The contents of the closed-door meeting inside the Presidential Palace soon spread. In the Baler Federation, the higher the leadership’s secret, the less it was a secret. This situation was in fact very common, and very realistic.
Behind every official, there might stand a magnate or great capitalist whose power differed from the force behind the President. These people’s rise to office could be called the President’s preference, but more often it was an agreement among magnates, syndicates, and great capitalists united together.
They had helped the President win the big election, so naturally, they would also push their own proxies into the President’s Cabinet.
They had already given the sweetest thing to the core figure. Asking for some Cabinet Secretary or Under Secretary positions, no one would object, would they?
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