Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Andrew Hall (photo: Patrick McMullan)
Energy trader Andrew J. Hall is set to receive $98 million from CitiGroup for his work buying and selling oil shares on behalf of the bank. The fact that CitiGroup is preparing to pay this bonus is politically volatile for the Obama administration, given the $45 billion in federal bailout funds loaned to the financial giant to keep it from collapsing last year.
Some critics, such as author Les Leopold, contend the Obama administration must step in and prevent CitiGroup from awarding the bonus to Hall. Not only has taxpayer money gone directly to the bank, but even more was spent keeping the financial sector and stock markets from collapsing altogether—without which Hall never could have done his job. Furthermore, Hall’s work has not produced $100 million worth of economic activity for the country (which essentially bankrolled the institution for which he works) “High pay and speculative activities are precisely the kind of activities that crashed the system in the first place,” says Leopold.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Can We Stop Wall Street's $100 Million Payday and Save Obama from Political Suicide? (by Les Leopold, Huffington Post)
U.S. Weighs Action Over Citi’s $100 Million Man (by Stephen Labaton and Eric Dash, New York Times)
$100 Million Payday Poses Problem for Pay Czar (by David Segal, New York Times)
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