Thursday 10 January 2008

Nice work if you can get it

Tony Blair has been appointed as a part-time adviser to Wall Street bank JPMorgan, the first post of this kind to be taken by a former Labour prime minister. His salary is not known, but it is not expected to be less than $1m a year.

It's a far cry from the experience of Herbert Asquith who was in such a poor way financially that his friends had to organise a public appeal in The Times to pay off his debts and give him a pension. And Mr Blair has secured a book deal worth £5m.

Quite what his role will be is not entirely clear but JPMorgan chief exective Jamie Dinon said that both of them wanted 'to try to make the world a better place and have a bit of fun doing it.'

Dinon said that Blair would be 'enormously valuable' to the company, but others are more sceptical. Political scientist Kevin Theakston noted, 'Blair knew notoriously little about economics.'

1 comment:

skipper said...

The Mail today suggests it's a 'pay-off' for the loot JP Morgan has derived from contracts won in Iraq.