King of the Club: Richard Grasso and the Survival of the New York Stock Exchange: Charles Gasparino
- Filed under: Recommended
Editorial Reviews
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.
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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
“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
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
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