Sign "O" the Times

After more than a century, the Chicago Merc might become… the Somewhere Else Merc. The Anywhere Else Merc? From IBD:

The company that owns Chicago’s two largest futures exchanges is thinking about moving operations out of state to flee oppressive business taxes. Worried about climate change? How about the business climate?

The days when Chicago was the “hog butcher to the world” have long since passed, replaced by its role as a leading financial trading center that is home to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, also known as the Merc, and the Chicago Board of Trade.

On Wednesday, Terence Duffy, chairman of CME Group Inc., which owns the two institutions as well as the New York Mercantile Exchange, and Chief Financial Officer James Parisi announced the financial giant is considering moving operations and jobs out of the state in response to massive increases in state taxes.

This is the equivalent of the Empire State Building getting up and walking over to New Jersey.