You gave some suggestions yourself. The fed could invest in an independent fund for such a purpose, they could invest elsewhere in the world. This is not a difficult problem and it is already heavily enforced for smaller fish in the financial ecosystem - e.g. traders at financial institutions are highly regulated.

Anything would be better than buying the very assets they are meant to oversee.

You’re defending the indefensible here with sophistry about how hard it is to be honest and avoid double dealing. These fed presidents dealt in the very securities they had inside information on.

They can't invest elsewhere in the world, interest rates have a direct effect on currency values and therefore the value of their investments, conflict of interest.

Traders in financial institutions can invest in assets outside their job and likely those traders don't have the financial muscle to move the values of entire sectors the way the fed can.

Again, there is nowhere existing at present that a Fed chairman can invest that is outside his/her influence, nowhere there is no conflict of interest in the current financial system.

The only real solution is some kind of defined fed official only fund as you and I have both suggested. But while this would get rid of conflict of interest it enters into an issue of equality of why should fed officials get guaranteed safe investments when the public at large do not, which is why it's probably never been done.

You know, most people simply don't have these issues because they aren't incredibly rich.

An even simpler solution would be to hire someone for this position _who lived off their salary._

The idea that these positions always have to be given to fabulously rich people is why America is in the crappy position it is now.

Most people aren't qualified to be fed chairman. The ones that are, probably made a lot of money in the finance industry.

If they didn't make a lot of money, they probably never rose to positions that gave them the experience they need to do the job?

Sounds like "rich people are smart and deserve more money".

When they might as well be criminals. Look at the Pandora leaks

There's an appreciable difference between investing in bonds or placing money in a high-interest savings account, and betting large amounts on a stock prior to a large market movement based on information you know and the market doesn't.