A few minutes later, Mr. Fox's assistant brought two newspapers, one from four months ago and the other from this week.
Financial companies like Mr. Fox's are actually very concerned about the financial trends of the whole country and even the international community. They deal with money every day, and they are very clear about what these trends represent.
In addition, they are very concerned about some social changes, such as employment rates, unemployment rates, and social security issues.
If the unemployment rate continues to rise, they will need to lower interest rates and reduce large loans to mitigate risks. This will also make their business more attractive.
When the national economy improves significantly, they will increase some interest rates while encouraging people to borrow more, because people can afford to repay.
Every day, Mr. Fox's assistant has to read a large number of newspapers to analyze the upcoming situation in the country and then decide whether to prematurely terminate some businesses or pretend to forget them.
This is definitely not a simple straightforward business. Those who can't make it big will find it very hard to sustain it for long. Only people like Mr. Fox can manage such a business long-term.
This is also why he spent a lot of money to hire a university student to help him. He regards this as a career, rather than a means to make quick money.
After Lynch opened the newspaper and browsed for a while, about ten minutes or so, Mr. Fox did not disturb him but even had someone bring him coffee and cigarettes.
He secretly felt a sense of anticipation. This ordinary person named Lynch must give him a surprise.
It wasn't a baseless guess; this was something he observed.
An ordinary person like Lynch could not possibly stay calm when invited and definitely could not hold a gaze with him when he showed his murderous intent.
He is not an ordinary kid—by Mr. Fox's age, Lynch indeed seemed like just a kid, only twenty years old.
After about ten minutes, Lynch drew some lines with the pen in his hand and then laid the two newspapers in front of Mr. Fox, "I've underlined the content you need to read so you can see it more intuitively."
Mr. Fox and his assistant looked seriously. After reading back and forth several times, they still had no clue; it was all real estate agency information, and they hadn't discovered anything.
Mr. Fox was somewhat confused, "I don't know what these represent. Do they have any special meaning?"
Lynch was not at all impatient; he was very patient. After all, facing an outstanding client and the money in his pocket, anyone who needed money could become patient.
He walked over to Mr. Fox's side. His subordinate wanted to stop him, but Mr. Fox held up his hand to let him approach, which also meant Lynch gained Mr. Fox's short-term trust.
If he could fulfill what he said before, then this trust would last a long time.
"The newspaper provides rental information for two street-facing apartments. Among them, the rent for this apartment is..." Lynch pointed to the place he had underlined without continuing.
Mr. Fox instinctively responded, "A hundred thirty-five dollars."
Lynch nodded affirmatively, "Yes, a hundred thirty-five dollars. Let's ignore everything else for a moment and see how much the house next to it is..."
Mr. Fox very cooperatively turned his gaze to the underlined information on the other newspaper and continued cooperatively, "A hundred seventy-two dollars!"
"These two apartments are on opposite sides of the street, less than a hundred meters apart in a straight line. From these price changes, Mr. Fox, what do you notice?"
Mr. Fox pondered for a moment, then began to seriously think and said, "The monthly rent increased by thirty-seven dollars!"
In Lynch's past mature and successful cases, he always believed in one thing, which was to involve participants more deeply in the case to save a lot of time and avoid some problems people wouldn't even think of.
They would convince themselves and firmly believe that the conclusions they reached were correct. This was especially true in math problems.
Before it was clearly pointed out that some math problem answers were wrong, every solver firmly believed their answers were correct and others were wrong.
Through a simple "math formula," Mr. Fox completed an in-depth participation process. This feeling began to envelop him with a false illusion, a false sense of security he created himself.
He wouldn't think Lynch was a fraud because these were not things Lynch told him; it was his own intelligent mind carefully thinking them through. He trusted his conclusions.
"The increase in rent means more money is needed to buy these houses, over four months..." Lynch said with a pause, "No, actually, it increases every day, little by little. You might not notice it, but it indeed changes. Do you admit it, Mr. Fox?"
Mr. Fox nodded, "Then what is the connection with our previous business?"
"Of course, Mr. Fox, these houses are always there. They won't change with time, like having more bricks or fewer tiles."
"What they looked like when they were built, and they still look the same now. They haven't changed; they are constant, but prices have changed. What does this mean?"
Before Mr. Fox could think, Lynch gave the answer because it wasn't something Mr. Fox could come up with.
His task was to guide people toward the corner he needed them to discover at the right time, rather than encouraging them to think outside the box!
"If something's value hasn't changed at all, but it changes during the 'payment' process, it can only mean that the value of the items used for labeling has changed."
"In other words, in the past four months, the currency in our hands..." Lynch didn't know when he took a coin out of his pocket, pinching it between his thumb and index finger.
With a light flick, the slightly hidden but audible metallic reverberation caught everyone's attention—Mr. Fox, his assistant, and the nearby bodyguards all focused on the flying coin.
Lynch confidently stated, "It has been devaluing continuously, and in four months, it has devalued by about twenty-two to twenty-five percent, Mr. Fox."
Mr. Fox withdrew his attention from the motionless nickel on the newspaper and began seriously considering Lynch's words and looking at his assistant.
The assistant felt a bit awkward; he wasn't a finance major, just learned management. If it wasn't the higher salary here or Mr. Fox being his father, he wouldn't be here.
He thought there might be something off about Lynch's words but couldn't pinpoint any apparent errors. During this process, Lynch used gold for a second round of examples, instilling the concepts of "devaluation" and "currency is also a commodity" into the people in the room.
He wasn't lying, as those were all true. His examples were not problematic, even touching upon how people could buy a newspaper for a nickel ten years ago, but now it costs fifty cents.
The newspaper remains a newspaper, whether ink or paper; production processes haven't significantly changed. It's not that newspapers have become expensive, but money has devalued.
Gradually understanding, Mr. Fox suddenly felt somewhat horrified. He changed his position, goaded on by a feeling of discomfort, "But our interest is very high; some are even compound interest!"
He wanted to use this as a way to comfort himself, but this fragile sense of security was destroyed in a few seconds by Lynch's laughter.
"I know, Mr. Fox. The problem is that our devalued currency isn't the kind you can produce and place before people, but all your assets!"
"All your assets are depreciating at a rate of five percent per month, and this is also a kind of 'compound interest.' If you can't send all your money to the Federal Tax Bureau to complete the final formalities soon..."
Lynch returned to the chair opposite the table, sat down, shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands, and said, "Your currently proud wealth may mean nothing a few years down the road!"
"Are you still concerned about that insignificant ten percent now?"