Some very important questions are raised by the proposed merger of the Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext, but Chuck Schumer, a New York senator, has zeroed in on the most trivial one: its name.
Mr Schumer wants to preserve his state’s name because “the New York Stock Exchange is a symbol of national prestige and its brand must not suffer under this merger”. It would be more sensible to worry about taking care of the other half of the name – Stock Exchange.
The exchange founded under a Buttonwood tree on Wall Street in 1792 was once the most powerful engine of US capitalism. Now, the attraction of a merger for the NYSE is that the merged body would be more a derivatives than a stock exchange, combining Euronext’s Liffe with DB’s Eurex.