Markets In Everything: Speaking Fees

With the election coming up it is interesting to see what Presidents do after they retire. Many do speaking engagements where they are paid to give a speech. There is actually a market for people to do this. Presidents can pull in big bucks for doing this. However, it isn’t just former presidents that do this economists do it as well. For instance, Milton Friedman made around $30,000 per speech when he did it. Walter Williams charges at least $10,000 when we talks. My question would be for the people paying these fees is if what they are getting is really worth all that money when you could probably find a similar if not same speech on YouTube.

Presidents and political figures however can make millions of dollars per year by just talking. The biggest name in this area is former President Bill Clinton. People still love this guy despite what he did or has done. Whatever you think about his politics there is no denying that he is pretty charismatic. In 2011, Clinton gave 54 paid speeches. Phone maker Ericsson paid him $750,000.  Since he left office Clinton has given over 470 speeches and averages around $189,000 per speech. In 2011, Clinton earned $13.4 million which was an increase from the prior year by 25% according to this article.

Republican nominee Mitt Romney made $374,327 in speaking fees in speaking fees from February 2010 to February 2011. Romney is also worth between $190 and $250 million according to this article. Actually this is nothing compared to Donald Trump who was paid $1.5 million to speak at the Learning Annex real estate expo.Former President George W. Bush has made at least $15 million since he has left office with 140 paid speeches which average around $110,000 per speech. His brother Jeb is a deal at only $15,000 per speech. 

Clearly, there is a market for speaking engagements. Some people are well compensated for this. Although, this is probably the top 1% of all speakers it is interesting that people will pay for other people to speak. No one has yet contacted me about public speaking although for the right price I think I could push back the frontiers of ignorance.