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American Morning
Minding Your Business: More Green for Grasso?
Aired September 24, 2003 - 07:45 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: He may be gone, but Dick Grasso is leaving with some green. We know that.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" and checks in with us now.
Nice to see you, Drew. Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.
Yes, a lot of news stories about Dick Grasso again this morning, an additional pay, additional potential conflicts of interest. I guess the only way to do this story, though, is to say that the New York Stock Exchange lottery jackpot is now $57.7 million.
Let me explain. A new story out in "The Wall Street Journal" this morning -- there's Dick Grasso. Dick Grasso, of course, the former head of the New York Stock Exchange who left because of the pay controversy, according to "The Wall Street Journal," is entitled to an additional -- that's the word -- additional $57.7 million.
Now, you add that to the -- Bill is doing the math -- $139 million, and you get $197 million. Now, you do have to back out the $48 million that he's going to forego. But you do the math at home. You forego 48 million, and you take 57 million, you end up with an additional 9 million. I mean, this is just great. The money just keeps on going and going and going.
HEMMER: But the finger should be pointed to not just Dick Grasso.
SERWER: No, that's right.
HEMMER: And it's the board.
SERWER: And the board is under fire. The board is looking at, again, going to be revamped because of the governance issues -- a lot of work being done there.
A story also today out about Marty Lipton, a powerful New York City lawyer, and possible conflicts of interest there that he defended and aided Dick Grasso when it came to his pay structure, and now is aiding the New York Stock Exchange when they're trying to reform corporate governance. So, Marty Lipton is going to be under fire over the next couple of days, I would think.
HEMMER: So, the idea was to bring in John Reed (ph) to make sure things are cleaner, at least the appearance anyway. SERWER: Right.
HEMMER: But yet, the man who was advising Grasso is also advising the board.
SERWER: Right. That's what the stories are saying this morning.
HEMMER: OK. How are the markets looking? Futures, you got a read?
SERWER: Yes, futures are flat right now, actually up a little bit, my understanding is. So, we had a nice little bounce back yesterday, of course.
HEMMER: Now we did. And you know what? You predicted that.
SERWER: Well, I can't take all credit. I think there are some traders out there who had something to do with that.
HEMMER: Well, yes, there's one or two.
SERWER: Yes, right.
HEMMER: Thank you, Andy. Talk to you later.
SERWER: OK, see you later.
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 September 24, 2003 - 07:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: He may be gone, but Dick Grasso is leaving with some green. We know that.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" and checks in with us now.
Nice to see you, Drew. Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.
Yes, a lot of news stories about Dick Grasso again this morning, an additional pay, additional potential conflicts of interest. I guess the only way to do this story, though, is to say that the New York Stock Exchange lottery jackpot is now $57.7 million.
Let me explain. A new story out in "The Wall Street Journal" this morning -- there's Dick Grasso. Dick Grasso, of course, the former head of the New York Stock Exchange who left because of the pay controversy, according to "The Wall Street Journal," is entitled to an additional -- that's the word -- additional $57.7 million.
Now, you add that to the -- Bill is doing the math -- $139 million, and you get $197 million. Now, you do have to back out the $48 million that he's going to forego. But you do the math at home. You forego 48 million, and you take 57 million, you end up with an additional 9 million. I mean, this is just great. The money just keeps on going and going and going.
HEMMER: But the finger should be pointed to not just Dick Grasso.
SERWER: No, that's right.
HEMMER: And it's the board.
SERWER: And the board is under fire. The board is looking at, again, going to be revamped because of the governance issues -- a lot of work being done there.
A story also today out about Marty Lipton, a powerful New York City lawyer, and possible conflicts of interest there that he defended and aided Dick Grasso when it came to his pay structure, and now is aiding the New York Stock Exchange when they're trying to reform corporate governance. So, Marty Lipton is going to be under fire over the next couple of days, I would think.
HEMMER: So, the idea was to bring in John Reed (ph) to make sure things are cleaner, at least the appearance anyway. SERWER: Right.
HEMMER: But yet, the man who was advising Grasso is also advising the board.
SERWER: Right. That's what the stories are saying this morning.
HEMMER: OK. How are the markets looking? Futures, you got a read?
SERWER: Yes, futures are flat right now, actually up a little bit, my understanding is. So, we had a nice little bounce back yesterday, of course.
HEMMER: Now we did. And you know what? You predicted that.
SERWER: Well, I can't take all credit. I think there are some traders out there who had something to do with that.
HEMMER: Well, yes, there's one or two.
SERWER: Yes, right.
HEMMER: Thank you, Andy. Talk to you later.
SERWER: OK, see you later.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
