By Steve Rhodes
“As superstorm Sandy marches slowly inland today, millions along the East Coast are without power or mass transit, with huge swaths of New York City unusually vacant and dark,” the Tribune reports.
“Trading at the New York Stock Exchange was canceled again Tuesday – the first time the exchange suspended operations for two consecutive days due to weather since an 1888 blizzard struck the city.”
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“And some Chicago traders didn’t care for it one bit,” David Roeder reports for the Sun-Times.
“Our sense is that it’s more important for financial markets to be open,” a spokesperson for Chicago’s Getco LLC told Roeder.
I wish we knew her name so we could call her out as Today’s Worst Person In Chicago.
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Getco believes that opportunity and risk go hand-in-hand.
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“In an age of electronic markets, it’s a fair question to ask if they should have closed completely,” Christopher Hehmeyer, the chief executive officer of Chicago’s HTG Capital Partners, told Roeder. “These markets are supposed to be virtual.”
That makes sense if you don’t consider the fact that with power outages – not to mention the personal challenges presented by a storm of this magnitude – huge swaths of traders would have no access to the markets.
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“I’m a little surprised that the exchanges couldn’t secure the technology needed to keep the market operating,” Dominic Salvino of the Chicago office of Group One Trading told Bloomberg. “It seems unreasonable that the nation’s financial markets have to shut down just because everyone has located themselves within five miles of each other in New Jersey. A snow storm in Chicago wouldn’t shut down trading on the East Coast.”
Dude, 7.5 million people are without power. That’s almost the size of the eight-county Chicago metropolitan area. At least 16 are dead. Take the day off and maybe attend a class on how to be human.
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Keep a close eye on Rahm this week as he never likes to let a good crisis go to waste.
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“The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for Lake Michigan in Chicago in effect from 1 a.m. Tuesday through 4 p.m. Wednesday,” ABC7 Chicago reports.
“Part of Navy Pier is also closed because of the wind and waves.
“The only portion of the pier that won’t be open [Tuesday] is the pier park portion, where our ferris wheel is, our carousel, and that’s where our mini-golf is. We’ve just decided to close that portion of the pier, the rides and attractions, because of the high winds,” said Navy Pier’s Nick Shields.
Bored Chicago traders can still get in some schlocky shopping, though.
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“More than 450 flights at O’Hare were scrubbed Monday, most of those destined for the East Coast, while at Midway International Airport more than 100 flights were grounded,” the Daily Herald reports.
So pretty much business as usual.
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“Local menus that feature well-traveled ingredients are having a hard time at the moment,” Crain’s reports.
“We’re having a real struggle right now with any shipments from the mid-Atlantic,” said Matthew Kirkley, executive chef at L2O, a high-end restaurant that spotlights seafood. “If it is sourced from anywhere between North Carolina to New York and New Jersey, it’s a problem. Right now Maine is still okay, but I am getting beaten up in regards to blue crab and striped bass deliveries.
Are you kidding me? First our trading floor is closed, now our striped bass is held up!
Obamabots Think His Policies Are Immoral . . .
. . . When Attributed To Romney.
Dylan, Punk’n
In our Local Music Notebook.
Fire In Knockout Game
The scenario they wanted to avoid.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Surf’s up.
Posted on October 30, 2012