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America’s Fiscal Landscape Might Change as Wall Street Weighs Move to Texas

America’s Fiscal Landscape Might Change as Wall Street Weighs Move to Texas

Relocating Wall Street could certainly create some interesting new dynamics in this nation.

Yesterday, in the wake of the November election, I noted I was making some significant changes in my digital landscape.

Now, it appears that Wall Street is considering a major change to its business landscape…with Texas as its next destination.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will welcome representatives from major stock exchanges, including Nasdaq, to Austin on Nov. 20 as the state makes a bid to be the top choice if the exchanges make good on threats to move their trading platforms out of New Jersey.

The Dallas Morning News reported last month that the governor’s office was in talks with Nasdaq and other exchanges about moving data centers to Dallas that power billions of dollars in trades each day on Wall Street.

The governor’s office confirmed the meeting, touting the state’s business-friendly environment.

“Texas continues to be the premier economic destination in the country, attracting more leading businesses than any other state,” spokeswoman Renae Eze said in a statement to The News. “The governor looks forward to meeting with Nasdaq and showcasing Texas’ business-friendly environment, skilled workforce, robust infrastructure, and low taxes, all of which foster greater economic growth in the Lone Star State.”

In the wake of coronavirus restrictions, BLM and Antifa protests, and taxes, the move certainly is sensible. Conservative pundit Don Surber notes that the shift away from the mega-cities is almost inevitable now that Americans are becoming accustomed to remote work…and stock trading certainly lends itself nicely to the new business model.

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.

One incentive for firms to make a move are concerns over 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.

Most major stock exchange operators, including the New York Stock Exchange operate their trading platforms from data centers in New Jersey.

The international financial services institution Charles Schwab Corp. is making a move from San Francisco, opening its new campus on Jan. 1, 2021.

The financial services company announced Tuesday it expects to move its corporate headquarters designation from San Francisco to Hillwood’s Circle T Ranch in Westlake, effective Jan. 1. The company has now closed its acquisition of TD Ameritrade, creating a massive player in the space.

Already, Schwab has more than 2,500 employees at its Westlake campus, and approximately 2,000 employees in Southlake are at TD Ameritrade’s location, according to a spokesperson. The locale was picked and designed as a more centrally located hub.

…While North Texas has been the destination point for many companies looking to relocate their headquarters, the move by Schwab is particularly significant for the region. It’s one of the big names in the financial services sector – and beyond — bringing a company that boasts nearly $50 billion in market valuation.

Relocating Wall Street could certainly create some interesting new dynamics in this nation…and hopefully break-up the NYC-DC beltway and its Panem-like grip on the rest of the nation.

Of course, the change could have some intriguing cultural consequences.

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Comments

IT would cause Texas to turn blue. I hope this doesn’t happen.

    MattMusson in reply to Moon Battery. | November 12, 2020 at 9:36 am

    No. They are taking about bringing in the Data centers. It would mean more Indian IT workers and they are mostly conservative. And thousands are already there.

    A joke I tell my Indian coworkers is about the Indian programmer who was so homesick that he moved to Dallas.

      The Friendly Grizzly in reply to MattMusson. | November 12, 2020 at 9:39 am

      Indians would also bring their insular, hire-their-own mentality. Jobs for Indians, and none for Texans.

        Absolutely true.

        Look on the bright side. We won’t have to be politically correct anymore with the term, “native Americans.” Now we can say proudly, “Texas has cowboys and Indians.”

        In my experience in academia, the main reason the US immigrant Chinese or Indians hire “their own” is because they know they will shut up and not complain about working conditions. They can run their underlings to the bone and not get any back talk about it.

        American born white, brown, and black students that try to join their labs can’t hack it at least half the time.

          MattMusson in reply to healthguyfsu. | November 12, 2020 at 3:50 pm

          Very true. Indian bosses work the Indians late into the night. And, the Indian staffing companies tell their employees that “there are three more people working in Mumbai that would be happy to take your job. So don’t even think of going home before 8 o’clock at night.”

        Have you ever talked to a recent white college graduate? They constantly whine and complain about everything, have an overgrown sense of entitlement, believe everything should be given to them, and are lazy and bigoted. Indians have no such problem. They are intelligent and hardworkers, who don’t complain constantly. That’s the reason they are hired more than some whiny college grad. Seriously, hire a recent white college graduate. You’ll fire them after 6 months.

      Joe-dallas in reply to MattMusson. | November 12, 2020 at 9:47 am

      The starting compensation for the indian programmers is 80k+

      sestamibi in reply to MattMusson. | November 12, 2020 at 1:37 pm

      I wouldn’t be too concerned about it. The number of transplants involved is but a drop in the bucket of TX population, while the business value is tremendous.

    Guardian79 in reply to Moon Battery. | November 12, 2020 at 2:39 pm

    It’s data centers. Probably because electricity is so expensive in the New England, Mid-Atlantic area due to leftist “green” policies.

    thelip95032 in reply to Moon Battery. | November 14, 2020 at 12:08 am

    Wall street is red or blue they are green first and foremost.

As Texas should have learned by now, Wall Street relocating to Texas will have the same effect on politics as the much-ballyhooed Silicon Valley relocations. Yes, it punishes CA and NY but that new tax-revenue comes at a cost of a flood of “new world order” professionals.

They should distribute the workload so they aren’t dependent entirely on any one place. But then every democrat state would think they could tax it, instead of just the local ones.

Leslie, they are probably following your lead….
I really don’t expect anything to come of this though.

Stay the hell out of Texas!

Why are we walking from NY to Dallas? Can we at least take a bike which would cut our time from 520 hours to 149?

Yeah Y’all Street sounds good, instead of Youse Guys street.

Not sure how much Ivy Leaguers will like living on the North Texas Prairie, or Houston fever swamp. Can always jam in to dysfunctional, but kinda still weird Austin w its slacker mentality.

Swell. Some of the largest financial backers of the Communist Party want to relocate part of their operations to Texas. No doubt the plutocrats of these woke organizations will press the Texas government for the same Communist policies that turned NYC into a failed nation-state. Yee-haw.

Nothing could possibly go wrogn.

Ol' Jim hisself | November 12, 2020 at 9:56 am

Guess I go back to Florida.

A long as they either hire locals or leave their liberalism as the New DORK border.

    Spoiler alert: they won’t.

    Should they move their data centers to Texas (I have my doubts) you can expect a tsunami of Commie cash into the local and state political systems in order to create the People’s Democratic Republic of Texas. Yippi-kai-yai-yey, comrades!

Move the computers, fire the people.

Guys,

The everyday employees of the firms; brokers and traders are very much small govt types. Everyone compensated on a commission basis is quite aware of the impact of taxes.

When I was a stockbroker in the mid to late 1990’s our basic payout was: if over 25K in monthly commission we topped out at 50%.

So on an annual basis:
$300,000 in commission revenue sales
Firm got $150,000 and I got $150,000

Except that my $150,000 was subject to Fed income tax and SSI and state and local income taxes. So I actually only got about $85K -$90K once taxes accounted for.

Believe me when I tell you that everyone, at least then, knew damn well what the impact of changes in tax rates would have on their situation. Maybe the firms have become PC but it used to be very much a ‘locker room’ of highly competitive people.

Nice move, Guv! Shortsighted short term gain in exchange for making Texas the New Jersey of the south!

Antifundamentalist | November 12, 2020 at 11:39 am

Well, if you live in Texas and don’t want the influx, start letting your Governor know how you feel. Politicians don’t care about what their constituents think, unless it effects their re-election prospects, but you never know. He may get enough negative feedback to say No Thanks.

It would be fun to see Y’all Street end trading with a Walter Brennan look-alike clanging a chuckwagon triangle hung from the rafters, with some “yee-haws” from the traders.

    The Friendly Grizzly in reply to MrE. | November 12, 2020 at 12:31 pm

    Naahh. The closing bell will be replaced with revving Ford Diesel pickups with loud pippes, the silencer removed from the turbochargers, and then “roll coal” across the trading floor.

    healthguyfsu in reply to MrE. | November 12, 2020 at 1:03 pm

    Both of you have a very jaded view of Dallas

Wall Street, with all of its NYC brokers and companies is not going anywhere. What the financial entities are considering moving are the server farms. As the actual financial transaction occurs at the server, not in an office in Midtown Manhattan, NJ saw an opportunity to tax these transactions and generate operating funds. The financial companies could just as easily have bought surplus communications bunkers in Kansas, Georgia and other places and moved the severs there. After all, all they really need at these facilities is a few IT drones, a few supervisors, a very small administrative unit and a reliable high-speed internet connection. And, if NJ drops the transaction tax, the “data centers” won’t be moving either.

    healthguyfsu in reply to Mac45. | November 12, 2020 at 1:06 pm

    Or the Biden raise taxes train will just swoop in and take it for themselves at the federal level making it impossible to vote with their feet.

    I’m sure they’ll make it illegal to move out of the country, too.

Dallas overwhelming voted Democrat

Grrr8 American | November 12, 2020 at 1:18 pm

The fears of them bringing bad voting habits with them is well founded.

But this might be good for Ford. Tricked-out F-150’s and Excursions may become the new Porsche Cayenne’s. When in Rome …

This is not a good thing. Might be great for Texas’ economy in the short term, but in the long term…this is the kind of “importation of leftists” that turned Virginia blue.

The vast majority (geographically) of Virginia is still blue, but we’re outnumbered by the leftists in Northern Virginia and Richmond…most of whom moved there to escape the oppressive taxes and high cost of living in DC and Northward.

The philosophies of the left are more of a religion than a political agenda. They CANNOT admit that it was their religious beliefs that led to the very things they fled in their home states, and when they reach their new destinations, they eagerly set about turning into the same thing they just left.

We should absolutely NOT be encouraging or cheering leftists moving into our neighborhoods if we like the way our states are run, because when enough leftists move in, that will change. Quickly.

    CommoChief in reply to Sailorcurt. | November 12, 2020 at 6:39 pm

    Sailorcurt,

    Public sector employees are one thing.

    Public sector Federal Employees in and around DC are another. They are largely married to other Federal Employees and/or Congressional staff or Dc based lobbyists/attorneys ECT. They are an incestuous bunch of leftist bureaucrats.

    Private sector employees are not nearly as prone to be leftist as government employees. They are less of a threat.

I can’t believe all of this wailing and moaning over a few hundred or thousand leftists. They’re a drop in the bucket compared to the number of illegals who will become instant citizens under a Dem Administration.

Retired securities analyst here to inject reality into this fantasy. You’ll know this is real if (and only if) you see the actual investment bankers, asset managers, and analysts leaving the Greater New York metro, and Boston, for Texas. Data centers? Meh. Who cares? Reminds me of those N.Y. banks that put some operations in South Dakota 20+ years ago.

Talk to me when Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Black Rock move their corporate HQs to Dallas. Until that happens, there’s a whole lot less than meets the eye to this one.