"Terry Duffy: Expect Us"

Meet Terrence Andrew Duffy...



Background: A Secret Banking Elite Runs Trading in Derivatives - NYT

Terrence Duffy recently hosted his 4th Annual Global Financial Leadership Conference on October 24th-26th in Naples, Florida. It's exactly what it sounds like: a gathering for high rollers, media figures and tech execs to organize and strategize. The keynote speaker this year was George W. Bush, but of course, Duffy's also gotten Clinton before that. High finance is something Democrats and Republicans are both happy to support: Bipartisan Consensus.



Executive Profile - Forbes | Terrence A. Duffy - MarketWiki | Board Network

Terrence Duffy's Political Donations (Hello, Barney Frank) - Newsmeat

Days after the Global Financial Leadership Conference, though, Terry Duffy was right back at work doing what he does best: carving a bigger profit margin out of anything smaller and slower than the financial conglomerate he represents. For the past few weeks, he's been focusing his efforts on the state of Illinois. We do not appreciate that.



10/27/2011: Rich Miller reports the "Corporate Tax Break Bidding War" is heating up in Springfield, Illinois...

"The CME says it pays 6 percent of all Illinois corporate income taxes, making it the state’s largest taxpayer. The company also claims that the recent income tax increase cost it an extra $50 million a year. Its executive chairman, Terry Duffy, has repeatedly warned that he’s furious about his company’s tax burden and is seriously contemplating a move to a more favorable location."



Terry Duffy has insisted that he is not bluffing about moving to another state, and this is true. The act he has been putting on here in Springfield is more accurately described as horseshit. Although it is true the CME has 2300+ employees who will be utterly unwilling to trade the Chicago high life for the cultural wastelands of Indiana, their actual trading floor makes up only a small percentage of their earnings. CME is fundamentally virtual, yet strangely enough, that's exactly why Terry Duffy can't go anywhere.



That's the Spread Networks Dark Pipeline: a fiber optic connection for High-Frequency Trading (HFT) algorithms to communicate with New York in 13.33 milliseconds. That, along with their political connections and market manipulation, is the real source of their massive profit margins. So despite doing business anywhere in the world 24 hours a day, Terry Duffy remains unable to actually move his to another state - no matter how "lucrative" their offers of tax breaks and free rents may be.




Standing before the Illinois Senate, Duffy backpedaled: "We're not threatening anybody. We like Chicago. We love Illinois. We want to remain a big part of it." Less than 20 feet outside the door to Senate chambers, though, and he was already back on a different set of talking points: "I would not be going through all this effort if we did not have a commitment to stay here...I simply would have gone to another state, accepted very lucrative proposals and moved our firm."

"A tax break for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange? The notion would be comical if it weren't so sad. CME took a stunning 54 percent of its $8 billion revenue as clear profit. That's a higher percentage than any of the top 100 companies in the country!" - Patrick Bucheit



"CME gave Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel the single largest contribution to his mayoral campaign, $200,000, before state campaign finance rules changed to prohibit such largesse. Still, to demonstrate how large a donation it was, CME has given House Speaker Michael Madigan about $245,000 since late 1994, according to a Tribune analysis of data that goes back to that year. CBOE, the other financial exchange that would benefit from the tax breaks, has given about $90,000 to Madigan during that period." - Chicago Tribune

"It will be an interesting week. I am going to be down in Springfield, obviously, all week. Hopefully the legislature understands the value that the CME Group brings not only to Chicago but to the state of Illinois and the rest of the country." - ABC News, Nov 7th, 2011

Since October 2006, he has been a member of the Board of FXMarketSpace Limited, a joint venture between CME and Reuters.

Duffy Says CTFC Director is 'Not Too Smart' - Brian Scheid

2006 PBS Interview Re: Mergers - Susie Gharib

Testimony to Agriculture, Dec 2nd, 2009 - Terrence Duffy

Testimony on OTC Derivatives Regulation - April 12th, 2011 - Terrence Duffy

Derivatives Clearinghouses: Opportunities and Challenges - May 25th, 2011 - Terrence Duffy

Of course, CME has been plenty busy putting out fires on other fronts, especially with Jon Corzine's $40 Billion Collapse over at MF Global.

11/11/2011: Terry Duffy announces the CME will put up $300 million to temporarily cover their liabilities for MF Global.