Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #840349 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Released on: 2007-11-06
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Beginning with a handy list of players and ending with copious notes and references, this well-documented look at the rise and fall of New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso, who served from 1995-2003, gives readers an astonishing look inside the boardroom of the New York Stock Exchange. Many will be surprised to learn exactly how the exchange operated before it recently automated trading, functioning as one of "the country's most insular institutions," despite a growing need for efficiency and the mounting concern of lawmakers weary that "so much power and wealth were concentrated in relatively few hands." Indeed, the sums involved are enormous, making this an absorbing (if immediately recognizable) story of greed, corruption and power struggles writ very large. Gasparino reconstructs the events of Grasso's tenure with an evenhanded point of view, including plenty of historic context and satisfying detail; the well-researched narrative flows smoothly between Grasso's career arc and the subsequent, transformative changes in the NYSE. Anyone invested in the exchange, or simply curious to see how those financial world executives earn their enormous pay packages, should find this book riveting.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"CNBC correspondent Gasparino masterfully combines Richard Grasso's rags-to-riches narrative with the grand history of the New York Stock Exchange." (Library Journal )

"CNBC correspondent Gasparino masterfully combines Richard Grasso’s rags-to-riches narrative with the grand history of the New York Stock Exchange." -- Library Journal

"Gasparino has done his homework. He has talked to the people who matter, and King of the Club is rich with their recollection of their roles in Grasso’s rise and fall." -- Conference Board Review

"Gasparino has done his homework. He has talked to the people who matter, and King of the Club is rich with their recollection of their roles in Grasso's rise and fall." (Conference Board Review )

"[T]his well-documented look at the rise and fall of New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso...gives readers an astonishing look inside the boardroom.... Gasparino reconstructs the events of Grasso's tenure with an evenhanded point of view, including plenty of ...satisfying detail... [R]iveting." (Publishers Weekly )

A fascinating, methodical and in-depth account of Grasso's rise and fall during some of the NYSE's most tumultuous years. . . . Gasparino's retalling of how Grasso got the NYSE back on its feet quicky after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is particularly absorbing, and the book is peppered with colorful anecdotes. -- Barrons

Charles Gasparino...provides a blow-by-blow account of Mr. Grasso's remarkable rise and fall.... At the same time, Mr. Gasparino provides a rare inside glimpse of how financial titans like Henry M. Paulson Jr., the former Goldman Sachs chairman who is now Treasury secretary, conduct their affairs. It is not a pretty picture, but it demands the attention of anyone who cares about capitalism in this country. -- The New York Times

Gasparino captures all the detail quite skillfully in his probing, fast-paced, and hugely entertaining book. . . . a masterly story of the rise and fall of Richard Grasso. . . . Highly recommended. -- Library Journal

Gasparino's detailed account of Wall Street insider machinations, and the tick-tock of boardroom negotiations during the worst crisis in NYSE history, makes for riveting reading. It's also the most complete rendering of Grasso's final days. -- BusinessWeek

Gasparino, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, had excellent access to [Grasso]. . . . This, combined with the author's entree to financial Goliaths such as former Merill Lynch & Co. CEO David Komansky and Home Depot Inc. co-founder Kenneth Langone, steep the book in rich detail. . . . He paints a portrait of the goings-on at NYSE board meetings that only tireless reporting and good connections can provide. . . .The book does a great job at describing Grasso's efforts to market an institution that by many accounts has been on the slow journey to extinction ever since the invention of the microchip. -- Susan Antilla, Bloomberg News

The detail in which Gasparino describes the boardroom back-stabbing is as thorough and compelling as a reader will find in any book about Wall Street. -- David Weidner, MarketWatch.com

[A] rigorously reported tome. . . . Rags-to-riches stories may provide inspiring myths about the possibilities of making it to the top in New York, but this tale of one man's path from rags to riches to ridicule is more compelling for being true. -- Newsweek

[Charles Gasparino] describes, in page-turning detail, a Wall Street world of ruthless financial titans....no collection of courtroom documents will ever tell the story behind [Grasso's] ouster, in all its nasty detail, as well as Mr. Gasparino does in King of the Club. -- The Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Charles Gasparino is a correspondent for CNBC and a former writer for the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Gasparino was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in beat reporting in 2002 and won the New York Press Club Award for best continuing coverage of the Wall Street research scandals. He lives with his wife in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Was There For It All
I worked on the NYSE Floor from 1986-2003 and was a Floor Trader for a few years. I knew Mr. Grasso although not too well. I encountered him almost every day. I thought he was the best thing for the Exchange and it certainly flourished under his reign. He was a charismatic cheerleader and savvy business man. I also saw his temper and dark side as he scolded me one day as I tried to transverse the trading floor with a torn calf muscle and was knocked sideways by another trader trying to get somewhere in a hurry. He heard the expletive escape from my mouth as I winced in pain and he immediately came up behind me and put a firm grip on my arm that I had not experienced since Sister Francis did so in 5th grade and gave me a stern warning about the use of foul language. I also remember the events of 9/11 and how it was rumored that Grasso wanted us back to work on 9/12 even though the building had gone through some physical stress that day as debris from the falling towers came upon the building and it shook violently as the towers fell. Not to mention what the people working inside the Exchange went through emotionally and still had to as they waited on word about family members, friends and colleagues that worked inside the towers. The book shed light on how Grasso fought with the politicians to keep the Exchange closed as we all thought he was a heartless SOB trying to further his reputation and feed his ego wanting to open it the next day. A great read that was educating as I learned a lot of what was going on upstairs as I was one of the so called "animals" on the trading floor.

A terrific read!
The book made Mr. Grasso and the Exchange come alive!

I didn't know much about the New York Stock Exchange before reading
this book, but Mr. Gasparino's writing is so clear and concise that I
learned not only about this fascinating self-made man but about the
inner workings of the Club itself. I would recommend this book to
anyone who wants to learn about Grasso or The NYSE - or to anyone who
just wants to read a great story!

Rise and fall of Dick Grasso
An interesting work that provides an inside picture of not only the NYSE, Wall Street but also some of the powerful people involved in high finance and corporate America. This book is particularly for you if you are looking for a detailed biography of Grasso. I was looking forward to reading about the pay controversies involving the 140 million retirement cash payout with a contested 48 million additional sum and the battle with Elliott Spitzer over, what was construed, as an excessive payment for a non-profit company. The interest in pay and Spitzer's involvement doesn't really take off until roughly 180 plus pages. However, the first half of the book covers well Grasso's rise from humble means and start with the NYSE, his involvement with the floor traders, his rise, his ability to recruit companies to the NYSE and his ability to promote the NYSE with the ringing of the bell each day with celebrity and his getting the NYSE up and running after 9-11. And there is some glitz about Grasso's high power associations, dinner at Rio's and his celebrity. The fall starts with the emergence of his pay package that grows with one of his strongest supporters on the compensation board with significant salary increases that are often deferred into a NYSE retirement account. Although hard to fathom, even after reading the book, it seems that many on the compensation board, although recognizing the value of Grasso, seem to lose focus on what he is getting paid until Grasso decides to cash out 140 million all at once. Changes on the NYSE board that impact Grasso included current Treasurer Secretary Henry Paulson, with Goldman Sachs at the time, who, according to the author, undermines Grasso's position with the NYSE exchange board through back channels with the intention of modernizing the NYSE from floor traders to a computerized system. In addition, the failure of a former political associate of Spitzer's who acts as chair of the compensation review committee had great difficulty to comprehending Grasso's pay package that leads to conflicts that catch many members of the board surprised. Many of the NYSE board are well known names that range from Mel Karmazin, a Grasso supporter, to former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who allegedly supported Grasso initially but turned against him. The book really takes an interesting turn when Grasso's pay goes public and his rare failure in public relations goes into over drive when he also tries to get a pal on the NYSE board after the individual had just been publicly run through by Spitzer. Also heating up the book is the coverage of the interim NYSE chairman's John Reed's loose cannon statements that irk the recently departed Grasso into fighting back full bore (amazing how supposedly smart people can say the wrong things publicly.) My only misgivings is that I wish there was more detail about the Spitzer v. Grasso fight over Grasso's pay that is only addressed in the final stages of the book and very lightly. However, by the end of the book, the NYSE moves from floor trading to a more modern computerized method of doing business during the chairman tenure of John Thain, formerly of Goldman & Sachs and an associate of Paulson's.