Editor's Note: The following column is not an endorsement of any financial service or product, on the part of Newsmax.)
OPINION
"USA . . . USA . . . USA" The chants on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange were so deafening that CNBC’s Jim Cramer had to pause broadcasting while angrily cupping his hands over his ears.
It was July 20, 2023 and PublicSq (NYSE: PSQH) was ringing the opening bell.
Until that day, in the 120 years of the NYSE’s opening bell, no company ringing the opening bell had broken out into a "USA" chant in celebration of our country.
Something is happening in America.
The ringing of the NYSE bell is just a ceremony.
A victory lap for a company that made it to the grandest public stock exchange in the world. And in the moment of this symbolic achievement, every company, everytime . . . celebrates itself.
PublicSq’s executives had invited their families, as is customary, and any employee who wanted to come to the NYSE floor to be part of the experience.
That is not customary.
When PublicSq’s CEO rang the bell, the 125 guests standing on the NYSE floor below cheered, but before the 10-second bell was done ringing, the chanting started.
"USA. USA. USA."
The murmur that turned into a roar began with the 125 strong PublicSq employees, while raising their fists to the leadership above. And then an even crazier thing happened.
The NYSE floor brokers, many of them third, fourth, or 5th generation on the job, who, like their fathers before them, commute to the exchange every day from Brooklyn, and Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx and New Jersey, quite literally wearing blue collars . . . they turned away from their stations, looked up toward the podium, and belted "USA USA USA," while punching their fists into the air.
Watching their faces from above, the brokers were almost . . . angry.
It was as if they wanted to make sure they were heard. With each visceral fist thrust and each guttural "USA" chant, it felt like they wanted the 100 million people watching the broadcast to know that there are other people on the NYSE floor working too.
Each day a new corporation rings the bell in celebration of its exploding wealth, control, and power. And, each day, it’s the job of those floor brookers to facilitate that wealth transfer. But they don’t participate in the gains.
Those brokers don’t get rich — or even make more money — when the aristocracy utilizes their Floor and their trading skills to get more rich and more powerful.
Just like their fathers and grandfathers before them, those brokers watch a generational wealth transfer, every day, without any benefit to them, despite being the ones facilitating it.
Maybe that’s why they are so angry?
They’re not participating in America’s exploding prosperity, even though they are a key ingredient in the creation of it.
Adding insult to injury, not only do they get no acknowledgement for the role they play, nobody even knows they are there.
What if that is exactly how millions of Americans feel?
Like they didn’t really participate in the great American wealth creation of the last decade?
Unlike the NYSE Floor Brokers, however, America doesn’t get to scream into a microphone heard by 100 million people, so loud that even Jim Cramer has to just let it happen.
Ratings are in freefall for cable news.
In June 2023, only 3.8 million people watched one of the Big 5 shows during primetime.
Put another way, primetime cable news viewers in June 2023 accounted for only 2.5% of the people who voted in the 2020 Elections (154.6 million).
One thing happening in America is the media apparatus and the politicians they serve have lost connection with a large portion of America’s populace.
The groundswell of support for anti-establishment candidates from Donald Trump to Robert Kennedy Jr. is just a preview of the movement that is about to cause a structural shift in American commerce.
That is what’s happening in America.
A parallel economy is rising, where consumers are increasingly able to buy products from companies whose ideals are aligned with theirs.
The commercial opportunity to serve those customers is not billions. It is trillions of dollars.
As it turns out, the last emerging market in the world is the millions of Americans today who feel they have been ignored — by the very entities who behave as if they are entitled to get their money.
Consumers can now hold corporations accountable for the decisions they make.
This is a new concept.
And a step toward regaining some personal liberties that have mysteriously vanished over the last decade, in concert with the power of multinational corporations reaching its zenith.
The choice to buy something from another entity has never been so easy, and consumers are increasingly realizing that they now have a choice.
There has never been an anti-abortion diaper company, until now.
There has never been a food delivery company that required both its food and its employees to be sourced from America, until now.
Never before have consumers had the seamless ability to buy something they want from a company whose values are aligned with theirs, until now.
PublicSq is merely a public square.
It’s an exchange for goods and services for like minded people. It is not the parallel economy, it is a symbol that the parallel economy exists.
On July 20, the PublicSq employees told the world they cared more about Americans’ freedom of choice than they did about participating in the wealth transfer, or, becoming a "have," over the "have nots."
That sentiment from the employees of PublicSq is what has caught fire in America in 2023.
In politics, the people only get to vote for change every two or four years. But in commerce, Americans can change where they buy stuff in an instant. That’s why the establishment corporations are terrified.
It is hard to estimate the size of this last emerging market.
It might be only 20 million people, but it also might be 120 million. People who are desperately seeking to buy products from American companies whose values are aligned with theirs, as opposed to the multinational corporations from which they have no human connection.
The size of this market is unknowable.
One thing is certain. It’s not just the floor brokers at the NYSE.
Joe Voboril is CFO of Colombier Acquisition Corp. that took PublicSq to the NYSE
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.