It's Wednesday, February 21st, 2024, the biggest big business merger of 2024, more sanctions

for Russia somehow and bringing hip-hop to acquire U.S. credit card issuer,

Discover financial services in an all-stock transaction valued at $35.3 billion to create a global payments giant.

The company said on Monday the deal, which is expected to receive intense antitrust scrutiny,

would form the sixth largest U.S. bank by assets and a U.S. credit card behemoth

that would compete with rivals J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup.

While Discover has a network that spans 200 countries and territories,

it's still much smaller than rivals

Visa and MasterCard and American Express. Quote, this acquisition adds scale and investment,

enabling the Discover Network to be more competitive with the largest payments network. The

company said in that statement, Discover shareholders are expected to receive a hefty premium

over Discover's closing price on Friday.

Of course, when you hear about mergers such as this and the consolidation of major banks and

asset groups like Discover and Capital One, you get suspicious. Last year, the year began with bank

failures. This year seems to be beginning with a huge bank merger. I feel we're doing a drip,

drip, drip towards a

central bank digital currency any day now. Two men have been charged with murder in the Kansas

City Chief's Super Bowl parade shooting that killed one woman and injured more than 20 people

last week. The defendants were named by prosecutors as Dominic M. Miller of Kansas City and Lindell

Mays of Raytown, Missouri.

Each face charges of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, and unlawful use of a weapon.

That's according to a statement from the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office.

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