Barack Obama To Make $1.2 Million From Wall Street Speeches

There was a time when former President Barack Obama had some rough statements for Wall Street, but Obama is now planning a Wall Street speaking tour and will reportedly make $400,000 for giving one speech. The tour will consist of three speeches in total, and he will be making a whopping $1.2 million by providing his insights.

Back in 2009, Barack Obama called Wall Street executives “fat cats,” criticized their bonuses, and even tried to raise their taxes.

“I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street,” Obama said during that time. “What’s really frustrating me right now is that you’ve got these same banks who benefited from taxpayer assistance who are fighting tooth and nail with their lobbyists up on Capitol Hill, fighting against financial regulatory control.”

For eight years, Wall Street operated under the assumption that the 44th president of the United States of America did not like their way of working and even hated the financial sector.

In 2012, a hedge fund leader even told the New Yorker that the president has shown disdain towards wealth creation.

But it looks like the things have finally worked out between them.

A source close to a Northern Trust Corporation speech told Bloomberg News that Barack Obama was compensated close to $400,000 for his services. Another source claimed that Obama recently addressed members of the Carlyle Group LP and will reportedly receive a similar six-figure paycheck as the keynote speaker for investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald LP.

Obama’s spokesman has defended the speaking fees by noting how they have “allowed President Obama to contribute $2m to Chicago programs offering job training and employment opportunities to low-income youth.”

Even Wall Street appeared to agree with the former president. A former UBS Group AG executive Robert Wolf talked about the financial services and Obama era.

“He was the president of the entire United States — financial services are under that umbrella. He doesn’t look at Wall Street like, ‘Oh, these are individuals who don’t want the best for the country.’ He doesn’t stereotype.”

There are many who are not pleased with Obama’s ways. Earlier this year, when it was speculated that he would be making an appearance during the Cantor Fitzgerald event, Bernie Sanders said it was extremely unfortunate that the former president of the United States of America had agreed to part take in such activity.

Obama is not the only one being criticized for earning by giving speeches to Wall Street firms.

Prior to this, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was under criticism during the 2016 presidential election campaign over the speeches she gave to Wall Street firms. As reported by Independent, between 2013 and 2015, she gave 92 speeches to banks and other financial service organizations and earned $21.6 million in just two years.

In Oct. 2013, Hillary Clinton was paid $225,000 to speak at Goldman Sachs’ “Builders and Innovators” conference, held in Marana, Arizona.

Apparently, this is not the first time Barack Obama has earned money via giving speeches ever since his term ended in the White House. It was reported back in April that he received $400,000 for a 90-minute conversation with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin at an event organized by A&E Networks.

[Featured Image by Drew Angerer/Pool/Getty Images]