On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, & 9/11: A Story of Loss & Renewal

Rating:
Summary: Sobering
Review: A good friend of mine worked at Cantor Fitzgerald and was among those lost on September 11th. I read this book in one sitting - I couldn't put it down. The devastation that this event caused to the people of Cantor Fitzgerald who lost so many of their family members and friends is astonishing. 955 children who lost parents, twenty sets of siblings who perished. I found that I wanted to be part of the team of people that tried to rebuild the company and help the families of those who were lost.
I'll never look back on September 11th the same.

Rating:
Summary: Heartwrenching, thought provoking and insightful
Review: A perfect gift for any aspiring executive. Truly, though not intended, a managerial class no business school can teach. This memoir of a successful CEO of a successful Bond Trading Firm on Wall Street shows the human heart of the financial industry. Howard Lutnick is truly an amazing person. Read for yourself. Those days after the attacks were hard on all of us. I cannot believe this person, who was directly affected in more ways than one, was able to hold their composure and rebuild without forgetting who helped him get to where he was on Sept. 10, 2001. This book also proves those people at The O'Reilly Factor also didn't do their homework. It's nice to get the other side of the story for a change.

Rating:
Summary: A very compelling and tragic story of loss and recovery.
Review: Before 9/11, I had never heard of Harold Lutnick, let alone Cantor Fitzgerald. From that day forward, Cantor Fitzgerald has been ingrained into my head forever. I did not want to put this book down. The story is told by Harold Lutnick and his friend Tom Barbash as well as a few surviving Cantor employees. The beginning of the book is a lot to take in; it was like reliving 9/11 all over again. Out of 1000 employees, Cantor lost over 600 people. After a few media interviews, Howard was made out to be a horrible person. He stopped paying all deceased and missing employees right away. He did this so that the company could survive and pay money to the families of the survivors. Many people actually questioned whether his tears were phony or not. Some parts of this book were difficult to comprehend. A lot of people seemed to be more concerned with money than anything else. This is a must read for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: A very compelling and tragic story of loss and recovery.
Review: Before 9/11, I had never heard of Harold Lutnick, let alone Cantor Fitzgerald. From that day forward, Cantor Fitzgerald has been ingrained into my head forever. I did not want to put this book down. The story is told by Harold Lutnick and his friend Tom Barbash as well as a few surviving Cantor employees. The beginning of the book is a lot to take in; it was like reliving 9/11 all over again. Out of 1000 employees, Cantor lost over 600 people. After a few media interviews, Howard was made out to be a horrible person. He stopped paying all deceased and missing employees right away. He did this so that the company could survive and pay money to the families of the survivors. Many people actually questioned whether his tears were phony or not. Some parts of this book were difficult to comprehend. A lot of people seemed to be more concerned with money than anything else. This is a must read for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent and honest
Review: Bill O'Reilly, who is far more sleazy than Walter Winchell was at Winchell's worst, accused Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor, Fitzgerald, of failing to meet his obligations to his employee's families when 700 of Cantor Fitzgerald's about 1000 employees died in the World Trade Center.

This book clearly and honestly shows, however, that Cantor, Fitzgerald as a small to medium business was unable to pay deceased employees after September 15 2001 for the very good reason that the events including the temporary closure of the markets, and the loss of the employees, cut off the company's air supply.

Instead and in a matter that hasn't been sufficiently celebrated because the media (including O'Reilly and Connie Chung) specializes in the dissemination of false ideas, Howard and the remaining employees of his company worked terribly hard while grieving so as to pay out a far more generous amount in bonuses and other renumeration. They brought Cantor Fitzgerald back from a near-death experience.

O'Reilly's attack had a nasty undertone of anti-semitism because it was conducted from the "point of view" of the "ordinary working person" who labors under the apprehension that ALL companies large and small have unused funds laying about the office and that NO business manager might not sweat bullets to meet each and every payroll.

O'Reilly then took credit for "forcing" Lutnick to do what the latter had been planning to do all along, which was pay compensation based on 4Q 2001 profits which would not have been earned had the salaries been continued.

A company like Cantor Fitzgerald is not a moral agent except insofar as it stays within the letter and spirit of the law, which Cantor Fitzgerald of course has done. But a *mensch* like Howard is indeed a moral agent and as such did not deserve to be precipitated, as a focus for inchoate rage, into a media spotlight in such a manner that for thousands of people (including former NYC mayor Ed Koch) he was merely "that guy, what's his name, who cried on TV and screwed up".

Indeed, the situation was an almost mathematical model of how the media destroys knowledge by instead marshaling false consciousness. Lutnick was a decent person, no more or less good than the average CEO. But O'Reilly nonetheless used the Fascism of marshaling anger against "the unmentionable odor of death" to boost his own ratings.

This week, a court decision has absolved Fox news from any responsibility to the truth in a case of two journalists fired from Fox based on their refusal to file a story according to Fox's rules. Here is another document in a growing case against this media empire which is also the mouthpiece for the Bush administration.

Lutnick made a mark of himself by crying on TV shortly after the September 11 tragedy and was subject, I believe, to a post-human campaign conducted by a bully and a thug.

This story needs to be kept alive today, since Dan Rather is under attack for his good-faith reportage of documents attesting to Bush's failure to meet his Guard obligations. Rather was misled by a forgery and there's a possibility that the forgery was provided through third parties by Karl Rove in order to discredit the Democrats, at least on this issue.

In other words, systematic "spinning", primarily from the Right, have created a post-human climate of mistrust in which a CEO cannot also be a *mensch*, faced with a tricky business situation in which the banks could have put him out of business had he in fact paid salaries after September 15th.

In fact, a basically good person would have accepted Lutnick's story because basically good people need to feel not quite so alone. There is nothing to profit from stories of people who betray their employees, or feed false documents to third parties, unless, of course, there's a pre-existing pattern.

At the end of the day, even the ordinary reader of the New York Times can say that O'Reilly and Rove are thugs and bums while Howard L is probably OK.

At the end of the day, even such an ordinary person can conclude that a society which is so consistently beguiled to believe instead the worst is a Fascist society with a capital F.

Rating:
Summary: Howard Lutnick: Hero? Certainly a Great Man!
Review: First of all "On Top of the World" would not have been able to have been written if Howard Lutnick had died on September 11, 2001. Cantor-Fitzgerald, as a viable company, would have died along with its 658 employees. The fact that Mr. Lutnick lived and; despite the loss of his beloved brother and most of his best friends, was able to figure out a way to bring CF and the remaining NY/England employees and systems together to save the company in JUST TWO DAYS were just outstanding. I probably would crawled into a corner for months. The book is very sad reading because of the magnitude of personal loss endured. Don't expect a happy, carefree ending. The fact that Mr. Lutnick has kept his promises and sometimes had to go above the montary amount to keep these promises shows the man has integrity despite his "reputation" on the Street. He also kept CF a viable company for his surviving employees. Good for you Mr. Lutnick, your wife, your sister, your friends and to Mr. Barbash for writing your story.

Rating:
Summary: Especially for business managers
Review: Here's a 9/11 story of loss and renewal which goes beyond the individual experience: nearly 700 of company Cantor Fitzgerald's New York employees were lost on 9/11, and their friends and coworkers who survived only did so by chance. On Top Of The World focuses as much upon the recovery process of these coworkers as it does upon the events of the day itself, showing how an entire corporation absorbed disaster and kept the company from liquidation and opportunistic take-over. Very highly recommended, especially for business managers.

Rating:
Summary: OOOOOPS
Review: Honestly, I couldn't put this book down. However, the editor should be admonished for the MANY distractions! Does anyone read manuscripts besides MAC?

Rating:
Summary: a fascinating exploration of the many shades of grief
Review: How does one begin to describe this book? It captures what life was like for those men and women at the very center of the World Trade Center Attacks. It tells a fascinating business story, and then the complicated tale of Lutnick and his "families" those left behind. The book does not take sides as much as it simply and eloquently presents the days and nights of people pushed to their limits - it explores motivations, decisions, human responses - all with grace and dignity and ultimately with a degree of hope. This is the book about 911 we've all been waiting for.

Rating:
Summary: Tragedy changes all of us
Review: Howard Lutnick has been vilified in the press and on TV - I found his grief on TV deeply moving and have had no reason since to doubt his sincerity. The book shows Mr. Lutnick personally and deeply challenged by the terrible tragedy that was 9/11. I recommend reading this book. Give the man a chance.