Jan. 8 2016,
6:28 p.m.
Photo: Stephen
Chernin/AFP/Getty Images
Democratic presidential
candidate Bernie Sanders this week assailed rivalHillary Clinton for taking large speaking fees from
the financial industry since leaving the State Department.
According to public
disclosures, by giving just 12 speeches to Wall Street banks, private equity
firms, and other financial corporations, Clinton made $2,935,000 from 2013 to
2015:
Clinton’s most lucrative
year was 2013, right after stepping down as secretary of state. That year, she
made $2.3 million for three speeches to Goldman Sachs and individual speeches
to Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Fidelity Investments, Apollo Management Holdings,
UBS, Bank of America, and Golden Tree Asset Managers.
The following year, she
picked up $485,000 for a speech to Deutsche Bank and an address to Ameriprise.
Last year, she made $150,000 from a lecture before the Canadian Imperial Bank
of Commerce.
To put these numbers into
perspective, compare them to lifetime earnings of the median American worker.
In 2011, the Census Bureau estimated that, across all majors, a “bachelor’s degree holder can
expect to earn about $2.4 million over his or her work life.” A Pew Research
analysis published the same year estimated that a “typical high school
graduate” can expect to make just $770,000 over the course of his or her lifetime.
This means that in one
year — 2013 — Hillary Clinton earned almost as much from 10 lectures to
financial firms as most bachelor’s degree-holding Americans earn in their lifetimes —
and nearly four times what someone who holds only a high school diploma
could expect to make.
Hillary Clinton’s haul
from Wall Street speeches pales in comparison to her husband’s, which also had
to be disclosed because the two share a bank account.
“I never made any money
until I left the White House,” said Bill Clinton during a 2009 address to a student group. “I had the
lowest net worth, adjusted for inflation, of any president elected in the last
100 years, including President Obama. I was one poor rascal when I took office.
But after I got out, I made a lot of money.”
The Associated Press notes that during Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary
of state, Bill Clinton earned $17 million in talks to banks, insurance
companies, hedge funds, real estate businesses, and other financial firms.
Altogether, the couple are estimated to have made over $139 million from paid speeches.
Top photo: Hillary
Clinton with Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein at a Clinton Global Initiative
event, September 2014, in New York City.
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