Chapter 91: Silent Changes

"Some work arrangements require a bit of manpower. The Chief of Police at the precinct intends to hire two new officers. I have the authority to make recommendations."

Carter chuckled as he spoke, picking up an apple from the fruit basket in the kitchen and walking to the sink to wash it.

Rarely had he been reborn into such a good situation, and Carter didn't want to let himself get fat. Eating a piece of fruit before meals not only filled the stomach and reduced carbohydrate intake, but the citric acid deposited in the stomach also promoted digestion.

"Police? You mean, you can recommend Lavin to join us in Douglas as a police officer?"

Jenny was surprised at how her grown son seemed to have more power than her husband, and she was a bit hesitant in her thoughts.

"Yes, the people I recommend shouldn't have any problems getting hired. Well, if Lucas wants to come too, he can. I have two slots."

Seeing Jenny's somewhat awkward expression, Carter quickly guessed her thoughts. Lavin was Victor Blake's son, and from that surname alone, it was easy to see that he was a relative from Carter's father's side, or, in Chinese terms, Lavin was Carter's cousin.

Since he had given a slot to his father's side, it wouldn't be fair not to give one to his cousin's side. Taking a bite of the apple, Carter added with a grin.

"Doesn't this put you in a difficult position?"

Jenny's eyes lit up, then she seemed worried. If arranging this would put Carter in a difficult position, then Lucas and the like could just stay far away.

"No, everything has been discussed. The job isn't difficult, and if there's anything they don't know, Carlos will teach them hands-on. I just don't have many trustworthy people I can use right now, I need them to come help me. Alright, I'm going upstairs to take a shower, I'll be back down later."

With two slots at the precinct, Carter had originally planned to bring over Joey, his prospective brother-in-law from the restaurant, and Chris, who shared his father's name, but after some careful thought, he decided against it.

The job of an American police officer was relatively stable, with a decent income that could ensure a middle to upper-middle class standard of living in the area. But in terms of career development, it was very limited. After all, in the United States, the ceiling for being a police officer was too low. It would be considered good to become a deputy commissioner in one's lifetime, and as for commissioner, it was just a revolving position. With each change of mayor, the commissioner would inevitably change, and it was impossible to stay in the position for long.

Apart from that, giving these two slots to relatives was also a good thing in Carter's opinion. If they became police officers in Douglas, they would put down roots here. When the day came for Carter to leave if Jenny didn't want to go with him, having these two nephews would help take care of him.

In addition, the key point was that Carter was very opposed to family business. In his core business, not a single relative could get involved, and even in non-core businesses, he preferred not to let them meddle. Even in businesses like the restaurant and gas station, which he didn't value much, Carter didn't want to open that door to them.

"Ah, Douglas's stage is just too small."

After understanding why it was necessary to prepare as much capital as possible before doing business, Carter, heading for the hot shower, also understood why many businesses tended to cluster in specific locations.

Enterprises in certain industries tended to cluster in a particular city or region, perhaps due to the clustering effect, perhaps due to tax incentives, but there was definitely one reason that was at the core, and that was to facilitate talent cultivation or recruitment!

In a small city like Douglas, which didn't even have a university, it was impossible for a super enterprise to emerge here. Super enterprises might be born here, but they would definitely move away in the end. Just like how ADM was born in Delaware but grew and thrived in Illinois.

After a sigh, life continued.

Over the next two weeks, Carter lived a relatively dull life. During this time, apart from finalizing the franchise and supply agreements with Chevron, Goodman helped coordinate activities such as contacting construction teams, and Chevron's engineers helped plan the standardized construction of the gas station, so Carter didn't have to worry too much.

According to news reports on television, the price of silver continued to rise sharply. As the background of the "big player" International Metal Investment Corporation gradually surfaced, a large number of retail investors and securities brokers rushed in, just as Julian speculated, like a pack of hungry wolves, continuing to snatch silver and crazily driving up its price.

At this point, the price of silver had exceeded $33, which was a staggering increase of $22 compared to a month and a half ago, with an astonishing increase of 200%. Seeing this scene, Carter could only echo Julian's previous sentiment, "This is insane."

As for the fact that he left early and missed out on making a lot of money, at first Carter was indeed a bit regretful, a bit regretful that he didn't listen to Julian's advice and hold onto his position for a while longer. Later, comforting himself with "contentment is happiness," Carter gradually calmed down and quietly watched the changes in the market as an outsider.

Besides silver, the one thing Carter never dared to relax his attention on, the Federal Reserve, had also begun to act. No, it should be said that the Fed's actions had already begun. Last month, on October 6th Eastern Time, the Fed under Volcker's leadership announced a series of policies or measures that it would soon implement, such as adopting a monetary policy to moderately increase the money supply and reducing its focus on short-term federal fund rates.

To be honest, when Carter first heard this news, he was bewildered. A bunch of gibberish, and there wasn't much he could understand, but the part about "moderately increasing the money supply" really challenged Carter's nerve sensitivity.

Increase the money supply again? Nonsense, if you increase the money supply again, inflation will never be controlled, and Carter wouldn't have ended up at odds with Volcker in the White House, would he?

Perplexed, Carter chose to observe quietly. In theory, this was not supposed to happen. Both history and people in this era were telling themselves that Volcker was most likely going to tighten the money supply and couldn't possibly increase it again.

After waiting quietly for so long, Carter could finally relax. Because, the federal funds rate had gone up!

Starting from the announcement on October 6th, the first reaction was that the Fed's discount rate increased by 0.5 percentage points. The so-called Fed discount, simply put, was the cash subsidy the Federal Reserve provided to commercial banks.

If you urgently need money now, ok, I can subsidize you, but you have to pay me interest. Compared to the long-term loans the Federal Reserve provided to savings banks, the discounts given to commercial banks were usually very short-term, with the shortest borrowing period even reaching overnight repayment.

With the increase in the discount rate, finally in November, the federal funds rate also began to move.

Like the increase in the discount rate, the fluctuation of the federal funds rate was also very small. So small that not to mention reaching the astonishing over twenty percent that Carter knew, now it was still some distance away from the stipulated upper limit of 14%.

This slight change might seem insignificant to others, but it made Carter's eyes light up. Don't fear you're starting slow, fear you're not moving at all! As long as you start moving, Carter will be reassured.

"The recent surge in the price of silver has been driven by the behind-the-scenes manipulation of the Hunter family, according to a survey by the Chicago Futures Trading Commission. The Hunter family."

As the TV reporter continued to talk about the history of the Hunter family, particularly their manipulation of soybean trading in recent years, Carter, who had already obtained the information he wanted, was about to turn off the TV when he suddenly noticed the trading price of gold in the background on the screen.