Bernanke's assets, income revealed

Engulfed by economic and financial turbulence, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has taken extraordinary steps to ease the nation's problems. His own finances are a bit more straightforward.

The chairman's financial disclosure form, released Monday, showed his holdings last year were in no-frills investments, including U.S. Treasury securities, Canadian Treasury bonds, mutual funds and annuities.

An economist who spent most of his career in academia, including teaching at Princeton, Bernanke also is receiving royalties on two textbooks he wrote. The documents showed that royalty income was listed at $50,001 to $100,000 for each textbook, the largest single slices of income other than his Fed salary.

Bernanke's salary last year was $186,600. This year, it rises to $191,300.

The value of his total assets last year was between about $1.2 million and nearly $2.5 million. The income from his investments, which includes checking and savings accounts, came to $141,500 to $333,100. Both the asset and income figures are in line with those reported for 2006.