Bernanke's Plain Vanilla Portfolio Worth At Most $2.3M While Other Fed Officials Hold Gold And Uranium

MAKE MONEY BLOG$~For one of the few men holding the monetary reigns of the world, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is a very basic investor.  In a disclosure for 2011 released on Thursday

, the Chairman declared that his assets can be worth a maximum of $2.28 million and that he refinanced his 30-year mortgage.  Coming from academia, Bernanke can’t rival the portfolio of former financiers like New York Fed’s Bill Dudley and Dallas Fed’s Richard Fisher, whose assets are above $20 million.

In a disclosure to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, the Fed Chairman revealed he has between $1.07 and $2.28 million in assets, as of the end of fiscal 2011.  Despite having unleashed a second round of quantitative easing in late 2010 and extended Operation Twist in 2011, Bernanke’s assets were essentially flat, sliding from $1.06 million to $2.31 million in fiscal 2010. (The OGE asks government officials to disclose a range for the value of their assets). Most of Bernanke’s holdings are in parked in simple, and relatively safe, financial assets.  The Chairman holds retirement accounts at TIAA-CREF and Vanguard, along with checking’s and money market accounts with SunTrust Bank; he also holds Treasury slips.

In terms of holdings, Bernanke can’t claim to be a sophisticated investor, despite having a deep understanding of the inner workings of the financial system.  He also has a boring portfolio.  Richard Fisher, head of the Dallas Fed, had about a million in gold (via the GLD ETF) and between $50,000 and $250,000 invested in uranium in 2010, according toCNN Money.  He also owned more than 7,000 acres of land in Georgia, Iowa, and Missouri.

Fisher, whose portfolio hit at least $21 million after 22 years in the financial industry, isn’t the only one with a lot of dough in the bank.  Bill Dudley, a former Goldman Sachs partner and managing director, had at least $29 million in the bank.  The most powerful Fed president after the Chairman himself held stock from AIG and General Electric “while the Fed was negotiating emergency aid for the insurance giant and the broader financial industry,” CNN reported.  Dudley sold the AIG shares in 2010 and GE in 2011 after the Fed ordered him to sell them at a random date in the future.

Bernanke’s income came from two main sources in 2011.  His salary, determined by Congress, was $199,700.  But he also received t least $150,000 fromPearson and McGraw-Hill for textbook royalties.  Bernanke is the author of several books, including:Essays on the Great Depression; Inflation Targeting: Lessons from International Experience; Principles of Economics, and Principles of Macroeconomics.

At the end of the day, despite all his power, in terms of monetary policy at least, Bernanke is a pretty simple guy when it comes to his finances.

source: forbes.com

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