WASHINGTON — President Bush earned $156,000 in 1988 on a blind trust that is valued at $998,000, financial disclosure forms released by the White House showed today.
Bush set up the trust in 1981 when he became vice president.
The report, the first Bush has filed as President, also showed that he recently paid off $49,000 in loans he took out in 1979 against life insurance policies, apparently to help finance his first campaign for the presidency.
It also showed that Bush and his wife, Barbara, accepted over $20,000 in gifts in his final year as vice president, ranging from a $120 vase from a Chinese official to two $75 neckties from an executive of the Coca-Cola Co.
The financial disclosure forms also put at $31,000 the value of his share of a Houston barge company, a business venture with Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher. Bush earned $11,962 last year on the investment, the financial document showed.
