40 years ago, Hong Kong was a very different place, run by two groups of very powerful people,

the triads, and billionaires, Hong Kong then was run by five or six families, but their

power had no bounds, really. And so it had been for decades. Until the mid-90s, when a hot

new gangster decides he wants a bigger piece of the pie.

This dream, he was everywhere. This new upstart is obsessed with money, so obsessed in fact,

that he begins planning heists that no other gangster would dare to attempt. Essentially, if you

had detonated that lot together, it would be enough to bring down pretty much any of the

buildings in Hong Kong. He was rocking the boat, but everyone is in awe of him. But eventually,

he gets a little too ambitious, ambitious enough that his actions end up provoking a crisis.

Everyone would have just been God-smacked. They would have been over-mouthed God-smacked.

The crisis, not just for Hong Kong, but for the world, one which would reshape our geopolitics for good.

The fact that that hand meant that it could happen again, and now it wouldn't raise an eyebrow,

now it's completely commonplace. From Kindling Media and Best Bucci, I'm Jason Wong, and this

is Bad Money, a new show about power, wealth, and wrongdoing. This season, Big Spender.

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