Bernanke takes hit on investments
29 Jul 2009, 0315 hrs AGENCIES
WASHINGTON: If your investments didn't do so well last year, don't feel so bad: neither did Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's
The top US financial official saw his net worth fall by more than a quarter in 2008, to between $850,000 and $1.9 million, according to an annual disclosure form released on Tuesday.
While still substantial, that's down from the $1.2 million to $2.5 million he reported for 2007.
Bernanke, who has had to grapple with a financial crisis brought on in part by complex investment products, keeps his assets in plain vanilla vehicles such as retirement plans, mutual funds and savings accounts.
He has a money market account with between $50,000 and $100,000, according to the disclosure form, which asks only for broad ranges for the values of holdings.
The Fed chairman, a former economics professor at Princeton University, has most of his wealth in two annuities managed by TIAA-CREF, which provides retirement savings plans for academic institutions and other nonprofits.
Still, Bernanke did better than the stock market as a whole last year, which plummeted as the housing and credit crises sent the economy into a steep recession. The broad S&P 500 index fell almost 39 percent in 2008.
29 Jul 2009, 0315 hrs AGENCIES
WASHINGTON: If your investments didn't do so well last year, don't feel so bad: neither did Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's
The top US financial official saw his net worth fall by more than a quarter in 2008, to between $850,000 and $1.9 million, according to an annual disclosure form released on Tuesday.
While still substantial, that's down from the $1.2 million to $2.5 million he reported for 2007.
Bernanke, who has had to grapple with a financial crisis brought on in part by complex investment products, keeps his assets in plain vanilla vehicles such as retirement plans, mutual funds and savings accounts.
He has a money market account with between $50,000 and $100,000, according to the disclosure form, which asks only for broad ranges for the values of holdings.
The Fed chairman, a former economics professor at Princeton University, has most of his wealth in two annuities managed by TIAA-CREF, which provides retirement savings plans for academic institutions and other nonprofits.
Still, Bernanke did better than the stock market as a whole last year, which plummeted as the housing and credit crises sent the economy into a steep recession. The broad S&P 500 index fell almost 39 percent in 2008.
