Last year Ben Bernanke was able to make up for the losses suffered in 2008 thanks, in part, to the stock market recovery he helped bring about.
The U.S. Federal Reserve chairman’s wealth rose last year, according to financial disclosure forms released Friday by the central bank. As of the end of 2009, Bernanke’s asset holdings were $1.2 million to $2.5 million, the same as in 2007. That compares with $850,000 to $1.9 million in 2008, when stocks were walloped by the worst financial crisis since the 1929 Wall Street Crash. To fight the crisis, the Fed slashed short-term interest rates to near zero by the end of 2008. That, together with an array of emergency lending programs and the Fed’s purchases of mortgage bonds and government debt, helped stock markets around the world recover.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index of stocks rose by almost 25 percent in 2009 as the U.S. economy emerged from the worst recession in decades. In 2008, the S&P 500 had fallen by almost 40 percent.
The disclosure forms, used by officials across the executive branch, report asset valuations and income in broad dollar ranges.
Much of the increase in Bernanke’s wealth came from a large-cap stock variable annuity whose value rose to between $500,000 and $1 million at the end of 2009 from $250,000 to $500,000 the previous year.
The other Fed board governors disclosing the value of their 2009 assets Friday also showed increases from their 2008 reports.
Fed Governor Kevin Warsh listed assets under his own name of between $802,000 and $1.8 million at the end of last year, up from $670,000 to $1.4 million in 2008. Warsh also reported hundreds of individual bonds and other securities held by his wife, Estee Lauder Cos. executive Jane Lauder, that amount to at least tens of millions of dollars.
Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo listed assets between $1.4 million and $3.5 million. Governor Elizabeth Duke showed assets of between $3.5 million and $8.2 million. The former community-bank executive disclosed individual stock holdings in roughly two dozen companies. Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn, who is due to step down next month, will disclose termination and annual results at a later date.
Bernanke received a salary of $199,700 in 2009 for his work at the central bank. Other governors earned $179,700.
Fed officials have some investment restrictions. They include directly holding stocks in banks or bank holding companies, owning mutual funds with a financial sector focus and buying or selling any security the week before the central bank’s policy-setting meeting.
