Citigroup’s $100 million banker

[Hannah Bell]

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that a top Citigroup trader is demanding that the bank follow through on a 2009 pay package estimated at $100 million. Andrew J. Hall, who runs Citigroup’s energy trading division, has threatened to quit should the bank fail to honor his pay deal in full.

According to the Journal, Hall, an energy speculator and top money-maker for the bank, received more than $100 million last year. Such nine-digit salaries exemplify the plundering of social resources that has become a hallmark of American capitalism and the American financial elite.

It would take a minimum wage worker, working full-time without vacations, 6,269 years to earn $100 million. Hall’s yearly pay is roughly equivalent to the annual wage of 2,000 workers in the US. He makes in an hour about the same amount most American workers earn in a year.

Hall’s two-year take of $200 million will be greater than the budget deficits confronting a large number of US cities and their public school systems.

Hall’s enormous personal income is bound up with the manipulation of energy markets, which has contributed to the broken finances of millions of American households through higher gas and home heating bills and a run-up in food prices that has dramatically increased hunger in many parts of the world. The volatility on energy markets has played a significant role in the global economic crisis, driving up unemployment to levels not seen since the Great Depression.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/pers-j29.shtml

[hobbit709]

1. He's the modern version of a Bourbon or Romanov

He would do well to heed what happened to them.

[aquart]

6. In the wussy United States? Where capitalism is God?

We used to say, "What's good for General Motors is good for the USA." WELL?

[zonkers]

2. pic of him..... (i think)

[Hannah Bell]

4. this article says he's so "mysterious" there are no pictures of him. i say: douchebag.

http://www.moneyweek.com/news-and-charts/andrew-j-hall-the-british-eccentric-who-made-a-killing-on-wall-street.aspx

[depakid]

3. If we actually had a Justice Department- this guy would be looking at an indictment

rather than a 100 million bonus.

[aquart]

5. That man is insufficiently taxed.

Take 90 percent and he'll still be rich. Don't take it and the country will not recover.

Tax him or hang him, I don't care. But do one or the other soon.

[Hannah Bell]

7. hey, look at him. he obviously deserves it. manicured stubble like that doesn't come cheap.

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. Tax him first.

:evilgrin:

[HamdenRice]

8. May be true, may not be true. Would need a source other than WSWS, which isn't credible. nt

[Hannah Bell]

10. nice try, hampton.

[Hannah Bell]

11. k