Richard Grasso, the chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, was paid a lump sum of $139m in deferred compensation and his contract was extended to 2007, the NYSE said on Wednesday in an unprecedented move to disclose the compensation of its leadership.
http://www.federalexaminer.com/archives/000146.html
Wow, and this guy doesn’t even play basketball.
Well sheeeit. He makes so much, let’s tax him into oblivion, so that he pays “His fair share”. He can afford to be Robin Hooded, right?
:rolleyes:
So he makes mad ducats. Good for him.
And I noticed that nobody else responded to this. I can understand, since nobody really knows who he is.
All the same, he got the boot today, due to the disclosure that he made mad money, not for any real failings. He wasn’t dirty, he was a straight shooter, and he did his job. There’s been this big uproar about how much he made, and how could we, the responsible businessmen and women who brought the world Enron, WorldCom, AOL Time Warner, and a bunch of other scandals, let this happen, and oh God why won’t anybody think of the children? Even John Edwards had to get into the act and comment:
Thanks for your opinion, John. What did you do, prosecute people? Go to cocktail dinners while raising slush money for your reelection? Did you work for a major corporation, one that is responsible for keeping track of the financial well-being of every corporation under its umbrella? No? Then shut the hell up, you suckup. All you want is the poor vote. Hell, I’m half expecting to see you in front of the mike shouting “Power to the People”. You don’t have the slightest idea what he does for a living, you just saw the money and felt cheated, since you can’t solicit money like that anymore. Ass. And while we’re at it, what’s the “real problem”? Keep reading, and you’ll find out what I think.
The whole thing is bullshit. Is it Grasso’s fault that they threw all that money at him? I think not. But they got their pound of flesh. They made him quit. And a good man, who’s been working for the NYSE for 36 years and been President of the prestigious institution for the last 7 goes by the wayside because he took what he was offered.
That’s a major injustice, if you ask me. You want to know what the root cause of this is? The idea that someone can make too much money. It’s jealousy, greed, and public relations. That’s all it is. Me, I’m insanely jealous, but I’m happy for the guy. Maybe one day I can make that much if I work hard. Or, maybe I can just wait for the Goddamn pinkos to pass laws that would make him give it to me. That’s what we’re coming to now, folks. Forced wealth redistribution. Well, blow that out your ass. If I ever make a lot of money I’m putting it somewhere else so the damn thieves can’t get any of it.
I am fucking pissed off about this. Why do we dick over the good people? Because we’re shallow, self-centered, and outraged that anyone could make more than us. And so we shoot them down, smug in our self-righteousness and knowledge that nobody deserves to make that much.
Screw this. I’m about to have a friggin’ aneurysm here, I’m so livid. I’m done with this, and screw the bastards that made him quit.
BTW, I have no stake in this, but this rant was a long time coming for me. I’m sick to shit of the people talking about “fair share”, as if rich people don’t work for a living.
Airman, while I agree with you that there’s no such thing as ‘fair share’, and we’ve no right to take away money someone’s worked for, I think there is such a thing as making too much money. But hey, if that’s what the job pays, who’s gonna turn it down?
He said he would resign if the board of directors asked him to. They did. He did. No one forced him to do anything.
Do you know why Grasso resigned, Airman? Because the heads of the major pension funds in the country started calling for his resignation. Not because he was afraid of offending Democrats and the poor. Because the people most intimately involved in the exchange Grasso ran said that his compensation package was a gross insult to everyone, considering the condition of the stock market, the overall pay scandal in corporations these days, and little things like paying Grasso a $5 million bonus for opening the stock market after 9/11 (catch that? He came to work and did his job, and got a $5 mil bonus. Nice work if you can get it).
When CEOs and guys like Grasso get huge compensation packages when their companies are losing money; when they get the full compensation package after being fired for “failure to perform”; when executives run companies into the ground to meet short term profit goals to buoy the stock price, it tends to shake investor’s confidence in the quality of management. It’s not about some abstract notion of fair compensation. It’s about the fact that CEOs were looting the companies they were supposed to be running.
Someone in the interview I heard tonight made a good point: that executive compensation has become disconnected from risk. It’s no longer the case that CEOs get mad money because they grew their company and the economy through brains, hard work, deft maneuvering, and calculated gambles. What risks did Dick Grasso take? How did he enrich beyond normal operations?
Forgot it’s the Pit.
Airman, you’re a half-man.
This one’s a toughie.
By all accounts Dick is universally admired and respected. Nobody has a complaint about the job he’s done. Nobody is finding fault or making an accusation of impropriety.
But there is a problem. Dick’s salary and bonus are determined by his board of directors. This board of Directors consists mainly of very very powerful people like the CEOs of major corporations.
One would expect Dick’s salary to be high commensurate with his responsibilities.
His salary though is astronomically out of proportion.
Why?
It’s hard to interprate it as something other than a form of greenmail.
Accepting such a disproportional sum creates an inherent conflict of interest, something Grasso was sure cognizant of. By accepting it he’s compromised his ability to regulate.
Here’s a cite:
There’s been tons of flap in the last couple years about CEO’s milking their companies dry. Dick seemed like a decent guy, but I think allowing himslef to be “over compensated” was negligence on his part. I know, it would be damn hard to turn down 100’s of millions, but he should have known there would be trouble brewing, because CEO’s are under the microscope these days. Oh well, I’m sure he won’t be selling pencils on the corner of Wall & Broad any time soon.
…and some news story I read (can’t find it now) suggested that Mr. Grasso’s “career was ruined”.
Uh-huh. I wish my career would be ruined like that. A 140 million severance check? WHO THE HELL NEEDS A GODDAMN CAREER AFTER THAT?
Hell, for that kind of money, I’d sleep with Roseanne Barr, and happily pose for the WSJ wearing nothing but a tasseled butt plug, high heels, and a dunce cap.
140 mil don’t go as far as it used to…
Strawman much, Airman?
Right. In the same way that no one forced Nixon or Gorbachev to resign. Tell me another one. :rolleyes:
Which was scandelous. Grasso made a pittance compared to what Paulson makes from private partnerships available to Goldman senior execs, and he made less than Purcell or or Harrison (or O’neal of Merrill will make after a few years at the top job).
Grasso was overpaid. More importantly, he had a tin ear regarding it – taking that lump sum in this environment was a mistake and he should instead have either negotiated a lower interest rate on the deferred comp or put it at risk. And like poor Harvey Pitt at the SEC, it was the tin ear that cost him his job. Well, that and the fact that he had just recently happened to make some powerful enemies on the floor.
What should have happened is that all the directors who voted him that package should have resigned, and the new board should have reworked his package.
I’m not angry about this, just kind of saddened. This was an unhappy ending for a guy who deserved to ride off into the sunset to the admiration of all.
As an aside, the guy who got our shop up and running after 9-11 also got a special bonus, even though that’s “his job.” It wasn’t $5 MM, but we’re not the NYSE.
Y’know, there is such a thing as thinking to yourself: “This would be nice… but it would not look too good. Better play it safe.” Sometimes you should care what other people think. Specially if they actually have the power to hurt you.
However, wasn’t his comp package approved by the Board itself in the first place? Should the leading members of the Exchange not be also screaming for the heads of the Board members? (ah… but that would cut too close)
And I’m sure Airman knows that as long as humans are human, “he who exalts himself shall be humbled” will be interpreted as a license to take potshots at the Big Shots…
What’s “greenmail”?
What should have happened is that all the directors who voted him that package should have resigned, and the new board should have reworked his package.
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Amen, brother. The board screwed up, not Grasso, well not directly. He could have refused the package, I suppose, in the interest of propriety. Tough thing to ask a guy to do, though, give up tens of millions for appearance sake.
Bah! that’s what I get for not previewing!
I don’t know if there are any members of the NYSE reading this, but I’d like to know if it was true that he opened the way towards those guys making lots more money, which is what I heard/read somewhere.
Those guys are really his constituency, as the NYSE is a private company, after all. If he made them more money, and they think he deserved his pay package for doing so, then that’s all any of us should need to know. The rest is the sound and fury of ignorant rubes, signifying nothing.