Barack Obama criticised for whopping pay check

Former US president Barack Obama has been criticised for agreeing to give a speech to a group of Wall Street bankers after bad-mouthing them during his presidency.

Obama will speak at an event for Cantor Fitzgerald LP, the mid-sized New York-based investment bank, in September and will receive a whopping $US400,000 ($530,000) for his services.

The decision has drawn criticism from a number of commentators including Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant, who told The New York Post that Obama was a hypocrite.

“Is there an irony here because he spoke incessantly about the income gap and is now earning from those same people he criticised? Yes it is,” told the publication.

“Should we expect it? Yes, we should because all former presidents do this. He went on the attack against Wall Street and now he’s being fed by those same people he called ‘fat cats.’ It’s more hypocritical than ironic.”

During his presidency Obama called Wall Street bankers “fat cats” and in 2009 said the financial crisis was “caused in part by completely irresponsible actions on Wall Street”.

However, as Sheinkopf pointed out, Obama is not the first president to charge hundreds of thousands to speak to bankers.

Hillary Clinton copped backlash during her failed presidential bid for earning around $US200,000 for three speeches she gave to mega-bank Goldman Sachs.

It has been reported that in total, Clinton has made over $22 million from giving speeches at events since resigning as Secretary of State in 2013.

What are your thoughts on this? Is it wrong for ex-politicians to earn money this way? Or is it to be expected?