Anti-Clinton Ire Causes Morgan Stanley
To Formulate Strategy for Flak-Catchers
By CHARLES GASPARINO
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Bill Clinton is getting paid $100,000 to speak at a Morgan Stanley Dean
Witter & Co. conference Monday night, but his appearance could cost the
big Wall Street securities firm even more.
In recent days, Morgan Stanley has received angry telephone calls from
individual-investor clients livid that the former president had been chosen to
speak at the firm's annual high-yield conference in Boca Raton, Fla.
No one at Morgan Stanley knows exactly how many calls were received
complaining about Mr. Clinton's appearance. But the firm was so
concerned that customers might take their business elsewhere that it sent
e-mails to branch offices to coach the 13,000 brokers through a series of
"talking points" on how best to respond to Clinton-hating customers.
If a customer asks, for example, "Is Mr. Clinton coming?" the broker
should respond: "Yes, he is coming."
If a customer says, "I'm going to pull my assets," the broker should
respond: "Please don't make emotional decisions on your finances based
on this event. ... You should invest on a long-term basis, not on your
emotions." (The firm wouldn't comment on whether any assets were
pulled.)
If a customer simply complains that having Mr. Clinton speak isn't such a
good idea, the broker is to respond: "Thank you for your input; I'll make
sure management is told."
Mr. Clinton certainly isn't the first politician to speak at one of the firm's
events. Last year's keynote speaker at the junk-bond conference was
former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Vice President Dick
Cheney and former Sen. Bob Dole also have spoken at company events, a
spokesman says. So has former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
But inside the firm's retail offices, which handle brokerage accounts for an
estimated five million individual investors, none of those speakers has
stoked as much controversy as the former president.
A Morgan Stanley spokesman says the firm hasn't any plans to rescind its
invitation to Mr. Clinton. "He is definitely coming," spokesman Raymond
O'Rourke says.
A spokesman for Mr. Clinton said people who don't like the idea of the
former president's speaking at the conference should "take it up with
management and not with us."
As for the scripted responses handed out to brokers, Mr. O'Rourke says
he had his staff develop three "talking points" for brokers after the firm's
national sales office complained that they were getting dozens of angry calls
about the Clinton speech. "You should also know that we got phone calls
congratulating us for having Clinton speak," Mr. O'Rourke says. But those
were in the minority, he says.
Write to Charles Gasparino at charles.gasparino@wsj.com |
