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Sep. 17th, 2003 08:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sisyphusshruggedThe backlash over the $140 million pay package paid to Richard Grasso as head of the New York Stock Exchange intensified Tuesday, with leaders of giant pension funds in California and elsewhere demanding that he step down.
California pension officials sent an open letter to the stock exchange, which regulates the nation's most powerful stock market.
The officials -- who help steer the nation's No. 1- and No. 3-biggest state pensions, CalPERS and CalSTRS -- said Grasso's pay package had ``shocked'' investors and raised doubts that the NYSE has the ``requisite moral authority'' to oversee corporate reforms needed to restore confidence in the nation's stock markets.
``Today we're trying to pull the pig from the trough,'' said CalPERS President Sean Harrigan, who was flanked at a Sacramento news conference by State Treasurer Phil Angelides and Jack Ehnes, who heads CalSTRS. ``The next thing is to try to find out who filled the trough.''
CalPERS is the California Public Employees' Retirement System, which is the pension fund for state public employees; CalSTRS is the California State Teachers' Retirement System. The two California pension funds, with $245 billion in combined assets, were the first institutional investors Tuesday to call for Grasso to step down -- but they weren't the last.
By day's end, they were joined by New York Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who oversees the nation's second-biggest public pension fund for New York state, and North Carolina Treasurer Richard Moore, the sole trustee of his state's $56 billion public pension fund.
Grasso and the NYSE declined to comment. But Kenneth Langone, who headed the NYSE's compensation committee when much of Grasso's compensation was awarded, said Grasso can run the Big Board as long as he wants.
``Dick is going to be fine,'' Langone told Reuters. ``Dick is going to be there as long as Dick wants to be there.''
California pension officials sent an open letter to the stock exchange, which regulates the nation's most powerful stock market.
The officials -- who help steer the nation's No. 1- and No. 3-biggest state pensions, CalPERS and CalSTRS -- said Grasso's pay package had ``shocked'' investors and raised doubts that the NYSE has the ``requisite moral authority'' to oversee corporate reforms needed to restore confidence in the nation's stock markets.
``Today we're trying to pull the pig from the trough,'' said CalPERS President Sean Harrigan, who was flanked at a Sacramento news conference by State Treasurer Phil Angelides and Jack Ehnes, who heads CalSTRS. ``The next thing is to try to find out who filled the trough.''
CalPERS is the California Public Employees' Retirement System, which is the pension fund for state public employees; CalSTRS is the California State Teachers' Retirement System. The two California pension funds, with $245 billion in combined assets, were the first institutional investors Tuesday to call for Grasso to step down -- but they weren't the last.
By day's end, they were joined by New York Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who oversees the nation's second-biggest public pension fund for New York state, and North Carolina Treasurer Richard Moore, the sole trustee of his state's $56 billion public pension fund.
Grasso and the NYSE declined to comment. But Kenneth Langone, who headed the NYSE's compensation committee when much of Grasso's compensation was awarded, said Grasso can run the Big Board as long as he wants.
``Dick is going to be fine,'' Langone told Reuters. ``Dick is going to be there as long as Dick wants to be there.''
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-17 09:20 am (UTC)