The fact of the matter is that $52 million of Grasso's supposed compensation was NOT "deferred" compensation as many of you have been lead to believe, but instead was an ACCELERATION of his pension! So, as a result of this acceleration of receiving his pension, Mr. Grasso could leave the NYSE tomorrow because he has no incentive whatsoever of staying. So much for the incentive arguement! Moreover, NYSE members saw a "technology" fee imposed on them that wound-up running between 5 and 10% of their gross. Members who were paying the exchange $1800 per month in fees, saw their monthly nut go up to $17,000. Recently, this technology fee was terminated, without any explanation to the membership whatsoever. So tell me this . . . If you are a member of the NYSE and you found-out that some of the so-called "deferred" compensation wasn't really deferred, but was instead an acceleration of Grasso's pension, AND you found out that he made $12 million last year when the exchange only booked a profit of $28 million, wouldn't you be a bit pissed-off if as a member of the NYSE you saw 5-10% of your gross get taken away for a so-called "technology" fee when that money could have come from Grasso's compensation? By the way, let's not forget that Grasso's peak pay was $25.6 million in 2001, and this was during a time of declining volume and floor broker scandals on the Big Board! Furthermore, Grasso enjoyed an 8% guaranteed return on one-tenth of his total compensation. This is just a wee bit unusual because most executive retirement plans peg their returns to vary with interest rates. For being basically a "regulator", Grasso has made out like a bandit and I believe that the members will wind-up forcing him out. Putting things in a bit of perspective, here are the salaries of other notable financial figures: William Donaldson, SEC Chairman $142,500 Alan Greenspan, FED Chairman $171,900 Henry Paulson, Goldman, CEO $9,000,000 Mel Karmazin, Viacom, CEO $20,200,000
My original complaint was not so much that the weird little jerk was able to appoint the compensation committee and then rip off the exchange. I'm practicing the puppy dog look and weird little faces and funny sounds right now. Where the hell is my razor... My compliant was that Kudlow and Cramer were such disgusting sucks, it was unblievable. It was like a SNL skit or something. AAA, as for Grasso graduating from high school, that is not technically correct, he "finished" high school, no where does it mention "graduating".
I have to agree with you there. Honestly, I have never seen them grovel like that. But of course I wasn't at the White House coffees Clinton had for big donors. I bet Cramer groveled even more there.
Grasso's pay is outright sick! It is just amazing how when small investors were losing their shirt these wall street guys were making tens or hundreds of millions of dollars each!!! It makes the whole wall street look like a giant looting job and fraud to average people IMO! We should not use american dream as an excuse and associate these millions and billions we keep hearing with the american dream every time! There is a lot more to american dream IMO!
"It makes the whole wall street look like a giant looting job and fraud to average people IMO" What was your first clue? There is a good reason Cramer is such an arse lick...he is cut in for a piece of the action.
What seems unusual to me is that grasso' salary was 2 mil in 96,and has escallated to 20 mil this year.Thats a 1000% increase for doing the same job he did a few years ago.Let's see...... He rings the bell, well not literally.He shakes alot of hands,better count your fingers.And he does general pr work.Does anybody know where I could get a job like that.The compensation is way out of line.But to the best of my knowledge, he's done nothing wrong.
Isn't the 138 million dollars coming from his 401K? Depending on how he managed his 401k, it may have been significantly higher or lower, right? Wasn't the 138 million dollars earned throughout his entire career, rather than in a single year? I don't see much wrong with that!