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The Lundquist's Weblog, Yet another Blosxom weblog.
Jonathan & Nancy Lundquist
fluxsmith@fluxsmith.com
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Thu, 18 Sep 2003
Yesterday Richard Grasso resigned as Chairman of the NYSE, under immense pressure to do so. He was grossly overpaid, but compared to whom? A Hollywood idiot? A sports star? A so-called musician? Other overpaid CEOs? There is no standard for overpaid in our society.
Mr. Grasso is still nearly universally acclaimed as the best Chairman the NYSE has ever had. Two years ago after 9/11 the financial markets would not have recovered for a long time under weaker leadership. The calls for his resignation and objections to his compensation from various government bureaucrats were particularly disgusting and transparent sour grapes; they live on funds extracted by compulsory means, Mr. Grasso forced no one.
Mr. Grasso may have had little choice, and that he would resign for the good of the exchange is not a surprise given his commitment to the institution. But the pressure for him to do so was so misplaced as to make a prime example of the idiocy of media and jealousy driven public decision making. Those resigning should have been the Board members on the compensation committee responsible for determining the Chairman's compensation, not the Chairman.