Published:Nov 22, 2024 - 4:20 PM 

(Kitco News) – In a quest for sound money, a Texas lawmaker has filed two bills that, if passed, would create gold and silver-backed transactional currencies, backed 100% by the underlying asset, that would serve as legal tender in the state.

According to a report from the Tenth Amendment Center, Texas State Representative Mark Dorazio filed House Bill 1049 and House Bill 1056 on November 12, two bills with similar language that would add provisions to different sections of the Texas legal code.

“Under the proposed law, the Texas Comptroller would issue gold and silver specie (coins) through the Texas Bullion Depository and also establish gold and silver transactional currency defined as ‘the representation of gold and silver specie and bullion held in the pooled depository account,’” wrote Mike Maharrey, Communications Director at the Tenth Amendment Center. “The Depository would be required to hold enough gold and silver to back 100 percent of the issued currency.”

If approved, the bills would enable “Holders of gold and silver specie and currency to use them as ‘legal tender in payment of debt,’ in the state of Texas,” he noted. “The gold and silver-backed currency would be electronically transferable to another person. Gold and silver-backed currency would be redeemable in specie or at the spot price of gold in U.S. dollars minus applicable fees.”

Said differently, the passage of either bill would allow anyone in the state to conduct business transactions using gold or silver. 

“The passage of this legislation would create a sound money alternative to U.S. dollars in both physical and electronic form,” Maharrey said. “Using gold and silver-backed transactional currency, any person or entity would be able to do business using a debit card that seamlessly converts gold and silver to fiat currency in the background. Private individuals and businesses would be able to purchase goods and services using assets held in the Texas Gold Depository in the same way they use dollars held in a bank today.”

He stressed that the ability to use gold and silver-backed transactional currencies “would give people a way to shield themselves from the rapid loss of purchasing power inherent in the fiat dollar.” 

“Over time, making gold and silver available for regular, daily transactions by the general public could have a wide-ranging impact,” Maharrey noted. “Professor William Greene is an expert on constitutional tender and said in a paper for the Mises Institute that if people in multiple states actually start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve notes, it would effectively nullify the Federal Reserve and end the federal government’s monopoly on money.”

According to Greene, “Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a ‘reverse Gresham’s Law’ effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes).”

“As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions,” Greene added

“Gresham’s Law holds that ‘bad money drives out good,’” Maharrey explained. “For example, when the U.S. government replaced silver quarters and dimes with coins made primarily of less valuable copper, the cheap coins drove the silver out of circulation. People hoarded the more valuable silver coins and spent the less valuable copper money.”

This led him to ask, “So, how do you reverse Gresham?”

“The key is to make it easier to use gold and silver in everyday transactions,” he said. “The reason bad money drives out good is that governments put up barriers to using sound money in day-to-day life. That makes it more costly to spend gold and silver and incentivizes hoarding.” 

“When you remove legal and tax barriers, you level the playing field and allow gold and silver to compete head-to-head with Federal Reserve notes,” he added. “On an even playing field, gold and silver beat fiat money every time.”

Maharrey highlighted the U.S. Consitution to strengthen his case, noting that Article I, Section 10 decrees that “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.”

“In most states, debts and taxes must either get paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars), authorized as legal tender by Congress, or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them,” he said. “The creation of a transactional gold and silver currency would take another step toward that constitutional requirement, ignored for decades in every state. Such a tactic would undermine the monopoly of the Federal Reserve System by introducing competition into the monetary system.”

The proposed bills will be assigned to Texas House committees when the 2025 legislative session begins on Jan. 14.

Texas gold-backed digital currency could aid in Bitcoin adoption

While Maharrey is looking to get gold and silver recognized as transactional currencies in their own right, the Texas legislature is also making progress on legislation to create a blockchain-based gold-backed token, which could benefit not only the yellow metal but also Bitcoin. 

In April 2023, two Texas lawmakers, Senator Bryan Hughes and Representative Mark Dorazi, introduced two separate bills for creating a state-issued digital currency backed by gold. And while the legislation is still working through the state’s Congress, one lawmaker thinks that once launched, the proposed gold-backed digital currency could help boost cryptocurrency adoption. 

As reported by Cointelegraph, Cody Harris, a Republican Party member of the Texas State House of Representatives, sat down for a fireside chat with Coinbase’s David Duong at the North American Blockchain Summit on Thursday and provided an update on the stats of the gold-backed token. 

“This [state-issued digital currency backed by gold] is something safe that people can get their feet wet with,” he said. “It’s more of a stepping stone to owning Bitcoin than competing with it or taking the place or something like that.”

Under the proposed plan, each digital currency token will represent a fraction of a troy ounce of gold held in trust and will enable holders to accumulate and spend gold via blockchain, removing a barrier that makes it difficult to utilize gold for daily transactions. 

Harris said the benefits of the token are twofold. Not only will it simplify the use of gold for everyday use, but it could also help skeptics become more comfortable with cryptocurrency by serving as a government-issued digital alternative to fiat, which is a stepping stone to helping them open to the idea of using decentralized assets like Bitcoin.

For those who are hesitant to acquire BTC or explore crypto, he suggested that a state-issued coin would provide a higher “comfort level” than tokens issued by startups. 

But not all digital tokens are seen as equal in his eyes, with Harris saying that digital fiat – also known as central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) – would have an overall negative impact on the state and the public at large. 

“I think we would all agree that a CBDC is detrimental to the nation and the state of Texas,” he said, referring to the variety of threats CBDDs pose, such as surveillance and privacy concerns. 

Harris called for the crypto community and broader public to take an active role in the CBDC and digital asset conversation to make sure they aren’t saddled with a dystopian currency that enables things like social credit scores. 

“I think it makes it easier for us who are pro-Bitcoin to have conversations about why someone should change their perspective on it,” he said. “If we start at a CBDC, is it the goal of some parts of the US government? So let’s lock arms together and make sure that that doesn’t happen.”

The blinking towers of an oil refinery rise above a residential neighborhood at dusk.

Chevron’s El Segundo refinery in California. The company’s roots in the state go back to the 1870s.Credit...Ashley Landis/Associated Press

By Rebecca F. Elliott

Aug. 2, 2024

Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, is moving its headquarters to Houston from California, formalizing a long-expected breakup with a state that has pushed aggressively to address climate change.

It is the latest example of businesses’ voting with their feet against politicians and regulators who want them to take swifter action to reduce the emissions that are heating the planet.

Companies across the oil and gas industry have also been consolidating operations and trimming spending to improve their standing on Wall Street. Many investors reduced their exposure to the industry because it had delivered subpar returns for many years leading up to the pandemic.

The State of California sued Chevron and other large oil companies last year, claiming that they misled the public about the risks of fossil fuels, whose extraction and use are leading causes of climate change.

Chevron’s chief executive, Mike Wirth, criticized the lawsuit last year, saying in a Bloomberg Television interview that litigation was not the right approach.

“Climate change is a global issue,” Mr. Wirth said. “It calls for a coordinated global policy response, not piecemeal litigation that benefits attorneys and politicians.”

More on California

Park Fire: Many who fled the wildfire in Northern California have been anxiously waiting to hear whether their houses are still standing.

Homeless Encampments: Gov. Gavin Newsom’s declaration urging cities to clear homeless camps met its strongest opposition in Los Angeles.

Gig-Worker Proposition: The California Supreme Court ruled to uphold a four-year-old ballot measure that classifies Uber and Lyft drivers as independent contractors rather than as employees.

A Tougher Approach to Crime: Shoplifting and fentanyl use have tested the patience of California voters, who will decide in November whether to impose stricter laws that would lead to more incarceration.

A spokesman for California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, said Chevron’s planned move wasn’t a surprise. “We’re proud of California’s place as the leading creator of clean energy jobs — a critical part of our diverse, innovative and vibrant economy,” the spokesman, Alex Stack, said.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas celebrated the company’s decision on the social media site X. “WELCOME HOME Chevron!” he said. “Texas is your true home. Drill baby drill.”

Chevron’s ties to California date to the 1870s, and for much of the 20th century it was known as the Standard Oil Company of California.

Yet for many years, Chevron’s center of gravity has been in the Houston area, where the company employs roughly 7,000 people, compared with around 2,000 at its current headquarters in San Ramon, near San Francisco.

Our business coverage. Times journalists are not allowed to have any direct financial stake in companies they cover.

Relocating to Houston will “enable better collaboration and engagement both internally and externally,” Mr. Wirth said on Friday.

The European energy companies Shell and TotalEnergies, which are not valued as highly as their American counterparts, have toyed with the idea of listing their stocks in New York. Shell, formerly Royal Dutch Shell, moved its headquarters in 2022 to London, from The Hague in the Netherlands.

Texas, which has a lower cost of living and does not tax personal income, has successfully lured several companies from California in recent years, including Tesla, whose headquarters is now outside Austin.

The oil and gas industry has been coalescing around Houston. Exxon Mobil moved its headquarters there last year from a suburb of Dallas.

Chevron’s announcement came as the company reported second-quarter earnings on Friday that missed the expectations of Wall Street analysts. The company said profit fell 26 percent, to $4.4 billion, from a year earlier. Lower profit margins in its oil refining business hurt the company’s bottom line, even as higher oil and gas production lifted overall revenue.

Exxon also announced its quarterly earnings on Friday, delivering stronger results than analysts were expecting. Profit rose 17 percent from a year earlier, to $9.2 billion, as the company’s quarterly oil and gas output rose.

U.S. oil prices fell sharply on Friday, trading below $74 a barrel, after the Labor Department said unemployment had jumped and job growth slowed sharply last month, an ominous sign for oil companies and the economy.

Exxon’s chief executive, Darren Woods, told analysts that the company expected that oil would continue to satisfy a large portion of the world’s energy needs for decades, with global demand in 2050 resembling current consumption of around 100 million barrels a day.

Natural gas and renewables will largely account for an estimated 15 percent increase in overall energy demand, he said.

“A serious approach to the transition should focus on moving the world from high-carbon to low-carbon energy, not simply from oil and gas to wind and solar,” Mr. Woods said.

Chevron’s stock fell more than 3 percent in morning trading, and Exxon’s shares were down less than 1 percent.

Chevron said that its headquarters move would be effective on Jan. 1 and that Mr. Wirth would relocate to Texas by the end of this year. The company sold its longtime corporate campus in San Ramon in 2022 and has since been leasing office space.

Rebecca F. Elliott covers energy with a focus on how the industry is changing in the push to curb climate-warming emissions. More about Rebecca F. Elliott

A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 3, 2024, Section B, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: For Chevron, It’s Goodbye California, Hello Texas. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Share full article

 y Laura He, Marc Stewart and Mark Thompson, CNN 

 Mon August 5, 2024 

 Hong Kong/LondonCNN — 

Japanese stocks suffered their biggest ever daily loss Monday as fears about a US economic slowdown sent shock waves through global markets.

The Nikkei 225 index of leading stocks in Tokyo lost a staggering 4,451 points, its biggest drop in history. The index closed more than 12% down, taking its losses since early July to 25% and entering bear market territory.

“That was a crash. It smelled like 1987,” Neil Newman, head of strategy at Astris Advisory in Tokyo, told CNN. He was referring to “Black Monday” in October 1987, when global markets plunged and the Nikkei lost 3,836 points.

Fears of a sharp slowdown in the US economy have raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will have to slash interest rates. Coming as the Bank of Japan (BOJ) takes its interest rates higher to contain inflation, that is boosting the value of the yen against the US dollar and making Japanese export-dependent stocks less attractive.

At the same time, tech stocks are being hammered by a combination of mixed earnings and increasing skepticism among some investors about the hype around artificial intelligence.

“The buzz is all about the contagion effect of this aggressive bear onslaught, underscored by fears of a hard landing in the US and a severe meltdown in Tokyo’s markets, which now appear to be self-perpetuating,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner of SPI Asset Management.

Trading was halted for short periods of time in Japan and South Korea as circuit breakers designed to prevent panic selling were triggered multiple times.

“(Today) was relentless,” said Newman. “It was unusual because there was the absence of a rebound at the end of the day, which you would normally see due to short covering,” he added. That’s when traders buy back shares they have borrowed to sell.

The volatility spread to other markets in Asia and Europe, and US stock futures fell sharply overnight. Nasdaq futures were down 4%. Dow futures and S&P 500 futures were down 1.5% and 2.3% respectively.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index, the region’s benchmark, was 2.5% down in morning trade. It has fallen 6% in the past five days to lows last seen in February.

 Mohit Kumar, an economist at Jefferies, said a big driver of recent market moves was previous enthusiastic buying. “US equities, particularly the tech sector, (were) overowned and some froth needed to be cleared,” he wrote in a note Monday. 

Taiwan’s Taiex ended down 8.4%, its worst day ever, while South Korea’s Kospi finished 8.8% lower. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 3.7%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and China’s Shanghai Composite were down 2.3% and 1.3% respectively.

The volatility in Japan started last week, when the BOJ raised interest rates for the second time this year and announced plans to taper its bond buying. Traders expect more rate hikes to come later this year as the central bank tries to contain inflation.

The Nikkei closed down 5.8% Friday, as traders fretted about the impact of a stronger yen on Japanese companies. A rising yen would hurt exporters and companies with overseas earnings.

A rapid appreciation in the Japanese currency has also forced many market participants to unwind the yen carry trade, a hugely popular trading strategy. With interest rates having been extremely low in Japan for decades, many investors have borrowed cash cheaply there before converting it to other currencies to invest in higher-yielding assets.

Last week, the yen surged nearly 5% against the greenback. On Monday, it strengthened further, up 2.2% to trade at 143.3 per US dollar.

Innes said the “beefier” yen triggered a global unwinding of carry trades.

From there, the market turmoil morphed into a “full-on avalanche,” propelled by the surprisingly hawkish turn from the BOJ, China’s economy slowing to a crawl and weak US tech earnings, he added.

China reported last Wednesday that its official manufacturing PMI fell in July, signaling continued weakness in factory activity.

In the United States, Amazon (AMZN) reported Thursday an earnings miss for the second quarter and disappointing guidance for the third quarter. Intel (INTC), on the same day, reported an income loss of $1.6 billion in the second quarter and announced plans to slash 15% of its workforce to reduce costs.

US stocks had already ended Friday lower, as disappointing jobs data added to fears that the US economy is weakening. The Dow closed 1.5% lower, the S&P 500 lost 1.8% and the Nasdaq Composite declined 2.4%. The Nasdaq closed in correction territory, or more than 10% off its most recent high on July 10.

CNN’s Fear and Greed index, which measures market sentiment, has fallen to a “fear” reading of 27.

Other markets are also showing jitters. On Friday, oil prices settled at their lowest levels since January. Brent crude futures and US WTI crude were both down more than 3%.

Currently hovering around eight-month lows, oil prices may see some stability for the time being, despite threats of a wider conflict in the Middle East, according to Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service.

“Beginning with the Hamas action last October 7, we are seeing mostly apathy when it comes to fears about a wider regional war in the Middle East,” he said.

Crypto currencies haven’t been immune, either. Bitcoin was down more than 12% at just under $53,000, according to Coindesk.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Juliana Liu, Olesya Dmitracova, Tokyo bureau, Seoul bureau and Taipei bureau contributed reporting.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is throwing his weight behind former President Donald Trump in the highly polarized 2024 presidential election, prompting many questions — including whether the move might prompt current or prospective electric vehicle buyers to avoid the car brand.

The speculation comes at a time of transition for both the wider EV industry and Tesla in particular. On Tuesday, the company reported a 45% drop in quarterly profits compared to the same period in 2023, saying it is “currently between two major growth waves.”

In its earnings report, Tesla said it has enough cash and resources to carry out its plans “during this uncertain period.”

The results are in for Sam Altman's much-anticipated basic-income study, one of the largest of its kind. The experiment gave low-income participants $1,000 a month for three years, no strings attached.

Recipients put the bulk of their extra spending toward basic needs such as rent, transportation, and food, the study found. They also worked less on average but remained engaged in the workforce and were more deliberate in their job searches compared with a control group.

"Recipients had greater agency to make decisions that worked best for their lives and to prepare for the future, from moving neighborhoods to expressing interest in new business ventures," the report's authors said.

Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, a leading artificial-intelligence company, raised $60 million for the study, including $14 million of his own money. OpenResearch conducted the study, which was led by the researcher Elizabeth Rhodes.

It officially began in 2019 when 3,000 Texas and Illinois residents across urban, suburban, and rural areas enrolled. All of these residents had incomes below $28,000. A third got $1,000 a month for three years, while the rest — the control group — got $50 a month. No enrolled participants lost their existing benefits.

The study found that those who received the $1,000 payments increased their overall spending by an average of $310 a month, but most of that spending went toward food, rent, and transportation. They also offered more financial support to others in need compared with the control group.

Researchers, however, said they found no "direct evidence of improved access to healthcare or improvements to physical and mental health" among those who received $1,000 payments.

"We do see significant reductions in stress, mental distress, and food insecurity during the first year, but those effects fade out by the second and third years of the program," the report said, noting that $1,000 a month could only do so much. "Cash alone cannot address challenges such as chronic health conditions, lack of childcare, or the high cost of housing."

 Saturday’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump is a direct symptom of the EXTREMELY rapid decay in the social, and moral fabric of what was once known as The United States of America.  

  Updated Jul 19, 2024, 12:40pm EDT 

Ty RoushForbes Staff
Ty Roush is a breaking news reporter based in New York City.

Brian BushardForbes Staff
Brian is a Boston-based Forbes breaking news reporter.

Major airlines, broadcasters, hospitals and government agencies face disruptions worldwide on Friday as a technology outage affects systems running Microsoft Windows, even as CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm whose software update caused the outage, claimed the problem has been fixed.

New: Soon-to-be unmasked entities bet that President Trump’s SDJT stock would plummet ONE DAY before the assassination attempt.

Shorts against the Truth Social stock more than doubled from July 1-July 12, meaning, people or large organizations were predicting that by Monday the stock would plummet, something that undoubtedly would have occurred had President Trump died in Pennsylvania.

This could mean some had foreknowledge of the plot against President Trump’s life and tried to profit off the coming calamity.

This also happened on 9/11, where bets were placed against the stocks of major airline companies American and United a day before the attack. An investigation showed that in both cases a single entity and a well-placed insider newsletter tipped off investors to miraculously bet against the top two airlines in USA, who took a major hit after the “hijackings”. 

If you have enough money, you can buy just about anything. And when you are in a position where you can buy just about anything, you wield an enormous amount of raw power. Today, our world is completely and utterly dominated by those at the very top of the economic pyramid. Those in the top one percent of the top one percent are pretty much able to do whatever they want, and the rest of us are pretty much powerless to stop them. Unfortunately, the gap between the ultra-wealthy elite and the rest of us just continues to get even larger. Last year, the total wealth of the world’s millionaires reached a staggering 86.8 trillion dollars…

The world has never had so many rich people and their investments in soaring stock markets have made them wealthier than ever recorded, according to a study published on Wednesday.

The number of “high net worth individuals” (HNWI) — defined as people with liquid assets of at least $1 million — rose by 5.1 percent last year to 22.8 million, according to consulting firm Capgemini.

Their total wealth reached $86.8 trillion in 2023, a 4.7 percent increase from the previous year, according to the annual World Wealth Report.

Meanwhile, 5 billion people have gotten poorer since the start of the pandemic…

Since 2020, the richest five men in the world have doubled their fortunes. During the same period, almost 5 billion people globally have become poorer.

How much power do the hundreds of millions of people around the world that are living on less than two dollars a day have compared to the billionaires in the western world that are constantly making headlines?

The truth is that they run the world and the rest of us are just living in it.

Here in the United States, the colossal gap between CEO pay and worker pay got even larger last year…

Bosses have always made more money than workers. But the gap between CEOs and employees is growing.

The median CEO in the S&P 500 was paid 196 times as much as the median employee in 2023, according to an analysis by Equilar and The Associated Press.

That’s up from a ratio of 185 in 2022.

It would be a good thing if the rich were getting richer as long as everyone else was getting richer as well.

But instead, poverty is literally exploding all around us.

In 2020, there were approximately 140 homeless camps in Oakland, California.

Since that time, the city has closed 537 homeless camps, but there are still approximately 1,500 remaining all over the city…

Oakland officials passed a policy in 2020 to regulate homeless encampments when there were about 140 camps. The policy was created to prohibit encampments in specific areas of the city, including proximity to businesses, schools, playgrounds, traffic lanes, bike paths, housing and playgrounds.

Any encampments in those prohibited areas were supposed to be vacated, with the city offering shelter before evacuating the camp.

Since then, the city has closed 537 homeless camps with approximately 1,500 remaining, according to a city report.

I feel so bad for the law-abiding citizens that still live in Oakland.

Conditions have become so precarious that one construction company actually “refused to finish its pothole paving job because it got ‘too dangerous’ for its workers”…

Frustrated Oakland residents are in the hole after a construction crew quit and refused to finish its pothole paving job because it got ‘too dangerous’ for its workers – as other businesses flee the Bay Area over the same concerns.

Residents in the Sobrante Park area in East Oakland said they weren’t even notified after the third-party general contractor decided to abandon the project before repaving the streets, leaving large potholes and dangerous loose gravel all over the neighborhood since mid-May.

If you still have a nice home and plenty of money, good for you.

But you should understand that you are solidly in the minority at this point.

Of course our politicians care far more about the economic health of the elite than anyone else, because it is the elite that fund their campaigns.

So even though just about all the rest of us have seen our standard of living go way down, in recent years there has been an all-out effort to prop up the stock market because that is where the elite have much of their wealth.

Today, the wealthiest 10 percent of all Americans own 93 percent of all the stocks.

And the poorest 50 percent of all Americans own just 1 percent of all the stocks.

The stock market wealth that the entire bottom half of the country controls is basically just a rounding error compared to the enormous holdings of the elite.

Unfortunately for the elite, it appears that trouble may be brewing for the financial markets…

The US stock market is shrinking, and investors are pulling their money out at a near-record pace as storm clouds gather over the US economy.

That means the titans of Wall Street may have to contend with choppy water as they cruise toward their Nantucket getaways this year.

In fact, Bank of America says that their customers have been pulling large amounts of money out of stocks for five consecutive weeks…

Bank of America analysts said on Tuesday that their clients have now been large net sellers of US stocks for five weeks in a row. Just last week, they sold off $5.7 billion more in stocks than they purchased, the highest outflow since last July.

Bank of America recorded the second largest sell-off of tech stocks in their history last week. And while one week does not a trend make, it does stand in stark contrast with the Magnificent Seven fervor that ensnared Wall Street mere months ago.

Whether it happens sooner or later, it is inevitable that America’s financial idols will come crashing down at some point.

But for most of the country, it feels like the economy has already crashed.

Our cost of living crisis has become exceedingly painful, our entire society is drowning in debt, and poverty and homelessness are exploding all around us.

Just about the only people that are still doing really well are those that are at the very top of the food chain.

When you hear that “the economy is booming”, those are the people they are talking about.

But just like all the rest of us, the elite will not be able to escape the period of tremendous global chaos that is ahead of us.

 Like I said, money can buy you just about anything, but it cannot purchase a free pass from the day of reckoning that is rapidly approaching. 

Back in 2011, shareholders of insurance giant American International Group (AIG) filed a $40 billion class action lawsuit against the US government over the terms of its controversial bailout of AIG during the 2008 financial crisis.

In 2014, the trial case came to focus on an intriguing oddity. In cross-examination, the plaintiffs learned of a set of documents that the New York Fed—the heart of America's Federal Reserve central bank and the primary wheeler-dealer in the chaotic days of the global financial collapse—dramatically refers to as its "Doomsday Book."

This book, it was discovered, contained the various legal opinions and memoranda that the Fed used to determine what power it has to manipulate the financial system in the event of a large-scale crisis. And, it seemed, there was a good chance that the central bank broke its own rules with all its bailout shenanigans and financial sleight-of-hand during the 2008 collapse.

However, the plaintiffs' reasonable request to see the book and examine these supposed emergency powers was immediately rebuffed by the Fed. New York Fed lawyer John S. Kiernan, for example, was adamant that the Fed would not open up the book for the court. "Of the tens of thousands of documents that we have produced in this case, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has sought to retain confidentiality because of the internal sensitivity of only this one," he told the United States Court of Federal Claims.

The court was eventually able to pry the relevant documents out of the Fed's clutches, but the Doomsday Book has remained under court seal for years . . . until now.

Late last year, an enterprising researcher managed to get his hands on a copy of the elusive book. And what that book contains should shock you (if you're paying attention).

BY MARTÍN SLIPCZUK

JUNE 5, 2024i.

A group of financial firms and investors is planning to launch a Texas-based private market stock exchange and offer traders an alternative to the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.

The group, which includes BlackRock, Citadel Securities and about two dozen investors, raised approximately $120 million of capital to create the Texas Stock Exchange, which would be headquartered in Dallas. They are now seeking registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a national securities exchange later this year.

“Texas and the other states in the southeast quadrant have become economic powerhouses. Combined with the demand we are seeing from investors and corporations for expanded alternatives to trade and list equities, this is an opportune time to build a major, national stock exchange in Texas,” said James Lee, founder and CEO of TXSE Group.

Stock exchanges are private institutions where stocks, bonds and other securities are traded. If the SEC clears TXSE to begin operations, it will be the first stock exchange to launch in the country in recent years.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the creation of the new exchange, TXSE promises to be more CEO-friendly than other exchanges and wants to capitalize on discontent over new rules and rising compliance costs at Nasdaq and NYSE.

“If we look at the three states with the largest economy, New York has two stock exchanges. Texas, comparably to California, is growing economically and demographically really fast, and already has a big number of Fortune 500 biggest companies headquarters, so it makes sense Dallas would be an ideal place,” said Steven Pedigo, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs and an expert in economic and urban development.

But it could be difficult for a new exchange to take off in the U.S. listings market, where the Nasdaq and NYSE have dominated for decades. The U.S. exchange business consists of about 16 equities exchanges with NYSE accounting for more than 20% of the volume in equities trading in May and Nasdaq over 15%, according to Bloomberg. Nasdaq acquired the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and Boston Stock Exchange, two of the oldest exchanges in the country, in 2007. The NYSE bought the Chicago Stock Exchange in 2018.

“What makes this project interesting is the big companies that supported and financed the new stock exchange, that is why it could be a serious competitor. But it is a ‘to be continued’ story,” Pedigo said.

TXSE founders said they chose Texas as the home for the new national securities exchange because of the state’s rapid economic and population growth. Texas has been a leader in attracting business relocations and expansions in recent years. More than 7,200 firms relocated to Texas between 2010 and 2019, creating nearly 103,000 jobs, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Businesses that relocated to Texas mostly went to the state’s major metropolitan areas, with Dallas and Houston being the favored destinations.

Major corporations like Tesla and Toyota have chosen the state as their new home base in recent years. Big financial companies like Goldman Sachs have also made big investments lately in Dallas.

Pedigo said this new stock exchange wouldn’t necessarily lead to more jobs being created in the state but would help further bolster the pro-business image Texas has been working on for years.