WHEREAS, Two hundred years have passed since May 17, 1792, when the New York Stock Exchange was founded by 24 merchants and brokers who gathered under a buttonwood tree in lower Manhattan to establish a reliable market for the trading of securities; and

WHEREAS, The New York Stock Exchange has helped finance America’s growth from its very beginning, significantly contributing to job creation and to the development of the nation’s industry and technology; and

WHEREAS, The New York Stock Exchange has helped finance the development of industry and technology vital to California’s economy, thereby contributing to job creation in this state; and

WHEREAS, The New York Stock Exchange is the nation’s premier securities marketplace and the best known symbol of America’s free enterprise system; and

WHEREAS, The New York Stock Exchange has committed its energy and expertise to advance our nation’s free market philosophy to other countries around the world; and

WHEREAS, The New York Stock Exchange is a national institution, dedicated to the promotion of individual and institutional investor protection, and to free, open, just, and equitable principles of trade; now, therefore, be it