Chapter 14
January 1970
John Bettle had blackmailed the MMG leadership into mothballing the black ops group. His team had been killed due to his lack of urgency. The success of his blackmail led to agreement with the leadership and they had given him 12 months to build a new team and show results. Not much time to plan the manipulation of world events, but then again, it was what he did.
With help from the leadership, a call went out to all members of academia and business, the MMG needed the best and the brightest. Business, economics, finance, stockbrokers, and the new world of computers. Bettle was looking for 2 things, and on the lookout for another; a team to call his own, a group of contacts to use as informants or helpers, and he needed to be sure he had no MMG leadership moles trying to ruin him.
The internal team was first priority, and the hardest. To get a group of successful people into a new job, without being able to tell them what they would be doing, or how much money they could make, would take all of the skill Bettle had. The group, based in Dubuque Iowa, would be called the MMG Dubuque. Lead by a figure head, William Froiberg, the group would be sold as a Think Tank, a group of individuals that were expected to be on the leading edge of their particular profession, able to see new possibilities and react faster than others when opportunity came. There were 12 original direct reports but the team number grew quickly to over 35.
“Good morning everyone, My name is William Froiberg. As Regional Director for our firm I want to welcome you to MMG Dubuque. Here you will have an opportunity to use your special knowledge to the extreme.”
“John Bettle,” Froiberg continued, as he pointed John out even though everyone had already met him, “is without a doubt the best seer of the future you will ever meet. With proper knowledge he can project the future almost like he is somehow making it happen. I must warn you; however, everything you see here is confidential. Nothing can be removed, or used outside of guidance. We will make you powerful in your field and wealthy in your bank accounts, but it does come at a price. There are no individuals here, only the Team. Individuals that take things into their own hands will be dealt with severely.”
“Without further ado, I ask John Bettle to come forward.”
“Thanks William,” said John. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a job to do. We need to take current events and predict the future. If the price of gold is going to go up, or down, we need to know when and how much; if the cold war or Vietnam conflict are going to escalate we need to understand why and how it will affect the world; if the market is creating a bubble – what is it and how big will it get. And finally, if the Mets are going to win the series – ah, well, never mind, that one already happened…”
Laughter filled the room as most of the team realized the Miracle New York Mets had won the 1969 World Series.
“I need your best, all the time. We do not do anything, except predict everything. We get paid to use our talents to see change coming and react to it before it does. Does anyone have any ideas today?” Bettle asked.
Santos Arroyo was the first to respond, “everyone seems to think the technology area will continue to grow indefinitely, I think we have an opportunity here. Number one, none of the companies have any earnings. Most are selling with P/E ratios of over 100, when the average for DOW stocks is 16. With excess compound annual growth rates at over 25% each year, this appears to be total euphoria, not realistic market numbers. I believe we are one bad piece of information away from people selling their gains.”
So” said Bettle, “if we have some newspaper articles discuss the super high-tech stocks as equities in a new growth market that could be expected to outperform the market as a whole, we can drive the bubble even higher. When the market gets to a fever pitch, we can get out, buy short, and release a story about the bubble.”
The entire team looked at Bettle with amazement. Even thinking such a thing was bold, but to plan it, this was unbelievable.
The entire team was given a hefty bonus and it was “recommended” that they invest as Bettle told them to. The entire team made 10 times their upper 1% average 1970 annual salary in 3 months. Bettle also created proof of individual involvement by each team member. He documented what each member did and recorded it in such a way that it would look like they ran the Run and were the only ones to capitalize on it. He created proof that would stand up to world scrutiny. There was no proof of what the team did, except for their profits. They were now members for life. If not, they would quickly be ruined.
The MMG leadership was also involved in the profit of the tech-bubble of 1970. With this one event, Bettle had proved he was capable of leading the Runs.