Hillary Clinton is bashing CEOs -- while taking their money

[ScottL]

It’s unremarkable these days to hear somebody bad-mouthing CEOs who pull down 7-, 8- or even 9-figure salaries. Unless the bad-mouther is Hillary Clinton.

The leading Democratic candidate for president has kicked off her campaign with a mild but unexpected jab at the leaders of corporate America. In an email to supporters right after declaring her candidacy, Clinton lamented the strains on ordinary families “when the average CEO makes about 300 times what the average worker makes.” Analysts interpret the populist remark as a leftward turn meant to appease liberals outraged over soaring income inequality and the outsized lifestyles of the one percent.

That’s pretty typical for a Democrat running for president—except that Clinton’s campaign is likely to be funded by many CEOs who fit the very profile she’s decrying. Clinton is citing data generated by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which finds that the ratio of average CEO pay to average worker pay exploded from 20-to-1 in 1965 to 296-to-1 in 2013. During that time, CEO pay grew by nearly 1,800%, while average-worker pay grew by just 32%. Today, average pay for a CEO is $15.2 million, while the typical worker earns about $52,000.

If that wealth gap bothers Clinton, it sure hasn’t stopped her from accepting checks from some of America’s richest business leaders. During her 8 years as a senator, for instance, Clinton accepted donations from J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon (latest annual compensation: $20 million), Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein ($23 million), Morgan Stanley (MS) CEO James Gorman ($18 million), and James Simons, founder of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, who has a net worth of about $14 billion. One of her most dedicated long-time supporters is DreamWorks (DWA) CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg ($13.5 million in annual pay). Another big backer is Warren Buffett, who earns a modest $100,000 salary as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) -- but whose net worth grew by about $13 billion in 2014, due to his equity stake in Berkshire.

Clinton is unapologetic about her affluent funders. "Hillary has criticized a system that keeps the deck stacked for those at the top, and has offered some policy ideas for ways to ensure that every American family has a chance to succeed," campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin told Yahoo Finance. "She’s pleased to have support from a wide variety of people, including CEOs who support her vision for America."

Since Clinton just declared her candidacy for the 2016 presidential race, no public records are yet available listing donors contributing directly to her campaign. But a political action group supporting Clinton — Ready for Hillary — has been accepting donations since 2013. And the list of big donors includes a number of CEOs and their family members writing large checks despite the candidate’s apparent misgivings about corporate wealth.

Here’s a sampling of businesspeople in the top tier of donors — giving $25,000 to Ready for Hillary — according to the Center for Responsive Politics:

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com (CRM). Latest annual pay package: $31.3 million. Benioff’s wife Lynne also donated $25,000 to Ready for Hillary.

Eli Broad, retired entrepreneur who made billions in insurance and home building. Estimated net worth: $7.1 billion.

Bruce Cozzad, CEO of Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ). Latest annual compensation: $8.3 million. Cozzad’s wife Sharon also gave $25,000 to Ready for Hillary.
Here's how Hillary Clinton plans to raise tons … Play video
Here's how Hillary Clinton plans to raise tons …

William Freeman, chairman and co-founder of real-estate investment firm Freeman Webb, whose pay is undisclosed because his firm is privately owned.

Clifford Hudson, CEO of burger chain Sonic (SONC). Latest annual pay package: $2.5 million.

Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of deceased Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs. The mercurial Jobs earned just $1 per year as Apple CEO, but he died in 2011 with a net worth of about $7 billion, mostly from stock in Apple and Walt Disney, which bought Jobs’s company Pixar in 2006.

Thomas H. Lee , founder of the private-equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Lee Equity Partners. Estimated net worth: $2 billion.

William Rudin, CEO of privately owned New York real-estate firm Rudin Management Co. Estimated net worth: $4.4 billion (applies to extended family).

George Soros, chairman of hedge fund Soros Fund Management. Net worth: $23 billion.

John Tyson, chairman and former CEO, Tyson Foods (TSN). Total pay in 2007, his last year as CEO: $9.3 million.

Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart (WMT) founder Sam Walton. Estimated net worth: $37 billion.

Many other million- and billionaires will undoubtedly help fund Clinton’s 2016 campaign, some of them taking advantage of rules that allow them to give unlimited amounts to activist “super PACs” without having to disclose their identities. There’s nothing inherently wrong, of course, with wealthy people funding political campaigns, and various Republican candidates, including Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul will enjoy lavish funding from their own moneyed kingmakers.

Clinton will stand alone, however, if she accepts millions of dollars in corporate money while publicly assailing the same people funding her campaign. That will only fuel the cause of liberals hoping to enlist Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts—who castigates corporate influence in politics while accepting far less corporate money—to challenge Clinton for the Democratic nomination. To keep Warren and her wing content, Clinton may have to say no to a bit of corporate money, in addition to complaining about it.

Rick Newman’s latest book is Liberty for All: A Manifesto for Reclaiming Financial and Political Freedom. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman.

 

[texansfan]

It's most all politicians, but seriously, the Clinton's are the elitist of the elite. She knows nothing of the struggle of the middle class. She's no different than any other politician for the most part, say what the people want to hear, and once elected, it's business as usual.

I laugh when people say the Repubs are for the rich, well newsflash, the rich have gotten richer under Obama like never before, and the overwhelming majority of American citizens have gotten poorer under his administration.

 

[Acebb]

Why is a CEO making $7.5 million a year bad but Bill Clinton making $40 million a year good?

To me, that is the question. Not whether or not she accepts donations.

 

[NFLTrends]

Did she also forget her mandatory 6-figure fee for her to show up for a speaking engagement?

 

[texansfan]

I don't begrudge people making money, but don't act like you know what it means to be middle class. These politicians say the same crap every election and none follow through with any of it.

I really wish anyone named Clinton or Bush would just go away.

 

[russ1945]

Wednesday, March 30, 1994 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
E-mail article

Print
Corrected version
[h=1]Hillary Clinton Invested $1,000, Netted $100,000 Through Trading[/h]By Angie Cannon, Frank Greve
Knight-Ridder Newspapers: AP: Washington Post: Los Angeles Times: Newsday


WASHINGTON - The disclosure that Hillary Rodham Clinton parlayed $1,000 into nearly $100,000 through highly speculative commodities trading may create political embarrassment for the Clintons, who have sharply criticized a national culture of greed during the Reagan and Bush years in the White House.
But the information released yesterday by the White House covering investments in 1978 and 1979 also appears to support the couple's contention that they had done nothing illegal or unethical in the trades.
As a presidential candidate, Bill Clinton had decried the speculative wealth-building of the rich during the Reagan and Bush years as "a gilded age of greed and selfishness, of irresponsibility and excess and of neglect."
Mrs. Clinton, whose commodity trading came during the early years of her husband's political career and before Ronald Reagan was elected president, was guided through the risky trades by James Blair, a friend and top lawyer for one of Arkansas' most powerful companies, Tyson Foods Inc. She also "talked to other people" and read the Wall Street Journal to research her trades, a White House official said yesterday.
Commodities trading, which involves anticipating the future value of a commodity, is done on margin - meaning that it takes only a small amount of money to control a large contract. Mrs. Clinton made dramatic gains by investing in live cattle futures, which are contracts linked to an anticipated future value of 40,000 pounds of slaughter-ready beef cattle.
Commodity trading is generally thought to be extremely risky, because if the market goes down, an investor can be liable to come up with the full amount. By some estimates, more than three-quarters of all investors lose money. But a skilled trader, or one with special knowledge of a market, can reap millions of dollars.
"Making the kind of money that she did at that time was possible but very difficult," said Chuck Levitt, senior livestock analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. "It just so happened that she caught the biggest cattle market boom in history and at just the right time."
Herds had shrunk for four years and inflation was soaring in 1978-79, said Levitt, who has tracked livestock markets for more than 30 years. Prices on virtually all commodities were "in a very strong upward trend."
"There were other people who made the money she did," said Levitt, but they were lucky, and their timing was perfect. As a new player, he added, "she had to have one heck of a good adviser or one very good broker."
The White House released the information in part to rebut allegations in the April 4 issue of Newsweek magazine, currently on sale, that Mrs. Clinton did not put up any of the money herself. The White House has strongly denied that accusation, and Newsweek has backed off its story.
Mrs. Clinton, who is on vacation with her family in California, was not present for the briefing. Her spokeswoman Lisa Caputo and John Podesta, a White House spokesman, said Mrs. Clinton "put up her own money, invested it in her own accounts and assumed the full risk of loss."
Mrs. Clinton's highly speculative trading dramatically boosted the Clintons' income at a time when Bill Clinton was earning $26,500 as attorney general of Arkansas and Hillary Clinton was making $24,250 as a young lawyer in Little Rock.
Mrs. Clinton initially invested $1,000 in cash on Oct. 1, 1978, in an account at the Springdale, Ark., office of the Ray E. Friedman & Co. commodities brokerage of Chicago. By Oct. 12, she made $5,300 and reinvested the $6,300 in several transactions. In a series of trades through the rest of 1978, she accumulated profits of $49,069, offset by losses of $22,548. The White House calculated her net gain at $26,521 in 1978.
In 1979, Mrs. Clinton continued trading in this account with profits of about $109,600, offset by losses of about $36,600. Her net gain for 1979 was $72,996.
One monthly statement from the account was not included in the records released yesterday. There was no reason given for the omission.
Mrs. Clinton stopped trading in that account in July 1979 after she became pregnant with Chelsea. "She couldn't stomach it anymore," an administration official said. "It was too nerve-racking."
An administration official said Bill Clinton was "not involved in this account. This was her account. It was in her name."
Mrs. Clinton opened a second account in October 1979 with $5,000 in cash, and her trading resulted in small net losses in 1979 and 1980. She stopped trading in this account after Chelsea was born, and the account was closed in March 1980.
The disclosure of Mrs. Clinton's trading came amid reports that her former broker, Robert Bone of Springdale, Ark., had been disciplined for trading violations in 1977 by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and in 1980 by the CFTC and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Bone, who had formerly worked as a professional poker player and an executive at Tyson Foods, often traded without orders or permission from his clients, and "at the end of the day the winning and losing trades would be allocated to the accounts selected by Bone," reported Securities Week, a McGraw-Hill newsletter focusing on securities and futures.
In January 1980, a committee of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange banned Bone from trading on the exchange for three years, Securities Week reported.
Bone consented to the sanctions without admitting or denying charges that he had committed "serious and repeated violations of record-keeping functions, order entry procedures, margin requirements and hedge procedures."
According to Securities Week, Bone's violations all involved the cattle futures market in which Mrs. Clinton made her profits and occurred at about the time she was investing.
A senior administration official said yesterday, "She did not know at that time that he ever had been suspended."
There is no evidence that Mrs. Clinton benefited from allocation of profitable trades to her account.
Blair also denied that Mrs. Clinton benefited from the allocation of profitable trades to her account, and said she received no special treatment in the investment.
Bone was broker for both Blair and Hillary Clinton. Blair was also Bone's personal lawyer, Securities Week reported.
Published Correction Date: 03/31/94 - White House Records Released Tuesday Indicated That Hillary Rodham Clinton First Invested In The Cattle Futures Market On Oct. 11, 1978. Because Of A News Service Error, This Story On Her Investments Gave The Wrong Day In October 1978.


Copyright (c) 1994 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved.

 

[russ1945]

 

[SheriffJoe]

 

[Dave007inVegas]

You would think that the hypocrisy that Clinton shows would be detrimental to her chances of becoming the next President.

However I don’t believe the majority of voters give a shit.

First off many don’t know about it and second if they did their blinders wouldn’t allow it to matter.

Much like Obama being the first black President she can be the first woman President.

The low informed voter will say, “the first woman to be POTUS,” won’t that be cool?

 

[vitterd]

You would think that the hypocrisy that Clinton shows would be detrimental to her chances of becoming the next President.

However I don’t believe the majority of voters give a shit.

First off many don’t know about it and second if they did their blinders wouldn’t allow it to matter.

Much like Obama being the first black President she can be the first woman President.

The low informed voter will say, “the first woman to be POTUS,” won’t that be cool?

Let me try to explain this slow enough that even you dolts can figure it out.


There is a small percentage of the voters that are actually up for grabs once the nominations happen. Most are already decided who they are voting for. The key for dems is getting their people to the polls....if they do they win.

The reason those stupid articles, that are mostly bullshit or just half true, never work is because the few people that are undecided realize it's mostly partisan nonsense. Your side is already spending all day sending out spam email garbage to partisan drones that are already voting against Hillary no matter what. Repubs strategy on how to win over undecided voters is monumentally stupid. But you morons keep doing the same stupid shit. Have you noticed that political hacks like Walter are all over the net with these stupid cartoon quotes and lying articles? It isn't that the voters don't care....it's they simply don't trust where the message is coming from. If you republicans can ever come up with quality ideas they might win....but this current strategy of pandering to the loons is always a loser.

Is it still sinking in at all?

 

[Dave007inVegas]

Let me try to explain this slow enough that even you dolts can figure it out.


There is a small percentage of the voters that are actually up for grabs once the nominations happen. Most are already decided who they are voting for. The key for dems is getting their people to the polls....if they do they win.

The reason those stupid articles, that are mostly bullshit or just half true, never work is because the few people that are undecided realize it's mostly partisan nonsense. Your side is already spending all day sending out spam email garbage to partisan drones that are already voting against Hillary no matter what. Repubs strategy on how to win over undecided voters is monumentally stupid. But you morons keep doing the same stupid shit. Have you noticed that political hacks like Walter are all over the net with these stupid cartoon quotes and lying articles? It isn't that the voters don't care....it's they simply don't trust where the message is coming from. If you republicans can ever come up with quality ideas they might win....but this current strategy of pandering to the loons is always a loser.

Is it still sinking in at all?

You are one of those voters who’s blinders won’t allow you to see the forest for the trees.

Those who claim to be undecided or independent are just trying to make excuses for their poor choices.

At least Liberals don’t try to hide it.

 

[SheriffJoe]

"I always vote for the least worst candidate" - DNC hack Poker Fraud Vtard ointer:

 

[russ1945]

You are one of those voters who’s blinders won’t allow you to see the forest for the trees.

Those who claim to be undecided or independent are just trying to make excuses for their poor choices.

At least Liberals don’t try to hide it.

Vitard is basicaly saying, I know it's true but I am voting Dem no matter who or what. Baaaa, baaaa.

 

[vitterd]

You are one of those voters who’s blinders won’t allow you to see the forest for the trees.

Those who claim to be undecided or independent are just trying to make excuses for their poor choices.

At least Liberals don’t try to hide it.

So I see it didn't sink in. Don't you understand that you, Russ and joe are sheep? Look around....the same morons keep posting the same bullshit that nobody is buying. The only people who believe this brietbart led nonsense is those who cannot think for themselves and just regurgitate the lies fed to them by the far right.

Havent your noticed morons like Walter and Russ cutting and pasting the same articles fed to them by far right hacks? You have to be able to see this. Russ is too old to get it.....he is so far gone and such a robot that he can't be helped. Joe is a straight up slave to the far right and is completely brainwashed. You still have a chance to get things figured out. I spelled it out for you very clearly. I guarantee you that most of the country and all the politicians you support are laughing at you guys. You can still make a change. Do the right thing.

 

[russ1945]

 

[Dave007inVegas]

So I see it didn't sink in. Don't you understand that you, Russ and joe are sheep? Look around....the same morons keep posting the same bullshit that nobody is buying. The only people who believe this brietbart led nonsense is those who cannot think for themselves and just regurgitate the lies fed to them by the far right.

Havent your noticed morons like Walter and Russ cutting and pasting the same articles fed to them by far right hacks? You have to be able to see this. Russ is too old to get it.....he is so far gone and such a robot that he can't be helped. Joe is a straight up slave to the far right and is completely brainwashed. You still have a chance to get things figured out. I spelled it out for you very clearly. I guarantee you that most of the country and all the politicians you support are laughing at you guys. You can still make a change. Do the right thing.

What do you mean? I figured it out 40 years ago. I’m not some recent know it all college graduate from a Liberal Arts school
or someone dependent on the government.

 

[Enfuego]

It's most all politicians, but seriously, the Clinton's are the elitist of the elite. She knows nothing of the struggle of the middle class. She's no different than any other politician for the most part, say what the people want to hear, and once elected, it's business as usual.

I laugh when people say the Repubs are for the rich, well newsflash, the rich have gotten richer under Obama like never before, and the overwhelming majority of American citizens have gotten poorer under his administration.

What I think is amusing is her showing up this week in a Chipotle as if we'll just magically think she's one of the working stiffs like the rest of us.

A leopard doesn't change its spots. If you have money, don't roll in and pretend like you don't. We all see through that bullshit.

 

[vitterd]

What do you mean? I figured it out 40 years ago. I’m not some recent know it all college graduate from a Liberal Arts school
or someone dependent on the government.

i believe you are dependent....probably some state program. Clearly you have some mental issues. But that aside, look around at those who think like you.....are you noticing they keep posting a never ending stream of cartoons that push a far right agenda this country rejects time and time again?

im saying you have a chance to attempt to look at the truth and not just what you're being spoon fed. You can still figure things out. The other guys are gone....completely brainwashed.

The far right machine that frames how you view the world is truly laughing at you. You can still be your own man....right now you aren't....they have total control of you. Can't you see that Russ and Walter are being used to spread propaganda all over social media. This isn't the only place Walter does this.....multiple websites, Facebook included. It's a sick cult they you can work yourself out of. I mean you're out there but you have potential to break free.

 

[vitterd]

What I think is amusing is her showing up this week in a Chipotle as if we'll just magically think she's one of the working stiffs like the rest of us.

A leopard doesn't change its spots. If you have money, don't roll in and pretend like you don't. We all see through that bullshit.

They all do that shit. A few years ago they had Paul Ryan washing dishes. It is always done this way

 

[Dave007inVegas]

i believe you are dependent....probably some state program. Clearly you have some mental issues. But that aside, look around at those who think like you.....are you noticing they keep posting a never ending stream of cartoons that push a far right agenda this country rejects time and time again?

im saying you have a chance to attempt to look at the truth and not just what you're being spoon fed. You can still figure things out. The other guys are gone....completely brainwashed.

The far right machine that frames how you view the world is truly laughing at you. You can still be your own man....right now you aren't....they have total control of you. Can't you see that Russ and Walter are being used to spread propaganda all over social media. This isn't the only place Walter does this.....multiple websites, Facebook included. It's a sick cult they you can work yourself out of. I mean you're out there but you have potential to break free.