Iowa Congressman Jim Nussle opened the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York this morning. Nussle says at 8:30 Iowa time, he pressed a plasma screen and lit up a tower in Times Square. Nussle says it was really high tech and different from the bell-ringing that signals the start of trading on the rival New York Stock Exchange. Nussle was invited to New York by the NASDAQ managers because he’s chairman of one of the most the powerful committees in Congress — the House Budget Committee. Nussle says he had a free weekend and thought he’d take advantage of the invitation. Nussle says he’ll meet with a lot of analysts and economists who watch the market closely to find out how the tax cuts passed by Congress impacted the economy. He’ll also ask experts what else they think Congress should do to ensure long-term, sustained growth in the economy. Nussle says NASDAQ has been hit hardest in the recent recession.Nussle says when the dot-com bubble burst, about 80 percent of the value of the NASDAQ market was lost. The NASDAQ opened in 1971 as the world’s first electronic stock market. Today, about 3,600 companies are listed on the exchange.
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