A Sneak Peek at Fed Presidents' Portfolio Secrets

In a further attempt by the Federal Reserve to offer the American people more transparency when it comes to their personal financial holdings and investment secrets, the Fed was pressured by Ron Paul and millions of followers into doing something bold...

Earlier this year, the Federal Reserve released approximately 600 pages of financial disclosure documents giving the public a sneak peak into the holdings of today's current regional presidents.

Fed officials began this 'transparency' trend last year, but only the documents releasing details about Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Fed Governors were issued for public viewing.

Bernanke's assets were pretty plain vanilla: money markets, U.S. Treasury securities, and a couple of traditional retirement accounts.

However, some of the other Fed members have obviously opted for some more interesting investments, according to the latest disclosure documents...

The investment choices of one man especially are of particular interest to us: Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher. According to the Fed's data, Fisher has invested heavily in two promising sectors: gold and land.

For months on end, we've been harped by investing experts like Jim Rogers and George Soros, desperately urging us to buy these two assets to safeguard our wealth and hedge inflation. Now we see that even the guys responsible for inflation are worried about its damaging economic side effects...

Richard Fisher reportedly owns $1 million in gold and over 7,000 acres of farmland. He owns land in Texas, Georgia, Iowa, and Missouri. His gold is in SPDR's Gold Trust (GLD). Additionally, Mr. Fisher has at least $50,000 in platinum and another $50,000 in uranium.

In terms of equities, Fisher has common stock 43 different companies at minimum. He has more than $500,000 in Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) alone.

Meanwhile, critics are wondering what James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed is hiding...

Amidst the increased transparency, Bullard says his assets and investments are to be kept private and do not fall under the disclosure requirements.

CNN reports on a couple of other controversial Fed member investments:

New York Fed President William Dudley's assets are perhaps the most controversial, after an investigation by the Government Accountability Office last year revealed a few potential conflicts of interest. 

Among Dudley's assets were 500 shares of AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) and 4,500 shares of General Electric (GE, Fortune 500) that he owned while the Fed was negotiating emergency aid for the insurance giant and the broader financial industry.

He had acquired the assets before joining the Fed, and by the time the central bank began to weigh measures to assist the financial services industry, it was considered inappropriate for him to sell those shares because of the inside information he possessed.

The Fed instead decided to make him sell the shares at a random date in the future. Dudley unloaded the AIG shares in 2010 and the GE shares in 2011.

Overall, the financial disclosures don't necessarily offer a complete picture of each Fed member's total worth.

 

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