But what’s makes it worse (and that’s by the way the first reason of the trial) is that the nyse is not an ordinary company. It is has a quasi-monopoly and provides oversight. As a monopoly, the pay package is financed by non-competitive margins (after all can you really go to the nasdaq or amex if you disagree with the prices). As an oversight institution, it can muscle its ideas on its members that disagree with its practices, for example the pay package.

This is precisely why Dick Grasso should be tried. The pay package itself is not the problem. But it is a strong signal that something was rotten in the way he was doing business. As he said, it is not really about the money, it is about his integrity.