Chicago Roots to Global Success
We are proud of the role Chicago has played in the ongoing quest for financial services innovation. For over a century and a half, free market economics and tools used globally in commodities trading, foreign currency exchange, futures markets, electronic trading, and the dramatic expansion of the use of convertible securities, all trace some significant piece of their origins back to the "City of Broad Shoulders". The Capital Cooperative™, as operated by CAP Services, is the commercial manifestation of the work of one of our founders in identifying and refining her thesis known as "Modern Credit and Investment Disaggregation Theory". This economic thesis, when applied liberally in support of the Cooperative's Member-Partners, delivers a new and more efficient capital solution via the Cooperative's proprietary and private platform. That type of innovation drives the potential for greater capital efficiency and access, alignment of interests among operators and investors, transactional scalability, and cross-border investment support, all through the implementation of highly standardized, project-linked credit enhancements that drive project costs down and increase points of entry for global investment exposure.
Chicago's Visionary Economist Led to Global Change
Milton Friedman, Ph.D - Accomplishments
- Provided an alternate view of the economy to the traditional Keynesian model.
- Awarded 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
- Author of A Theory of the Consumption Function (1957) and Capitalism and Freedom (1962)
- Served on the President's Economic Policy Advisory Board
- Awarded 1988 Presidential Medal of Freedom
“Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.”
The child of Ukrainin immigrants, Milton Friedman is widely recognized as father of modern economic theory.
Chicago Builds the World's First Financial Futures Exchange
“The floor had no viability anymore.
(referencing the trading floor with new automation tools)”
Leo Malemed - Accomplishments
- In law school, he was a runner for the produce futures markets
- Appointed Chair of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in 1969 and created the International Monetary Market (IMM) that launched currency futures.
- Under his leadership CME and IMM created US Treasury Bills (1976), Eurodollars (1981), and stock index futures (1982)
- In 1987, he led the development of Globex, the world's first electronic trading system.
Chicago Leads the way to Global Consumption of Convertible Bonds
John P. Calamos Sr. - Accomplishments
- Literally, wrote the book on convertible bonds; author of "Investing in Convertible Securities"
- Took the convertible bond out of obscurity and into the global marketplace
- Identified the value of offering the ability of a debt holder to participate in the equity growth of a bond issuer
- When John Calamos started his career, little was known about convertible bonds.
- Although he did not invent the asset class, he was the first to build a comprehensive business upon it.