Wall Street may move to Dallas

In a huge blow to liberals, Nasdaq officials are in talks with Republican Governor Greg Abbott of Texas about a possible move to Dallas. Charles Schwab already is ditching San Francisco for a new home on the range. With its $22 billion merger with Ameritrade, Schwab now manages $6 trillion in assets for 28 million brokerage accounts, according to CNBC.

Stock exchanges are portable now. All you need is a laptop and WiFi. The rest is just to handle the volume and frequency of trades.

KSAT reported, "Officials from Nasdaq and other major stock exchanges will meet with Gov. Greg Abbott on Nov. 20 in Austin to discuss a possible move from New Jersey to Texas, nbcdfw.com and the Dallas Morning News reported.

"The meeting comes on the heels of the exchanges threatening to move their trading platforms out of New Jersey, the report said."

Who wants to deal with a crazy communist mayor, stand down orders by police, and the closing of restaurants, hair salons, and even floral shops?

Obama's Occupy Wall Street movement morphed into BLM and Antifa with thugs sucker-punching old people as part of a Knockout Game.

The Wall Street move likely is limited to data process centers. That would mean thousands of jobs, nevertheless.

KSAT reported, "According to The Dallas Morning News, Abbott’s office has been talking with Nasdaq and other exchanges about moving their data centers to Dallas because of a potential tax on financial transactions in New Jersey.

"The proposed tax would charge a quarter of a cent per financial transaction at entities in New Jersey that process at least 10,000 transactions annually via electronic infrastructure, the Dallas Morning News reported. That tax would generate an estimated $10 billion annually for the state."

But if the exchanges physically move from Wall Street, everyone is in for a nice raise.

Texas has no state income tax. New York's top rate is 8.82%. New Jersey tops off at 10.75%.

Money is pretty simple to move. I can send money just about anywhere in the world with a few computer clicks.

The other advantage is Dallas has wide open spaces that companies can build on to their specifications instead of renting and renovating someone else's building. Renovation is more expensive and more cumbersome than construction in most cases. 

The Dallas Morning News reported, "Charles Schwab’s new home on the range in Texas comes complete with cattle. More than 2,000 people have moved to the financial giant’s Westlake campus."

The cultural differences were emphasized in the story, but the architectural change should bring changes in psychology.

The story said, "Designed by Dallas architect Corgan, Schwab’s new buildings have wide stretches of glass, sloping roofs and balconies, and use polished wood and rough stone on both the inside and exteriors. Mesquite wood and Texas limestone were used in some areas."

The company is building 700,000 square feet of office space.

The back offices carry a lot of jobs. The exchanges themselves carry a lot of prestige. Either carry a lot of cash flow.

New Jersey might want to back off that transaction fee, but maybe it is too late because who would trust New Jersey not to try this again?

I live in West Virginia where under 80-plus years of Democrat control of the legislature people learned that it is oh so easy to lose a company and hard as a rock to replace it. We led the league in unemployment in the 1980s and 1990s.