| Green Grasso |
15 September 2003
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NYSE Traders Turn on Grasso
When the floor traders on the New York Stock Exchange decide someone has been too greedy, the situation is clearly out of hand. Some are circulating a petition to oust Chairman Richard Grasso over $140 million that he has been paid in incentives, accrued savings and other sweeteners most Americans don't get. If the traders don't think he is worth it, what is the rest of the country, the world to think?
The great American baseball player Babe Ruth had a few good seasons and made more money than the president of the United States. When questioned about it by a reporter, Mr. Ruth said that he had had a better year than the president. Bearing in mind that Ruth was playing in the 1920s and 1930s, that is not unlikely.
Mr. Grasso, though, is not having the kind of season that puts one in the Business Hall of Fame. The NYSE is doing all right, it remains the premier stock exchange in North America, but it is hard to point to anything that Mr. Grasso has done that merits millions of dollars in compensation.
It will require 100 signatures out of the roughly 1,350 floor traders to call a special meeting and those circulating the petition want a new chairman. If they are successful, it would be the first dose of reality in executive pay gone amok. One hopes so, at least.
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