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American Morning
Minding Your Business: SEC Ya Later
Aired November 13, 2002 - 09:56 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: What's happening in the markets?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: How are you guys? Wall Street trending lower this morning, fears of war, fears of Bin Laden tape, disarray at the SEC. Paula, earlier you said, "Who were some names, give me some names of people who might replace Harvey Pitt, who might replace William Webster."
Well, some of these names, Frank Zarb, he was the former head of NASDAQ. Other people you probably haven't heard of, Betty Montgomery, the Ohio state attorney general. But we came up with our own list of people to replace William Webster. Let's see if we can go to some of them.
First of all, Rosie O'Donnell. Now, this is a woman who is out of a job. She's feisty. I'm thinking Rosie the Riveter at the SEC. Next, we've got maybe Strom Thurmond. He's of the right age. You know, Strom's going to be 100 years old on December 5th and William Webster is up there, too. Maybe that's the one up there.
And who will replace Webster, but who better than Webster himself, Emanuel Lewis? Anyway, you have to get a little levity in here, guys, because, I'm telling you, it's basically a comedy down there in Washington, but also a comedy on Wall Street.
I don't know if you saw the latest thing between Jack Grubman, the former analyst at Salomon Smith Barney and Sandy Weill, the CEO from Citigroup, the largest financial services company in the world. Story in the "Wall Street Journal" saying Jack Grubman sent an e-mail out saying Sandy Weill forced him to give a good rating to AT&T. And now a statement comes out from Jack Grubman -- this is just amazing. This morning, just came across the wire.
It says here, the contents of these e-mails are completely baseless. In other words, what I said was a complete lie in those e- mails. A complete lie. Regrettably, I invented a story in an effort to inflate my professional importance ...
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: ... Oh no.
SERWER: No -- Bill?
HEMMER: Not to be confused with an Iraqi (ph), huh?
SERWER: Yes, people who inflate their professional -- but can you imagine? I mean, this guy is just out there saying, what I said about my CEO was completely untrue. I mean, we thought we were going to have a he said/she said, but he just said, "You got me. I lied. I lied about that, completely."
HEMMER: Something like this goes where, then?
ZAHN: Sandy Weill has to be in a much better mood this morning.
SERWER: Yes, exactly. I mean, he was under the gun that people were saying that this guy was going to be accused of another layer of malfeasance, and now he said, "You know, I'm off the hook. This guy is just a liar." And the game continues on Wall Street.
ZAHN: I'm telling you, we should send Andy Serwer to the SEC.
SERWER: Yeah, why not?
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 13, 2002 - 09:56 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: What's happening in the markets?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: How are you guys? Wall Street trending lower this morning, fears of war, fears of Bin Laden tape, disarray at the SEC. Paula, earlier you said, "Who were some names, give me some names of people who might replace Harvey Pitt, who might replace William Webster."
Well, some of these names, Frank Zarb, he was the former head of NASDAQ. Other people you probably haven't heard of, Betty Montgomery, the Ohio state attorney general. But we came up with our own list of people to replace William Webster. Let's see if we can go to some of them.
First of all, Rosie O'Donnell. Now, this is a woman who is out of a job. She's feisty. I'm thinking Rosie the Riveter at the SEC. Next, we've got maybe Strom Thurmond. He's of the right age. You know, Strom's going to be 100 years old on December 5th and William Webster is up there, too. Maybe that's the one up there.
And who will replace Webster, but who better than Webster himself, Emanuel Lewis? Anyway, you have to get a little levity in here, guys, because, I'm telling you, it's basically a comedy down there in Washington, but also a comedy on Wall Street.
I don't know if you saw the latest thing between Jack Grubman, the former analyst at Salomon Smith Barney and Sandy Weill, the CEO from Citigroup, the largest financial services company in the world. Story in the "Wall Street Journal" saying Jack Grubman sent an e-mail out saying Sandy Weill forced him to give a good rating to AT&T. And now a statement comes out from Jack Grubman -- this is just amazing. This morning, just came across the wire.
It says here, the contents of these e-mails are completely baseless. In other words, what I said was a complete lie in those e- mails. A complete lie. Regrettably, I invented a story in an effort to inflate my professional importance ...
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: ... Oh no.
SERWER: No -- Bill?
HEMMER: Not to be confused with an Iraqi (ph), huh?
SERWER: Yes, people who inflate their professional -- but can you imagine? I mean, this guy is just out there saying, what I said about my CEO was completely untrue. I mean, we thought we were going to have a he said/she said, but he just said, "You got me. I lied. I lied about that, completely."
HEMMER: Something like this goes where, then?
ZAHN: Sandy Weill has to be in a much better mood this morning.
SERWER: Yes, exactly. I mean, he was under the gun that people were saying that this guy was going to be accused of another layer of malfeasance, and now he said, "You know, I'm off the hook. This guy is just a liar." And the game continues on Wall Street.
ZAHN: I'm telling you, we should send Andy Serwer to the SEC.
SERWER: Yeah, why not?
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
