I wonder what Andrew J. Hall will buy with his upcoming $100 million paycheck ...

You may recall that the last time I featured Hall here was on January 13, 2007, when a huge kerfuffle about an Anselm Kiefer sculpture ("Etroits sont les vaisseaux" [Narrow are the vessels]) he'd installed on his front lawn (above and below) got so out of control it made the the New York Times.

Now everyone's got their baggies in a twist about his salary, which he's due to receive for leading Citigroup's highly profitable Phibro commodity trading unit to $667 million in profits last year.

He received $100 million last year as well.

For the record, he's led Phibro during the past five years during which it's booked about $2 billion in profits for Citigroup.

Here's a riddle:

When is a contract not a contract?

When it becomes a political hot potato, which is when it quickly morphs into a piñata of opportunity for those who make their living by posturing instead of governing.