Monday, September 26, 2016

Ranking Every U.S. President By Net Worth



By Alex Greer on June 25, 2015, USA Today [paragraphing changed below due to posting issues].
There’s no doubt about it: being the U.S. president is a hard and often thankless job. Richard Nixon famously said, “Scrubbing floors and emptying bedpans has as much dignity as the Presidency.”

[JB -  see link to this article.]
But being president also has amazing perks (Air Force One!), and most presidents have been financially well-off. In fact, the average net worth of a U.S. president ($62 million) is more than 200 times the average net worth of a U.S. adult ($301,000). It pays to be president.
Using the most recent data from 24/7 Wall St., InsideGov ranked every U.S. president
by net worth, from lowest to highest. 24/7 Wall St. relied primarily on historical records
to value each president’s assets and adjusted all numbers for inflation.

They included factors such as land and property, income, inheritance, and book royalties
in  their calculation.

Overall, presidential wealth has gone through several notable trends. Many of the earlier 
presidents made their fortunes before entering the White House, largely through land 
speculation.

In contrast, many of the modern presidents came into office modestly wealthy, but
significantly boosted their finances through subsequent book deals and public speaking.
*Note: the rankings are 1-43 because Grover Cleveland was president twice. All values are expressed in 2010 dollars and adjusted for inflation. 

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