It is on.
New York is turning into a cesspool in more ways than one. This is going to be a major problem in light of the Donald Trump civil case.
Whether you like Trump or not is immaterial to the conversation. Here is where we see the legal proceedings entering in a way that is going to decimate the government.
To start, I am not a lawyer so arguing the merits of the case is beyond me. What I can tell you is how it can affect companies. This is a problem for New York since some entities, especially financial, already were departing.
Donald Trump was sued the state for basically fraud pertaining to his claims of value when going for loans. This is something that is commonplace especially with real estate. Valuation is not an exact science as anyone who tried to have a property appraised knows.
The problem with this case it is alerting everyone about the potential to be sued by the state.
Kevin O'Leary, one who I disagree with often, came out and said he will not invest in New York in the future. This is the mindset, I am sure, of many.
Rule of law is crucial for business. When it is apt to change, we see how money will locate elsewhere.
Basically, the precedent in New York is now that anyone who has dispute with a bank over the valuation on an asset is subject to being sued. This is something that is certainly going to enter into the risk profiles.
There are other reasons why New York City was facing difficulty. At the top of the list, even before Trump, is taxation. This is causing people to think about relocating.
One, who is not tied to New York, is Jeff Bezos.
He recently fled the state of Washington for Florida. The appeal other than the sunshine: no state income tax. Recent reports put his savings at around $600 million.
A couple years ago, legendary corporate raider, Carl Icahn, moved his entire company, employees included, to the Miami area.
Not long after, Goldman Sachs moved its most profitable division to Palm Beach area. Point72 Captial, Steve Cohen's hedge fund, opened an office there also, raising the prospects of eventual relocation.
In the era of telecommunications and technology, there is no allure to New York. Actually the lesson should have been learned with the servers and high frequency trading.
New YorkCity decided a great way to raise tax dollars would be to hit up each transaction occurring within its jurisdiction. Since Wall Street is resident there, along with some of the largest financial institutions, it was a sensible thing to a bunch of politicians.
What happened?
No money was raised. The companies simply moved their hardware across the river to New Jersey. They are still close enough to the exchanges to operate yet outside the reach of the City.
Carl Icahn and others are taking a similar path. No longer does one need to be in New York City to be a relevant financial institution. In fact, people are now dealing with entities with no idea where they are located.
In short, people do not care.
This is an old financial and monetary saying yet it holds true.
It is something that often pertains to interest rates and the return on capital. However, we are seeing the issue of taxation entering the conversation even more.
States like New York and California are seeing an outward migration of high net worth people. The problem is that, not only are individuals leaving, they are taking companies with them.
Oracle is an example of this. Larry Ellison left California to move to Hawaii. Before doing so, Oracle was relocated to Texas. We can only imagine the loss in taxes between that company and Ellison.
This was all described in The Layout For The Globalization Of Real Estate. That article approached the idea of real estate going through a situation similar to manufacturing. Essentially, because of remote work, people would move to those areas where the cost of living was lower.
The same is true for companies.
If one operates looking at a screen tied to the cloud, that can be done from anywhere. The same is true for a company that has a bunch of people looking at screens tied to the cloud. Again, as long as there is Internet, it can be done from anywhere.
This fits financial firms almost perfectly. The majority of their business activity is done in this manner. No longer is street address crucial to potential customers.
Here is a headline from Bloomberg last August.
This is a trend that is likely to continue.
