Another Grasso Day

Today is shaping up to be a positively Dick Grasso kind of day. His puss is being plastered all over the place. We have a New York article in which Grasso whines about his sorry fate and I am sure there will be others because.... well, because, that's all.

I haven't changed my view of this general subject since this blog item on March 21 (thanks to Dealbreaker for reminding me about that one). I think the media went overboard villifying Grasso in 2003, though the New York article went a bit overboard in the other direction.

Grasso is quoted today as saying the following: "Had I retired in the normal way, maybe things would be different. But I was drop-kicked out the door, and now I have to prove that my career wasn’t a fluke or an outlier, that I really do have some talent.”

Grasso certainly does have talent in the self-promotion and self-pity department. I think Spitzer was wrong to devote so many resources to nailing the guy, but my wellspring of sympathy for Grasso is not limitless. I'm rapidly moving from "sympathetic" to "actively indifferent."

Oh, and I repeat what I said in March. Investigate the trading floor! Rip the place apart. It's not going to happen, so I repeat my call for a thorough investigation.

Meanwhile, I leave you with a question raised in the New York piece. Taking all that money was a "grave miscalculation......So why did he do it?"

I dunno. Is it possible that maybe he just, oh, wanted the money and thought he could get away with it? Besides, did anyone ever need a special reason to take a lot of money?

© 2006 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

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