Page 93 - TruthAboutLyingCoverFlipAmazon20

Nicholas Boothman
Henry watched the news feed on the main screen. The anchor had gone pale. Behind her, the ticker was frozen mid- scroll. She touched her earpiece, listened, then looked straight into the camera.
"We're getting reports that trading has been suspended across multiple exchanges worldwide. The Federal Reserve has just issued an emergency statement—"
Henry's laptop chimed. An email from the Fed's Office of Financial Stability:
URGENT: Verax integration has triggered cascade failure in financial disclosure systems. Markets frozen pending emergency review. Conference call in 15 minutes.
The feed cut to an MIT economist Henry recognized from conference panels. She looked shaken.
“What we’re seeing is unprecedented,” she said. “The financial system runs on a certain level of—let’s call it strategic ambiguity. Asset valuations, risk assessments, future projections—those are judgment calls, estimates, interpretations. Verax is demanding absolute precision from a system built on calculated imprecision. The entire system has essentially stopped.”
Henry's phone rang. Jinji.
"The markets are still frozen," she said without preamble. "The Fed is talking about emergency powers. Henry, the system is working exactly as designed. That's the problem."
93