Looking at the 10 billion U.S. dollars of foreign exchange reserves in hand, all poured out in a short period of time, within 20 minutes, it still failed to raise the exchange rate of the pound. Instead, the exchange rate dropped from 2.8560 points to 2.8480 points, a full drop of 80 basis points.

, Sir Norman's heart was filled with despair.

Those financial giants were more powerful, more resilient, and more decisive than he imagined. They didn't give him the slightest chance.

During the entire twenty-minute contest, except for the first minute, when he successfully raised the pound exchange rate by forty points, the rest of the time the pound exchange rate was steadily falling at a rate of two to three basis points per minute.

Especially in the last five minutes, it dropped at a rate of almost ten basis points per minute. It is obvious that the pound exchange rate continued to decline, which made some retail investors who were still waiting to watch choose to sell the pound, which led to such a result.

There was even more silence in the trading room. Almost everyone's eyes widened, and some did not dare to accept the reality in front of them. The effects of the adrenal glands had dissipated, and they also woke up from the heroic dream of saving the British Empire.

Not only did they fail to save the British Empire, they even served as heroes for only twenty minutes, and these twenty minutes came at the cost of US$10 billion in foreign exchange reserves.

At this time, they suddenly became frightened. The foreign exchange reserves of 10 billion US dollars were such a huge figure. They accounted for almost one-ninth, not one-eighth, of all foreign exchange reserves in the British Empire.

To put it bluntly, tens of millions of people in the UK work hard and only have so much foreign exchange surplus in a year.

However, the most important thing is that after paying such a heavy price, it still doesn't work. The 2.8480 on the trend chart is like a slap on their face, which is burning and painful.

I don't know what suddenly occurred to me, and everyone looked at Sir Norman.

At this moment, Sir Norman is not only their only backbone, but also their only life-saving straw.

"I will ask Prime Minister Major again for instructions and ask him to allocate funds to continue saving the pound!" Looking at the pair of expectant eyes, Sir Norman gritted his teeth and said resolutely.

Seeing Sir Norman's back without looking back, full of tragedy and desolation, everyone was filled with bitterness in their hearts.

When did the British Empire fall to such a point of being at the mercy of others?

Not ten minutes after he lay down again, the emergency phone in Prime Minister Major's bedroom rang again. It was extremely harsh. Prime Minister Major felt that his heart was suddenly tightened and even stinging, as if a small saw was cutting back and forth on it.

Sitting up from the bed, Major refused the attendant's help and got up by himself to answer the phone.

Hearing Sir Norman's voice coming from the other end, Major felt his heart suddenly stop beating for two seconds.

In his current opinion, Sir Norman is just like the death bird under the command of Death, and nothing good will happen if he makes a phone call.

Although he had adjusted his mentality and prepared to face the storm, when he heard that Sir Norman had spent 10 billion US dollars in foreign exchange reserves in twenty minutes, Major's blood pressure instantly rose a lot, and he felt dizzy.

, I even felt that my eyes were going dark!

A few seconds later, Major, who had finally calmed down, became furious and said: "Sir Norman, do you know what you have done? You have spent all the US$10 billion in foreign exchange reserves in twenty minutes.

Do you know how much the tens of millions of citizens of the British Empire have to pay for these 10 billion US dollars?"

Just now he felt that Sir Norman almost sent him to see God!

Ten billion U.S. dollars is by no means a small number. After all, several economic powers in the world like the British Empire have only accumulated more than eighty billion U.S. dollars in foreign exchange reserves after so many years of accumulation.

As for countries like China and India, although they are ranked around ten in the world economy, they are large but not strong. They do not even have foreign exchange reserves of 10 billion U.S. dollars. They often even need to pay foreign exchange reserves for 2 to 3 billion U.S. dollars.

Social borrowing.

And more importantly, if the pound exchange rate really depreciates, then the foreign exchange reserves in his hands will be the only thing that adds value to the British Empire during this crisis, and it will even be an important ballast for stabilizing the economy and stimulating economic development in the future.

stone!

It is Britain’s most important and valuable resource!

"I know!" Sir Norman said solemnly.

But then, he changed his voice and said loudly: "But what I know better is that the pound exchange rate must be saved! And the problem now is, Mr. Prime Minister, the US$10 billion in foreign exchange reserves you gave me will be withdrawn within twenty minutes."

The exchange rate of the pound cannot be raised at all, which shows that the short sellers and those financial giants are more powerful than we imagined! If I don’t do this, the situation will be even worse!”

"You must come up with more feasible policies now!"

Sir Norman's series of bombardments came, and Major's head, which had been tortured today, was instantly confused.

The words "I was actually reprimanded" kept echoing in my mind.

Since he became the British Prime Minister, no one has dared to reprimand him in person like this!

Not one, not even Her Majesty the Queen.

Although he is nominally the Prime Minister of Her Majesty the Queen's Cabinet, he was elected by the people and Her Majesty the Queen no longer has any right to reprimand or order him.

Since the Glorious Revolution of 1688 established a constitutional monarchy, the British royal family has no voice.

In a trance, he suddenly felt that he had returned to five years ago. At that time, he was not the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and he did not even hold the position of Finance Minister or Foreign Minister. He was just a small person with shallow qualifications who was promoted to the cabinet as Secretary-General of the Ministry of Finance.

At that time, his boss, his cultivator, Mrs. Thatcher, reprimanded him in this way.

He shook his head and threw these ridiculous thoughts away.

He is no longer the person he was during the five-year term. He is now the Prime Minister of the British Empire, and he must shoulder the responsibilities of the Prime Minister!

But this does not delay him, he has the urge to force Sir Norman to retire!

However, he quickly retracted this idea, because he knew deeply that if he did not want to withdraw from the European exchange rate system, slap himself in the face, and lose his face, if he locked the pound exchange rate above 2.7780, then he would

The best choice is Sir Norman!

"Sir Norman, what are you going to do to save our exchange rate? To be more precise, how many foreign exchange reserves are needed!" Major was completely prepared!

Foreign exchange reserves are important, but for the sake of the pound exchange rate, in order to prevent the pound from exiting the European exchange rate system, and for his own face, he decided to give up protecting foreign exchange reserves.

In other words, in order to maintain the exchange rate of the pound, he does not mind spending an additional 10 billion or even 15 billion US dollars in foreign exchange reserves.

After all, this is for the British Empire, Major comforted himself.

Hearing this, Sir Norman's tight heart instantly relaxed a lot. To reprimand the Prime Minister in such a tone, he was taking a huge risk, just like touching a tiger's butt.

Fortunately, he succeeded.

"I need another 20 billion US dollars in foreign exchange reserves! And I also need you to increase the interest rate on bank deposits." Sir Norman said in a deep voice.

With the speed of devouring 10 billion US dollars in just twenty minutes, it is obvious that if there is less ammunition, it will definitely not be enough.

However, he was not particularly pessimistic in his heart. After all, although he had consumed 10 billion US dollars in foreign exchange reserves, the other party would definitely have to pay a high price and consume a lot of ammunition.

If we can secure US$20 billion in foreign exchange reserves this time, and cooperate with favorable policies such as raising bank deposit interest rates, he still feels that there is hope that the pound exchange rate can be saved.

After all, no one’s ammunition is unlimited.

Although he was ready to risk everything, Major still felt his heart was hit hard when he heard the price of 20 billion US dollars!

And what surprised him even more was, hadn't he already agreed to increase the deposit interest rate before? Why did Norman still say this?

After Major asked his question, Norman said bluntly: "Not enough! A 1% increase in the deposit interest rate is not enough! I need you to increase the deposit interest rate by 2% or even 3%!"

He has now completely realized that only a real strike at all costs can save the pound's exchange rate.

After hearing this, Major on the other end of the phone suddenly fell into silence, with only the sound of heavy breathing echoing on the phone.

"Twenty billion U.S. dollars is too much. Now I can only agree to grant you the authority to use ten billion U.S. dollars of foreign exchange reserves, but the bank deposit interest rate is 2%, at most 2%. Sir Norman, as the governor of the Bank of England, naturally

We know how much harm high interest rates will do to the British economy!" Major said through gritted teeth.

Raising bank deposit interest rates is a double-edged sword!

Although the increase in bank interest rates will help people convert all kinds of currencies in their hands into pounds, giving people confidence in the pound exchange rate and raising the pound exchange rate, it will also increase bank loan interest rates.

Once the loan interest rate increases, it will not only increase the repayment costs and financial pressure of enterprises, reduce profits, but also reduce people's enthusiasm for investment and business, thereby affecting the UK's economic development speed, and in severe cases, it will also cause inflation.

, or even an economic crisis.

But he also knew that this was already a situation in which Britain had very few weapons at its disposal.

If only those damn Germans would agree to help.

He is so difficult!

Major sighed helplessly.

"I know! I will never betray your trust and the hard work of the people of the British Empire!" Sir Norman replied crisply.

Although the result was a bit worse than he expected, especially since the available foreign exchange reserves were only 10 billion US dollars.

But it doesn't matter.

Now that the money is in his hands, how he uses it is his business.

If the money is not enough, just make a phone call like now.
Chapter completed!