imported post
tsptalk wrote:
mlk_man wrote:
Tom, I just read your and RevShark's market comments and you pose some good questions. I have a question also. I'm wondering if these Fed guys are allowed to play the market themselves and if they do, do they have to report what they invest in? I"m not saying they might be manipulating the market for self gratification, but it seems it would be quite easy to short the market and then come out and say "We are going to keep raising rates".
I think I need a friend on the Fed.......................:^
From what I understand Greenspan does not own stocks, only bonds. I don't know if it is a conflict of interest. I'd like to know myself.
Thanks for the article tekno ....
WASHINGTON –– Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who once famously worried about "irrational exuberance" in the stock market, demonstrated last year that a conservative approach to investing can pay off.
Greenspan's portfolio, heavily invested in safe Treasury securities, avoided the big losses suffered by many stock investors, according to his annual disclosure form, released Tuesday by the Fed.
The federal disclosure form does not require a listing of exact values for assets held, only ranges. Greenspan's assets begin in the less-than-$1,000 category and top out with one asset valued at between $1 million and $5 million.
If Greenspan's assets are valued at the maximum level, they totaled $9.6 million at the end of 2000, up from a maximum $7 million at the end of 1999.
Even at the low end of the valuations on the disclosure form, Greenspan's statement showed that he managed to pretty much hold his own, with investments valued at $3.1 million at the end of the year, compared with a low-end valuation of $3.4 million in 1999.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell by 6.2 percent last year, its first loss in a decade, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index lost 39.3 percent of its value, its worst annual loss in history.
Greenspan's investments are concentrated in Treasury securities, considered the world's safest investment since the U.S. government has never failed to pay investors who hold its bills, notes and bonds.
These holdings also allow Greenspan, often referred to as the most powerful economic policy-maker in the world, to avoid conflicts of interest which could arise if some companies fared better than others on the basis of his interest-rate decisions.
By investing in the safety of U.S. government securities, Greenspan also avoids the ups and downs of the stock market.
In December 1996, Greenspan wondered aloud whether it could be determined when investors were in the grip of "irrational exuberance" that was causing them to bid up stock prices to levels not justified by underlying fundamentals.
Markets around the world initially plunged on those comments, but investors soon shrugged off the worries to push stock prices much higher. The market began plunging in early 2000 as the Fed was pushing interest rates up to cool off an overheated economy.
While Greenspan does not own stocks, his wife, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell, does, according to the disclosure form, which requires a listing of a spouse's assets.
Mitchell owns stock in General Electric, the parent company of NBC, as well as Estee Lauder, Clorox, H.J. Heinz, Kimberly Clark, McDonald's and Rubbermaid among others. Her biggest single holding, listed in the category of $250,001 to $500,000, was in Abbott Laboratories.
The disclosure form also shows that Mitchell earned $72,500 for giving five speeches last year to groups ranging from Sweet Briar College to the Jewish Community Center of Richmond.
Where you are now is where you will still be when you wake up Tuesday morning.
