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Richard Grasso and the Survival of the New York Stock Exchange
Collins
November 2007
On Sale: November 6, 2007
400 pages
ISBN: 006089833X
EAN: 9780060898335
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
A Long Way to the Top Rags-to-riches stories abound in American lore, but even
Horatio Alger would have been hard-pressed to write one as
powerful as Richard Grasso's: the son of a working-class
family whose childhood dream was to become a cop, he grew up
in New York City's outer boroughs, as far removed from the
marble halls, expensive suits, and imported cigars of the
New York Stock Exchange as if his grandparents had remained
in Italy. Here is the riveting story of how the Little Man in the Dark
Suit rose to become the most influential CEO in the
Exchange's history. Minus the tony upbringing, affluent prep
schools, or inside connections that were de rigueur for top
Wall Street players, Grasso would master the subtle
deal-making and politics necessary to succeed in the most
competitive business on Earth. The Day the Market Fell The story of September 11, 2001 - the shock, panic,
resilience, and heroism - is one that's been told many
times. But on that day, Richard Grasso faced a challenge no
other CEO of the Club had ever imagined: how to bring the
very heart of global finance back from near-death to
functioning operation. Swiftly, completely, and without the
public knowing how desperate the struggle really was. He met
it with aplomb: his finest hour, and yet one that sowed the
seeds of his own destruction. A Plutocrat's Pay As the Exchange leapt from success to success, and Grasso's
reputation, already gold-plated following 9/11, grew with
it, the Club's Board of Directors lavishly rewarded him with
a pay package that even the CEOs at the world's largest
corporations might envy: more than $140 million in deferred
compensation. It was a package that, when leaked, brought
down a hailstorm of protest; bitter divisions among the most
powerful names on Wall Street; an investigation from the
Scourge of Wall Street, then - Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer; and Grasso's eventual humiliating downfall. The End of an Era Almost single-handedly, Grasso had kept the famous
specialist system, where human traders matched buy and sell
orders, front and center at the Club. As competing camps
plotted his downfall, the exchange's fate became clear:
without Grasso, it might survive and indeed flourish, but
the Exchange, the firms that supplied it with business, and
the structures underpinning the movement of money around the
country and the globe would never be the same.
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