Hillary's Wealth

Hillary Clinton, the champion of the blue collar class, earned $109 million dollars over the last eight years. Shall we celebrate this as yet one more rags to riches of American family ascending to astonishing wealth through their own effort and the magic of capitalism? Maybe. However, the release of Clinton's tax returns and especially their public financial disclosure report reveals relationships to power brokers and foreign entities that raises questions about Hillary's reformist claims-- that she is the handmaiden not just of corporate interests but also possibly criminal interests. The sheer volume of the money involved suggests to me bets made by power brokers itching to exploit Hillary's enthronement in January, 2008.

In the coming days, journalists and political opponents will start data mining through the tax returns and reports, and they will raise questions on self-benefiting chairtable donantions, offshore shelters, and ties to shadowy and possibly criminal figures.

Hillary and Bill Clinton tax returns: 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

The questions lie in the minutia. Hillary's 42 page Public Financial Disclosure Report, signed on June 13, 2007, lists the sources of capital to her net worth. Here are some details that jumed out at me.

Citibank Account 5,000,001-25,000,000

Bill Clinton Honorariums. I assume these refer to speeches. They ranged in value of between $100,000 and $300,000, with most being in the $250,000 range. From February, 2006 to June, 2007, there were 91 "honorium" events.

The Clinton's hold large positions in a variety of stocks. Their largest holdings include the following.

Between 250,001 - 500,000

Anadarko Pete
Cisco Systems
General Electric
Home Depot
Johnson & Johnson
Merrill Lynch
Microsoft
Quellos Alpha Engine Cash Receivable
Texas Instruments
Time Warner
Walt Disney

Hillary does report one liability-- a credit card debt of between 10,001 and 15,000 to Citigroup.

She also describes herself as the secretary/treasurer of The Clinton Family Foundation in Chappaqua, New York, the same foundation that received the charitable donations that show up on her tax returns as write offs.