William F. Jasper
New American
February 23, 2016
When the board of directors of the Chicago Stock Exchange announced on February 5 that it had “entered into a definitive agreement” to be purchased by a Chinese company, the statement received rather ho-hum treatment by the American mainstream media, most pointing out that the Chicago Stock Exchange is a bit player in the grand scheme of things, as compared to the volume of stock sales at the NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange.
Bloomberg News, for instance, reported that the 134-year-old Chicago Stock Exchange “only handles about 0.5 percent of U.S. stock trading.” On a recent trading day, theBloomberg story noted, the NYSE “handled 31 times more trading volume” than its little brother bourse in Chicago, which “is a far less vital part of global finance.”
However, not everyone is so nonchalant regarding the pending sale. “It is outrageous that a communist Chinese company — a front for the communist Chinese government — will be given access to trillions of dollars in the struggling US economy and secure information about US businesses,” says Congressman Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican. “I strongly urge the Obama administration to investigate this firm and stop this purchase,” Rep. Jones said in a press statement released last week. Acquisition of the Chicago Stock Exchange by the Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group (CCEG) of China means, says Jones, that “a firm with ties to the communist Chinese government will have access to trillions of dollars in the US economy. This access raises financial, economic, and cyber-security concerns.”
Jones, who enjoys a 100 percent rating on The New American’s latest Freedom Index and a 95 percent for the 114th Congress (2015-2016) to date, is one of 45 House Republicans who have signed a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew requesting an investigation of Chongqing Casin. The letter, released on February 16, urges “the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to conduct a full and rigorous investigation of this acquisition.”
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