00:00Chairman, we appreciate you being with us today. Thanks so much.
00:03Good to be here.
00:04Senior Strategic Advisor to the Texas Stock Exchange, when do you expect trading to start?
00:10So we expect trading to start this summer and shortly thereafter.
00:15You will see listings probably in Q4 of this year and then Q1 of next year will be IPOs.
00:24So there's a lot of exciting momentum at the Texas Stock Exchange. We're on track.
00:31And again, this is going to be revolutionary to our public markets.
00:35So late this summer, you think?
00:37We'll go mid to late.
00:39Mid to late this summer. OK, that's pretty close.
00:43Well, since last I was here, we've had a lot of progress, a lot of momentum.
00:47Our trading engine has been completed. It has been tested. It will be world class.
00:52And, you know, there's about eight or nine people who have had the experience and credentials to create that engine.
01:00And most of them have come to Texi. So we're excited about that.
01:05A lot of a lot of changes since last I spoke to you.
01:08Let's talk a little bit about IPOs. When do you see that happening on the Texas Stock Exchange?
01:12Well, again, we would expect that to be in Q1 of next year.
01:17But already, as you may have seen, we have momentum in listings.
01:23We in that in the ETP space, we've had the first announcements of those that will list on the Texas
01:33Stock Exchange,
01:33including two funds by Cathie Woods Arc.
01:37So this is a lot of validation from the market and a lot of momentum.
01:42How about permanent headquarters in Dallas? That has not yet been announced.
01:46And obviously, if you're going to be doing trading, you're going to need your permanent headquarters.
01:50When do you expect that to come?
01:51News to come soon.
01:53How soon is soon?
01:55News to come soon.
01:56OK.
01:58All right. Well, all of this is going on.
02:00You just took a trip to Florida to promote what you're now calling the boom belt.
02:05Eleven southern states you view as business friendly.
02:08How does this play into the Texas Stock Exchange specifically?
02:11Well, Julie, I think, again, what we have seen is a big push-pull dynamic when it comes to finance
02:19in the U.S.,
02:20when it comes to the economy, and particularly when you look at Texas and Florida and Georgia and Tennessee.
02:27You have this net migration of people.
02:30You have this net migration of wealth.
02:32You have all kinds of economic activity coming really to this part of the U.S.
02:39And so we believe that that's kind of the first natural market to be trading, listing on the Texas Stock
02:49Exchange.
02:49And so we wanted to highlight that with Governor DeSantis and with Governor Abbott,
02:56with a bunch of CEOs who are interested, eventually, in both trading and listing on the Texas Stock Exchange.
03:04But, again, it just speaks to how the economic center of gravity is coming to a different portion of the
03:11U.S.
03:11and to Texas in specific.
03:13So when you discuss this boom belt, obviously these 11 states may be competing for business with each other.
03:20Well, there is a friendly rivalry, especially between the two governors.
03:24And Governor DeSantis is somebody I served with in the House, and I know well.
03:29And Governor Abbott and I go way back.
03:30So I know between the two of them, yes, there is a friendly, competitive rivalry.
03:35And that only helps with economic growth for kind of this boom belt, the southeast quadrant of the U.S.
03:42in general.
03:43That competition is good for the economy.
03:46It's good for retail investors as well.
03:50Speaking of competition, now you have the New York Stock Exchange, Texas, and NASDAQ, Texas.
03:55They have much larger profiles here than they did with the Texas Stock Exchange.
04:01Well, I must admit it's kind of ironic.
04:04As you know, we've been around since 1836.
04:07And until the formation of the Texas Stock Exchange, they didn't bother to put any kind of presence in the
04:14state of Texas.
04:15Now they've had.
04:16And so I think it's good for the state of Texas.
04:19We like competition.
04:21But the truth is, I mean, these are great companies.
04:24NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange, they're great companies.
04:27They're just not necessarily great exchanges for retail investors.
04:32They're not great exchanges for issuers.
04:35So I'd love to own stock, for example, in NASDAQ, but I wouldn't want to list on them.
04:40There is a reason why so many market participants want to be a part of Texas.
04:46And since last you and I visited, we've had another capital raise, and now we're up to almost $300 million.
04:54And, you know, that's BlackRock, that's Citadel, and now it's J.P. Morgan, now it's Goldman.
04:59They believe that there is a place and a need for another stock exchange to compete with the duopoly.
05:07And then, as I mentioned earlier, now we have our first listings that have been announced, including, again, two from
05:15ARC.
05:16This is big.
05:17And then last but not least, another validation point between us and the competition.
05:23Jim Lee, our CEO, he is a great coach, and he's taken advantage of the transfer portal.
05:29We've got all kinds of talent that has come in from CBO, from New York, and from NASDAQ.
05:36And they're coming to the Texas Stock Exchange.
05:38The transfer portal is not going the other direction.
05:40And you talk about large companies with Texas Stock Exchange, but it is important to note here, you're talking about
05:45people, dual listings at this point.
05:47It's not like they're saying, okay, we're throwing all in on this, dual listings.
05:51Well, it is dual listings, and the point I'd make about that is, dual listings is something that the New
06:00York Stock Exchange used to sell,
06:02and then they started to give it away for free once they, you know, put their longstanding Chicago market medallion
06:11in a Federal Express envelope and sent it to Texas.
06:14I'm sure they disagree with you on that, but okay.
06:16Well, they may disagree with me on that.
06:19So, listen, it's good that they, it's good for Texas.
06:22They have finally decided to come here again.
06:25We welcome the competition, but there's only one exchange that was Texas born, bred, and led, and that's the Texas
06:33Stock Exchange.
06:34And, Julie, you may or may not know this.
06:36When I left Congress, I went to work for a global bank.
06:39They're headquartered in New York.
06:40Great bank, but the New York ethos and the New York decision-making is very different from the economic juggernaut
06:50and the decision-making that's in Texas.
06:53So, if you're a subsidiary of NASDAQ, if you're a subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange, your decision-making,
07:00your public policy, kind of that ethos and bubble,
07:04it's still a New York bubble when all the activity is moving to the boom belt and moving to Texas.
07:11You talked about your time in Congress.
07:13Since I have you here, former chair of the House Financial Services Committee and chair of the Republican Congress,
07:19if you're sitting on Capitol Hill right now, what would you advise your colleagues to do regarding this ongoing war?
07:26Well, one, I'm glad I'm not there to make those decisions.
07:31One, you could make the case that, in some respects, we've been at war with Iran for decades.
07:38We're in it now.
07:40The president is the commander-in-chief.
07:43I think across the aisle with both parties, it has been totally, totally unacceptable for a regime that shouts death
07:52to America to be able to have a nuclear weapon.
07:57In addition, they cannot be allowed to control international waters, where roughly 20 percent of the petroleum used for energy
08:06in the world transits through.
08:09So I don't know how this plays out.
08:12When I was in Congress, I was subject to a number of classified briefings that gave me kind of the
08:19real cutting-edge knowledge to make these decisions.
08:22I do know this. You cannot start a battle that you do not finish.
08:28And so how this is finished, I don't know.
08:31If I was, I would say to some extent, I don't know what the short-term political implications are going
08:38to be.
08:39They may not be good.
08:40But long-term for America, I would say defeat is not an option.
08:46You talk about political implications.
08:48We're right around the corner for the midterms.
08:50You know how history is in the midterms with the party in power.
08:54You know, how should Republicans be running right now?
08:57Well, there's two ways to run.
09:00One is to run scared.
09:01So if I was on the ballot, I would be running scared.
09:04I think it's going to be a tough election cycle for Republicans.
09:07I think the electorate, Julie, is in a position today where there's a whole lot less party loyalty.
09:14And it's kind of, what have you done for me lately?
09:17And I think that Joe Biden and the Democrats were fired because people were unhappy with inflation.
09:23And bless his heart, Joe Biden looked like he wasn't up for the job.
09:27I mean, he probably wasn't up for the job.
09:29There are many that would argue with you about that.
09:31Well, bring them on.
09:33Well, regardless, then they brought in President Trump.
09:36And if it doesn't appear that, if it doesn't appear by Election Day that the president and the Republican Party
09:43are producing,
09:44they'll say, well, then we're going to go back to the other guys.
09:46Yes, we know what history is.
09:48And it's a challenging environment now because I think that in some respects,
09:54and I disagree with a lot of the policies of the president, I agree with.
09:58I think he's got excellent regulatory policy, excellent tax policy.
10:02I'm personally not fond of his trade policy, and I think that has held back economic growth.
10:08And if you buy into the president's thesis, and it's not an uncompelling thesis, not compelling to me,
10:16it's going to take time for the advantages of that policy to take place.
10:23So, again, I think Republicans are facing, you know, they're facing a tough environment.
10:28It doesn't mean that they can't prevail, but they have got to be able to focus on those aspects of
10:35the economy where their policies are winning
10:38and be able to, again, get people refocused on what the Biden policies were,
10:44the rise of kind of democratic socialism, because the party of the Democrats, they've taken a hard left turn.
10:55Appreciate you being with us.
10:56Please come back when trading begins or when you'd like to announce where your permanent headquarters will be.
11:01Looking forward to it, Julie, already.
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