US rejects China-led bid for Chicago Stock Exchange
The US has rejected a proposed merger between the Chicago Stock Exchange and a Chinese-linked investor group. The decision comes after more than two years of reviews by officials.
The tie-up was initially approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, pending further approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). But US politicians, including President Trump, have said letting a Chinese firm invest in a US exchange was a bad idea.
Under the proposal, the Chinese-led North America Casin Holdings group would have bought CHX Holdings, which owns the Chicago Stock Exchange. The exchange, which handles just 0.5% of US stock trades, had said the deal would have provided the exchange with "vital capital". That funding would have been used "to boost numerous initiatives designed to benefit the city of Chicago, the US economy and market structure as a whole".
Also at Bloomberg, NYT, Reuters, and CNN.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Monday February 19 2018, @12:43AM
The Russia narrative is probably BS, and I'm a lefty with no fondness for Trump. The ex-deputy head of the FBI under Obama said there's probably nothing to Russia-gate in an interview (his reasoning being if they had any solid evidence they would have leaked it to the press already). There are videos all over YouTube of elected officials on the security committee being forced to admit they've seen no compelling evidence of Russian collusion, interference, whatever. There was an interesting interview of the guy who literally wrote the book on Russia-gate, was the key source of information the FISA courts used to monitor Trump and those around him, and has been a key source for much of the media noise for the last year. He was interviewed by a little online outlet called The Real News [youtube.com]. It's WELL worth a watch - he fell apart under the most basic questions and could not point to ANY actual evidence.
Why Russia-gate? Noone is talking about what was in the DNC leaks themselves - it was not the "nothing-burger" mainstream media would have you believe. For example, the Clinton campaigns strategy was to use their allies in the media to "elevate" Trump because they believed their best chance was against him. Also, the seeds of the Russia-gate strategy were in the DNC leaks as well - the Clinton campaigns own research showed people would be less likely to vote for Clinton after they heard about the Russian/Clinton Uranium One scandal. The Steele Dossier was compiled and put on the shelf as a hedge in case Uranium One became an issue during the election - it was a strategy straight out of Machiavelli's "The Prince" ie. accuse your opponent of what you're guilty of. The Dossier was dusted off instead to deflect from Clintons miscalculated enabling of Trump. Now Clinton and the media aren't responsible for Trump, they're just victims of Putins meddling.