Economics Prof: My Grandma Would be ‘Appalled’ at Sotomayor’s Low Savings
Updated: Judge Sonia Sotomayor makes about $180,000 a year, but she reported little in the way of assets on her financial disclosure report for 2007. That has prompted some comment from a Harvard economics professor, who classifies the Supreme Court nominee as a spender rather than a saver.
Sotomayor reported her financial holdings consisted of a checking and savings account worth between $50,000 and $115,000 altogether, the Washington Post reported in a May 7 story.
Professor Greg Mankiw notes the report. “Some people with low incomes manage to scrimp and save (I always think of my grandmother), and some people with high incomes spend most everything they earn,” Mankiw writes at his Greg Mankiw’s Blog.
He puts Sotomayor in the latter category. “My grandmother would have been shocked and appalled to see someone who makes so much save so little.”
He notes reader e-mails pointing out that Sotomayor has no children and a generous retirement as a federal judge, making the need to save less pressing. “I am sure, however, that none of these arguments would have convinced my grandmother,” he writes.
The Washington Post’s 44 The Obama Presidency blog notes that federal judges do not have to disclose the value of their own homes. Sotomayor bought a Greenwich Village condo in 1998 for $360,000 that is now worth about $1.4 million, according to Politico, which unearthed city records and searched Zillow.com for the information. She has two outstanding mortgages for $450,000, Politico says.
Sotomayor listed only four credit cards for outstanding debts, according to the Washington Post blog. A source tells the blog that Sotomayor’s net worth has hardly increased since she became a federal judge in 1992.
The least wealthy justice currently on the Supreme Court is Anthony M. Kennedy, who listed assets valued between $350,000 and $750,000 on his 2008 disclosure statements, the New York Times reported last year. Retiring Justice David H. Souter is one of the court’s six or seven millionaires, with holdings valued between $11 million and $50 million. Only Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is wealthier, with holdings worth between $11 million and $50 million.
Hat tip to TaxProf Blog.
Updated on May 28 to include information on Sotomayor’s home value from Politico.
