I did a quick sleaze analysis on the Clintons. I got cumulative income for 2000-2007 from a site I neglected to bookmark. Here is one with some of the same info. Took the total income, subtracted taxes, charitable giving and living expenses (assume at $1 million/year) and summed up the residual. I then applied an adjustable return to this amount and summed it up to obtain investment income, which the source said totaled $15.5 million over 2000-2007. I needed a 6.8% return to get the two amounts to balance. This seems in line with professionally managed hedge funds. The biggest source of income was Bill’s ca. 30 speeches a year at $250K a pop on average that yielded 48% of their gross income, on average. Book revenues amounted to 37% and the investment income mentioned above about
This accounts for 98.5% of their income. Added to this is Hillary’s salary and Bill’s pension, which amounts to 1.2% of the total income, bringing the total accounted for up to 99.7%.
The big issue is the $250K speeches. Clinton is a good speaker, and seems mighty popular. George W. Bush has managed to give speeches at the same rate as Bill did in the 7 years since he left office. Yet he only fetches 100-175K per speech. It appears that there is big money in speechifying for famous people:
This accounts for 98.5% of their income. Added to this is Hillary’s salary and Bill’s pension, which amounts to 1.2% of the total income, bringing the total accounted for up to 99.7%.
The big issue is the $250K speeches. Clinton is a good speaker, and seems mighty popular. George W. Bush has managed to give speeches at the same rate as Bill did in the 7 years since he left office. Yet he only fetches 100-175K per speech. It appears that there is big money in speechifying for famous people:
- Fees are never public and are often exaggerated by speakers, while bookers play them down. According to industry insiders, big names can get more than $50,000 a speech, while former presidents and the market’s top attractions can hit the $200,000-to-$300,000 mark. Traditionally, bureaus get a 20 percent cut. But when it comes to landing big fish, the bureaus often take a smaller cut or even nothing in the hopes of windfalls down the road. By contrast, lesser-known speakers intent on upping their profiles offer services for free or even pay bureaus to hawk their goods in front of audiences.