SMOKING GRASSO
“The board is very pleased that Dick Grasso will remain chairman and CEO at least through May 2007.”
— H. Carl McCall, chairman of the NYSE Human Resources and Compensation Committee, just two weeks before Grasso resigned after intense public scrutiny over his $186.5 million compensation package. Around the same time, Registered Rep. featured Grasso on its cover as one of the industry's “Ten to Watch.”
NO, NO … THERE'S NO CRISIS OF PUBLIC CONFIDENCE … NOT AT ALL
A joke e-mail received by Registered Rep. titled “Investment Terms,” included the following:
Broker: What my broker has made me.
Financial Planner: A guy whose phone has been disconnected.
Cash Flow: The movement my money makes as it disappears down the toilet.
Profit: An archaic word, no longer in use.
2003 The Year that Was…And Wasn't COME AGAIN? AT LEAST SHE KEEPS RESPECTFUL COMPANY
Former Morgan Stanley rep Hayley Arp found perhaps the only position with a worse public reputation than a broker: A Reality TV star! Arp left her job at Morgan Stanley in Atlanta to appear on Fox's reality TV show “Mr. Personality,” which featured Monica Lewinsky and a bunch of guys in multi-colored masks vying for her hand.
“Putnam is committed to protecting shareholders in our funds from market-timing and excessive trading. We have continually deterred market-timing through a series of policies and practices.”
— A spokesperson at Putnam Investments, the mutual fund company at the center of the market-timing mutual fund scandal.
Three years after the conviction of rogue financial advisor Dana Giacchetto, a large group of celebrities is queuing up to pay for his crimes — literally. Giacchetto, a former Leo DiCaprio compatriot, was convicted of the “fraudulent conveyance” of funds from the accounts of unfamous clients to those of celebrity customers as part of an effort to buoy his reputation with the glitterati. Now the regular Joes want their dough.
A partial list of those who might have to pony up, according to TheSmokingGun.com:
By the way, the name of Giacchetto's now-defunct firm (Cassandra Group) probably should have set off some alarm bells. The goddess Cassandra, after all, was endowed with the gift of prophecy but fated never to be believed.
…AND THE CUBS AND RED SOX WILL MEET IN THE SERIES…
• “Saddam Hussein will resign, averting war, and North Korea will agree to stop making nuclear weapons.” • “Hillary Clinton will seek the Democratic nomination for President.”
— predictions by famed Morgan Stanley analyst Byron Wien (notorious for predicting Alan Greenspan's impending resignation every year) for 2003.
