Book Review; Zero Sum Game

Read the book Zero Sum Game by Erika Olson.  She was a CBOT employee during the CME/CBOT merger.  Since I have been heavily involved with CME over my life, it was an interesting read.

It’s pretty breezy reading, and you don’t need to be an expert on the underpinnings of the market to understand it. There is the requisite character sketches, intrigue and drama that comes with mergers. Erika accurately describes the history of the two exchanges.

There are some minor points in the book I would disagree with, or more points that I would highlight. But, those are because we had totally different perspectives. I as a former board member and shareholder, she as an employee of CBOT.

She also does a great job describing the drama of the ICE exchanges bid. That was compelling. It is amazing how close it was for the merger not to occur.

The CME/CBOT merger was a tremendous event for the city of Chicago. In the current environment, I hope the legislators in Springfield “get” that. Raising the corporate income tax to 10.4% isn’t going to engender any affinity for CME Group to Illinois. As a matter of fact, as a shareholder I wonder why the hell CME management doesn’t pull out as many employees as possible from Illinois and relocate to a more business friendly state like Tennessee, Texas or Florida.

The only part of the trading floor that does a serious amount of business is the options pits. Sell the building, lease the floor and keep the options pits. Transfer everything else to another hub. Memphis is cheap and Federal Express is there. Austin, TX is full of techies, and since CME is a tech company it might benefit from the synergies there rather than the synergies in Chicago. Especially that since business and people will flee if taxes are raised.

Read more at Points and Figures