How exciting. Among other things, Hank Paulson gets to find out just how much money he’s lost when he leaves office next week.
Upon becoming Treasury Secretary, Paulson was required to put his wealth into a blind trust.
Reports Bloomberg:
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a $500 million man when he entered office, said he’s about to discover how much of his fortune remains after two years of financial market turmoil.
“I’ve got to find out where my money has been invested,” Paulson, 62, said Wednesday after a speech, drawing laughter from the Washington Economic Club.
“You know the old joke about how you make a small fortune? And that is, give a large fortune to a person in a blind trust,” he said today. “I haven’t even thought about how I’m going to be investing my money.”
Forbes, back in November, estimated that the trust was down around 22 per cent. Which is obviously bad, but not that bad. Goldman Sachs shares – in which Paulson’s wealth was principally invested before he became Treasury Secretary – have fallen 25 per cent over the same period.
(HT the FT’s Paul J Davies)