America’s Road To Wealth - Vol 2 Chapter 425

Chapter 425 A living legend on the planet

As the current chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Grasso is a heavyweight on Wall Street.

This man is known for his short stature and outstanding wit.

When he was young, he did not go to college due to his poor family background. After 27 years of hard work, Grasso came to the top position of the New York Stock Exchange.

It can be said that Richard Grasso’s life experience is very inspirational.

But this very inspirational big man has been in big trouble recently.

His salary is too high.

A while ago, well-known New York newspapers such as the “Wall Street Journal” and “New York Times” disclosed to the public the remuneration of the leadership of the NYSE.

Among them, Richard Grasso, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, will receive a reward of more than 139 million U.S. dollars this year, excluding annual salary.

This remuneration level has caused huge controversy inside and outside the industry.

Even if the NYSE stated to the outside world that this compensation plan was unanimously approved by the board of directors and is completely reasonable, legal and compliant.

However, no matter how you look at it, this remuneration consisting of $40 million in executive savings, $51.6 million in accumulated retirement benefits, and $47.9 million in incentive awards is indeed too much in the eyes of many people.

After the disclosure of the compensation plan, it immediately aroused intense controversy.

Some people say that this is an unusual number.

In the current downturn in the stock market as a whole, Grasso’s compensation this time exceeded the sum of the net profits of the New York Stock Exchange in the past three years.

Grasso himself is actually a regulator, but gets paid the equivalent of a corporate leader.

This is very unreasonable.

In fact, since May of the previous year, Grasso’s compensation situation has been criticized.

It was reported at the time that Grasso’s salary and bonus income in 2000 exceeded 10 million US dollars, dozens of times higher than that of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

This is very outrageous, and it also caused a wave of public opinion at the time.

However, the NYSE believes that due to Grasso’s contribution to the NYSE, he deserves such a reward.

Under the suppression of the New York Stock Exchange, the storm was suppressed.

They also decided to extend Grasso’s employment contract for 2 years, to 2007.

Its annual salary will remain unchanged at 1.4 million US dollars, and there will be an “annual bonus” of no less than 1 million US dollars.

This figure also greatly exceeds the total remuneration of the two chairman of the London Stock Exchange and the Deutsche Börse.

These news and reports eventually caused great dissatisfaction.

As a result, the New York Stock Exchange and Richard Grasso have been caught in a huge public opinion storm recently.

If the solution is not good, let alone 2007.

Maybe tomorrow, Richard Grasso will step down and resign.

At this time, Richard Grasso, who was in a hurry, suddenly received a notification from Smith Capital.

Speaking of Abel Smith, when you want to invite him to come for a talk.

God knows how happy Richard Grasso was.

Almost half an hour later.

The NYSE regulator, who is very busy every day, took the initiative to go to Smith Tower.

Take the initiative to appear in front of Abel.

“Oh, Mr. Grasso, good afternoon. I didn’t expect you to come so early. I thought I’d see you in the afternoon.”

In the office, Abel looked at the short CEO of the New York Stock Exchange from a worker’s family to a top Wall Street player. He greeted him with a smile.

“Ha ha-”

Richard Grasso laughed heartily, and his short body made a sound that didn’t match his size.

“It’s not far from here at 18th Broadway. Smith Media may be listed. This kind of news will make all stock investors happy. As the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, I certainly want to Realize it immediately, so that I can live up to everyone’s trust in me!”

This cunning oilman said it sounded grand.

But for Richard Grasso himself, he really urgently needs to increase the performance and reputation of the New York Stock Exchange through the listing of a star company.

Thus diluting the attention of the industry and ordinary people on his sky-high salary.

Richard needs to make everyone feel that he is worth the money for the sky-high salary.

Let the famous world’s richest man, Abel Smith, let one of his star companies go public, there is no doubt that this is the performance.

So at this time, except for Abel and his friends on Abel’s side.

Among those who most hope that Smith Media can be listed immediately.

There must be the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange in front of him.

Looking at the old guy who was completely bald in front of him, with a sincere look.

Already know Richard now, Abe with a bagful of **** under his ass.

It’s not that easy and easy, just let the other party reach their plan.

After all, the New York Stock Exchange is not the only listing channel for Smith Media.

In the United States, there may be more than one NYSE stock exchange.

In addition to the New York Stock Exchange, there are two other stock exchanges in the United States, namely the American Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

Only in terms of scale, compared with the New York Stock Exchange, the latter two are insufficient.

But if Abel wants to, he can also list his company on the American Stock Exchange or NASDAQ.

A star enterprise like Smith Media, even without considering Abel’s influence, is still a favorite of the stock exchanges.

Plus the relationship with Abel.

Then it is the top company that any stock exchange will frantically compete for.

Any stock exchange in the world is willing to give him the green light.

“Let me tell you the truth, Mr. Grasso.” Abel smiled, and said something with a hint of blackmail.

“Before you came, I asked David to notify Mr. Sodano and Mr. Greyfield. Maybe they are on their way to Smith Tower now.”

“Maybe they will arrive here in the afternoon.”

“But I want to say that the NYSE is not my only option. I hope you understand that.”

Mr. Sodano mentioned by Abel is Salvatore Sodano, the current CEO of the Amex.

Mr. Greyfield is Robert Greyfield, president of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

These two people are often regarded as Richard Grasso’s biggest challenger.

The key is that in 1998, in order to fight against the strongest New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq had merged to form the NASDAQ-AMEX Group Corporation.

In other words, they are actually their own.

After the two major exchanges are united, even the leading New York Stock Exchange is inferior in many aspects.

It’s not that Richard couldn’t hear the blackmail in Abel’s words.

This is if the boss of an ordinary company wants to go public, but uses this method.

Richard Grasso will definitely turn his face and leave immediately.

He may even use the contacts of the New York Stock Exchange to let other exchanges block this kind of overreaching guy together.

But it was Abel who said these words in front of him, and it was Abel Smith’s company that wanted to go public.

In addition to himself, he really needs such good news recently to increase everyone’s optimism about the performance of the New York Stock Exchange.

Even if he knew that Abel was blackmailing, Richard could only make a tearful offer at this time.

“5 percentage points.” Richard Grasso gritted his teeth and gave the quotation directly:

“Mr. Smith, as long as I am in office, I promise that the transaction fee of Smith Capital on the New York Stock Exchange will be reduced by 5% on the current basis.”

Stock exchanges are generally non-profit institutions.

They are enforcers and regulators, but they also make money.

The stock exchanges in the European and American world are mostly private companies, and the demand for profit is also higher.

Generally speaking, there are only a few ways for stock exchanges to make money.

One is the transaction fee, which is often the main profit method for stock exchanges.

In addition, when companies go public, many stock exchanges also charge a fee.

The other is data services, which provide market information to independent information service providers, such as Bloomberg, Shihua, Reuters, etc., and charge information fees.

Here, transaction fees account for the bulk.

As soon as Richard came up, he directly cut off 5% of the transaction fee.

It can already be said that it is full of sincerity.

Because the transaction fees of the New York Stock Exchange are not high.

Anything less than 5% is less.

What’s more, in fact, the New York Stock Exchange can only provide these.

“10 percentage points. 10%, I will choose the NYSE with a high probability.”

Abel bargains.

“But… 10% is too much.”

“I believe in Nasdaq and the American Stock Exchange, and are even willing to reduce by 15%, or more.”

“Okay okay…Mr. Smith, 10%! No problem at all!”

Richard Grasso chose to compromise.

The rest is simple.

As the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Grasso has repeatedly promised to open various green channels for the listing of Smith Media.

Guarantee that Smith Media can meet Abel’s listing needs in the shortest possible time.

Therefore, in the evening, “Bloomberg”, “Wall Street Journal”, “American Sun”, “New York Observer” and other media, as well as many financial TV stations, published important news for the US stock market and stock market investors. of a news.

“Wall Street Journal”: [Heavy headlines! The top five in the United States and the top ten in the world, the media group of the richest man is about to go public! Smith Media was revealed to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in May this year! 】

“Bloomberg”: [New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso claimed that he had a smooth conversation with Mr. Abel Smith that morning. Mr. Smith believes that Richard’s contribution to the NYSE is very important and crucial. A large part of the reason why Smith Media chose the NYSE is because of Mr. Grasso…]

“New York Times”: [Disney, Time Warner, Viacom, and News Corporation, which has been partially listed. Each of these media giants has a market value of tens of billions of dollars. And now in this list, a new name is about to be added, it is Smith Media. Smith Media’s…]

These more serious media have basically the same style of reporting on this news.

All reports are based on data and the impact on the industry and the American public.

Very serious and serious, more popular news on current affairs.

And headline parties like “New York Post” and “American Sun”.

For these more entertaining media, the headlines and content of the reports are much more exciting.

Like the angle of the report of the “New York Post”, it used “Mr. Smith and his oilman friends” as the title.

In the news content, the “New York Post” used their consistent rendering and exaggerated reporting language to report this news.

The bold journalists and editors of the “New York Post” also compared George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Richard Grasso and many other oilmen who appeared beside Abel in their reports. Obscure and dramatic means to describe it.

Because it is too obscure, many ordinary Americans cannot understand it.

But Americans who understand it are shocked by the boldness of the “New York Post” this time.

Then the next day, all 5 journalists and editors who wrote and reviewed the report of the “New York Post” lost their jobs.

This is the follow-up impact of this news in other aspects, so I won’t mention it here.

Abe Smith’s Smith Media is about to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

It also spread throughout the United States in a very short period of time.

Shortly after the events of “The Assault”.

The name Abel Smith has once again become the main buzzword in many American media news reports.

Many superstars in the American entertainment industry who belong to the media industry have expressed their views on this matter.

After all, apart from the stock market and stock investors, colleagues and practitioners are the group of people who are most affected by this incident.

Giants like Redstone and Murdoch have received a large number of interview requests from non-owned media.

It’s just that the tycoons ignored all these requests.

These giants mostly said nothing about Smith Media’s upcoming listing.

These people know that the listing of Abel’s company at this time is itself a matter of expectations.

Since Nasdaq broke, and after 9/11.

Even if George started quantitative easing, the U.S. stock market has been somewhat sluggish.

If there was no Abel and Buffett joint rescue of the market last year, even the stock market crash may have formed.

At this special time.

If there is a star company that can boost the confidence of investors to a certain extent.

Who dares to come out at this time, let alone those horrible guys on Wall Street.

Even the white house would not agree.

Most people who play the media have good noses and can smell this smell.

What’s more, the media has always been the dominant position of the Oilers.

The listing of Smith Media is a good thing for many oilmen, such as Bloomberg and others.

Oiler Capital Group is also happy to hear about this matter.

So even if there are many people who want to make trouble, the colleagues in the industry are not stupid, and no one stands up to say anything bad.

In the entire industry, only the praises of entertainment stars are left.

And the jubilation of the investment community.

A large number of stock critics and experts are urging everyone to hold currency for purchase.

They said that it was the richest man in the world, the first real listed company under his name.

They said that just for this point, if Smith Media goes public at that time, its stock price cannot be low.

They also said that if its stock price was too low, it would be a disservice to Mr. Smith’s reputation as an investment god.

They think that if the stock price is low at that time, Smith Capital will definitely support it.

There are too many positive factors.

This makes Smith Media, which has not officially announced the news of going public.

But its market value in public opinion has far exceeded the US$50 billion of News Corporation and the US$60 billion of Disney Group in the same period…

Among the turmoil.

Abel continued his own life trajectory, and was not disturbed by these news and events.

February 27, 2002, in Lower Manhattan, at the gate of the Smith Tower.

Among the convoy, Abel got off the Cadillac monster and walked into the Smith Tower.

“Good morning, Mr. Smith!”

“Good morning, Mr. Smith…”

Too many people greeted Abel along the way.

Same as the rest of his subordinates.

In the Smith Tower, everyone who greeted Abel had fanaticism and admiration in their eyes.

Abel smiled slightly, his face was calm, and he didn’t respond.

But this does not hinder the emotions of these people.

In their hearts, Abel Na is the best interpreter of the American dream since the new century.

is a beacon for every American who has a dream of wealth, a hope, a goal, and an idol.

Because he relied on his own talents to achieve wealth, he relied on a principal of 50 dollars, and in New York, a dream city, he achieved all of this now.

He does not rely on his father and family like other legends.

Even if you know about the Smith family, they are not as miserable as the media reported.

They also have to admit that Abel Smith is a legend in his own right.

I don’t know when it started.

The name Abel Smith has been kept in the hearts and lips of every American with dreams.

This situation has even spread to the whole world through the United States’ strong control and radiation over the world’s media.

From the United States, to North America, and then to the whole world, the name of Abe Smith and his “experience” have become the most talked about by various chicken soup for the soul and inspirational marketing masters.

Countless people use him to motivate themselves.

Wealth, it has such power.

In the Smith Building, the floor of Smith Media.

The elevator door dedicated to the chairman opens.

Abel walked out of the elevator, and the two front desk ladies from Smith Media, wearing pink and red OL suits, were taken aback when they saw him appear, and then immediately smiled sweetly and bowed slightly.

“Good morning, boss.”

Abel nodded slightly, and walked in directly.

Along the way, every employee stared at him with eager admiration and awe, and said good morning.

Success and wealth can subconsciously increase people’s self-confidence and calmness.

The invisible temperament of a successful person will slowly add to oneself. The so-called residency and qi nourishment are nothing more than the accumulation of long-term success or high positions, which affect and change one’s temperament.

To put it more bluntly, in fact, in the communication between people, because success brings more confidence and confidence than others, the voice of speaking is naturally loud, and the influence is equally great.

Simply put, because of the influence and changes caused by their experience, power and wealth.

Although Abel, who just got rich and free in early 2000, and the current Abel, although they are similar in appearance.

But if they have the opportunity to stand together.

Normal people can tell at a glance that Abel, the core of the consortium, is more eye-catching than Abel, who is rich and free.

It is more able to make people surrender invisibly.

Like today.

Invincible in the American media circle.

The top executives of the media group who expanded the scale of Smith Media Group by 50% within one year.

After Abel entered the meeting hall.

Everyone fell silent for a while, stood up together in tacit understanding, and greeted him in a low voice in awe: “Mr. Chairman, good morning.”

(end of this chapter)