Net Worth of Presidents: George Washington to Barack Obama

A facebook friend pointed out this article in The Atlantic calculating the net worth of every president. Looking at the list, I note a couple things.

One, the list calculates net worth at the time of death or current net worth if the former president is still alive. (Barack Obama still being alive, president, and worth $ 5 million.) there is no real differentiation between how much money the man was worth before becoming president versus how much his net worth grew beause he was once president.

An obvious exception here is Bill Clinton, who had little more than his salary as governor of Arkansas before being elected president. He has earned all of his #34million after leaving office through book sales and speaking fees.

Have other presidents had such a glaring change in income earning potential post-presidency? I would imagine so. I would further imagine relatively young presidential aspirants like Clinton, Bush 43, and Obama, who figured on having a long life after leaving the White House, were counting on cashing in once they left office.

Two, there are long stretches of time in which presidents have relatively similar net worth. There will be a period of time with many very wealthy presidents, then a time with may of net worth less than $ 1 million. Political party affiliation does not appear to be much of a factor.

It lends credence to the political science theory that the Populist v. elitist divide is more important than the progressive v. conservative one. Sometimes Americans want a plutocrat elitist and other times Americans want a common man wecan relate to. The political parties have an abundance of both.

Do you see any other interesting trends in the data?