Tag: Insider Trading

Stock Trades

From time to time, I hate to admit it) a GOPer has a good idea that deserves consideration….and Sen. Hawley has provided me one of these times.

A proposal to bar members of Congress from buying or holding individual stocks cleared a Senate panel Wednesday, with Republican Sen. Josh Hawley crossing the aisle to join Democrats in an 8-7 committee vote. Hawley, who introduced the bill, said, “I practice what I preach,” noting he doesn’t own stocks and isn’t a billionaire—a not-so-subtle jab at some colleagues.

  • The measure would bar lawmakers and their spouses from trading or owning individual stocks, giving them 180 days to divest, CBS News reports Annual compliance certifications and periodic audits would be required. Lawmakers would still be allowed to invest in diversified mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or Treasury bonds, reports Fox News.
  • The measure was originally called the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act—after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She has been under scrutiny for her husband’s stock trades, but there is no evidence he used inside information, Politico reports. It was renamed the Honest Act following negotiations. “While I appreciate the creativity of my Republican colleagues in drafting legislative acronyms, I welcome any serious effort to raise ethical standards in public service,” Pelosi said in a statement.
  • All the other Republicans on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs voted against the legislation. Sen. Rick Scott, himself worth hundreds of millions, argued there’s nothing wrong with being wealthy and called attacks on the rich “disgusting.” He said: “Anybody want to be poor? I don’t.” Some GOP senators pushed for blind trusts as an alternative, but Hawley dismissed those as “loopholes.”
  • In negotiations with Democrats, Hawley agreed to extend the ban to presidents and vice presidents, but only in future administrations, meaning President Trump and Vice President JD Vance are exempt, Axios reports.
  • During a press conference Wednesday, Trump said he liked the idea “conceptually,” claiming Pelosi “became rich” by having inside information.
  • Trump changed his tune later in the day. In a post on Truth Social, he blasted Hawley, accusing him of playing into Democratic hands and questioning why he “would pass a Bill that Nancy Pelosi is in absolute love with.” “It’s a great Bill for her, and her ‘husband,’ but so bad for our Country!” Trump wrote. “I don’t think real Republicans want to see their President, who has had unprecedented success, TARGETED, because of the ‘whims’ of a second-tier Senator named Josh Hawley!”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/senate-stock-trading-ban

I am not particularly fond of Hawley for his war mongering politics is abhorrent to me, but in this case I am with him on this….Congress as well as the president and his thugs should not be allowed to profit from insider information.

These do-nothing hacks in Congress are getting richer from their knowledge of events to come…..this should stop and stop NOW!

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Lawmakers Are $113 Million Richer

Some US lawmakers made some cash off these wars and such….for me that is insider trading but that is not thew way the courts see it.

Take a look….

Dozens of U.S. lawmakers and their families bought or sold up to $113 million worth of shares in top Pentagon contractors this year, an analysis published on Wednesday revealed.

The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft found that at least 37 members of Congress and their relatives traded between $24-113 million worth of stock in companies listed on Defense and Security Monitor’s Top 100 Defense Contractors index.

As the Quincy Institute noted: “Eight of these members even simultaneously held positions on the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, the committees overseeing defense policy and foreign relations. Members of Congress that oversee the annual defense bill and are privy to intelligence briefings have an upper hand in predicting future stock prices.”

The analysis found that one Democratic congressman accounted for the vast bulk of defense stock trading in 2024.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey traded at least $22 million and as much as $104 million worth of shares in companies on the index, including Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, and IBM. Gottheimer—who said his trades are handled by a third-party firm—sits on both the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the National Security subcommittee of the Committee on Financial Services.

Next on the list in distant second place is former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has defended stock trading by lawmakers, and according to Quincy, “sold over $1 million worth of Microsoft stock in late July.”

“The timing of Pelosi’s Microsoft trades in the past have garnered attention, too; in March 2021, she bought Microsoft call options less than two weeks before the Army announced a $22 billion contract with the software company to supply augmented reality headsets,” the analysis states.

“Pelosi had the most profitable 2024 of any lawmaker, netting an estimated $38.6 million from all stock trading activity, according to Quiver Quantitative,” the report adds.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/congress-defense-stock-trading

History should dictate that the GOP lawmakers should be the richest traders…..but this time it is some of the top Dems that profited from their knowledge.There needs to be some reform on this…..but not today…..that will be a later Congress to do the right thing.

I know that was my joke for the day.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–22Dec23

Our lay-about Congress needs to shape up or ship out. Neither party can claim any moral high ground these days they bot are corrupt and lazy….they spend more time running to the nearest camera and/or mic to make their ramblings and then retreat into the inner sanctum of Congress and do little that would actually benefit this country or its citizens in any way.

They trade stocks using insider information with impunity….that needs to stop and stop now.

There is a bi-partisan bill in Congress that could end such practices…..

Congress took an important step toward cleaning up its act: for only the third time since the Civil War, it voted to expel one of its members. But the ethical rot in Congress extends beyond former Rep. George Santos’ outrageous lies and campaign and financial abuses. The institution is in a crisis of public confidence that we must address.

Routine reports of members of Congress making suspicious stock trades and owning stock in companies they regulate have severely harmed the public’s confidence that members of Congress act in the best interest of our country—rather than their own wallets.

It’s past time that we rise to the occasion and pass comprehensive legislation to ban members of Congress, their spouses and their dependent children from owning or trading stock, and that’s precisely what the bipartisan Ending Trading and Holding In Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act would do.

This critical bipartisan legislation, which was introduced by two of this column’s co-authors—Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) in the House and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) in the Senate—as well as by Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) in the House, addresses the threat posed by members of Congress owning and trading individual securities, which undermines the critical work of the federal government.

At the beginning of the pandemic, a moment when public confidence in our institutions of government was critical, Congress was rocked by reports of members trading individual stocks in pharmaceutical companies after receiving non-public information about the threat of COVID-19. Since then, we’ve seen a steady drip of scandals, each day seemingly bringing another story of members trading stocks in industries their committees regulate, or holding investments in fossil fuel companies while sitting on committees in charge of climate change policies. And each new incident drives public faith in our government lower and lower.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/one-simple-way-to-get-the-public-to-trust-congress-again

Sorry but this idea made me chuckle.

To be honest I do not think this has a snowball’s chance of passing for members of Congress get millions from insider info and from lobbyists buying their support for further screwing of the people they represent.

But anyway I think it is a stellar idea.

That may be the kiss of death.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More Insider Trading

I wrote awhile back about the fact the Congressional people had an unfair advantage in the markets for they got advanced info and could trade stocks on info the rest of us did not have….in other words Insider Trading…..it was brought to light by the media and the Congress past a toothless lump of crap to end the practice……..but………

This latest bill specifically alters the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or ‘STOCK Act‘, which, when it was originally drafted was intended to be a law designed to combat insider trading on Capitol Hill – until our elected officials got their teeth into it that is.
This is how the criminals usually work – quietly and in secret: the bill passed both House and Senate chambers on a voice vote (where lawmakers’ names are not recorded). Both chambers cleared the legislation in near record time by Washington DC standards – taking only ten seconds in the Senate and 14 seconds in the House to pass.

According to the report below,”The bill represents a major blow to government transparency”. It certainly does and then some, but more than anything, it just makes it a lot easier to get richer from a career in politics.

This is really the sort of law you would expect to be passed in a corrupt banana republic, with a fascist dictator presiding over a government full of self-interested industrialists. So is this the new America?

Obama signing a bill like this with the hyper-sonic, complete backing of both chambers of government spells out everything that is wrong with American government today and why so few people trust anyone who calls themselves a politician or government staffer. It’s also a prime example as to why so many Americans have all but given up on the political process, almost forced to submit to its systemic corruption.
This is one of the ways in which our long-serving Congressmen/women, Senators, esteemed residents and staff in the White House are able the amass such huge fortunes during their glorious political careers- by simply gaming the system.

One set of rules for the people, and another set of rules for our “leaders”.

It does not appear that they can actually be trusted to make decisions that govern political life.

This is a typical occurrence where our elected officials only work to benefit themselves and basically tell the people to……”F*ck Off!”……..

Who’s The Crook?

They are all bums…..they are all liars………they are all crooks……and they are all corrupt…….you have heard this all before….no matter which party you lean to…..the other is all a bunch of crooks and liars……Personally, I have been saying it for at least 30 years….maybe more……but now……there is some validity to the accusations……….

Voters are more convinced than ever that most congressmen are crooks.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters now view most members of Congress as corrupt. That’s up seven points from June and the highest finding yet recorded. Just 29% think most members are not corrupt, and another 25% are not sure…

Similarly, a whopping 85% of voters think most members of Congress are more interested in helping their own careers than in helping other people. That’s a record high for surveys stretching back to early November 2006. Only seven percent (7%) believe most of the legislators are more interested in helping other…….

Could it be that the voter is just pissed at Washington….well, yes and no……I will tell you why I say yes…..

I recently wrote a piece about the insider trading being committed by members of Congress……..

Four university researchers examined 16,000 common stock transactions made by approximately 300 House representatives from 1985 to 2001, and found what they call “significant positive abnormal returns,” with portfolios based on congressional trades beating the market by about 6 percent annually.

What’s their secret? The report speculates, but does not conclude, it could have something to do with the ability members of Congress have to trade on non-public information or to vote their own pocketbooks — or both.

The researchers, Alan J. Ziobrowski of Georgia State University, James W. Boyd of Lindenwood University, Ping Cheng of Florida Atlantic University and Brigitte J. Ziobrowski of Augusta State University, noted that the circumstances are ripe for abuse.

“In the course of performing their normal duties, members of Congress have access to non-public information that could have a substantial impact on certain businesses, industries or the economy as a whole. If used as the basis for common stock transactions, such information could yield significant personal trading profits,” they wrote.

So members are getting rich trading on information that the rest of us do not…….that is illegal…it is called insider trading…..the SAME thing that Martha Stewart was convicted of doing…..so why has the media NOT made a bigger deal out of this…..I mean Wiener’s wiener was NOT illegal…insider trading is…..why is the justice dept not investigating?

And then there is the investments of the House majority leader, Eric Cantor….while what he is doing is NOT illegal….it is a conflict of interests with his duties as the majority leader…..

Debt ceiling negotiations were shut down by House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) last week. This raised renewed fears that the U.S. is on the verge of total credit default, and it raised a question as to whether Cantor – the GOP’s key operative in debt ceiling talks – has a “glaring” conflict of interest. According to Salon, Cantor may be fighting against government credit default in Congress, but he’s personally invested in a mutual fund that will “skyrocket” should default occur.

SO one of the so-called “geniuses” of the GOP is betting against the country as he negotiates the economy situation……is that about it?  And the media has not jumped on this story either….they had rather let Nancy Grace’s head explode or report on a runaway Chihuahua…than focus on the real problems with this country…..it is ruled by criminals and liars…..you would think the justice dept would be all over a report like this….you would think!

All this is sickening!  These people are corrupt and crooks and especially liars…..the sooner we find a way to replace these criminals the better….at this point I am open to anything for a real change…..

In The Short Run

Ethics?  We have all heard of the so-called ethics investigations by the Congress….or the threat of an investigation……Weiner’s weiner comes to mind…..Rangel’s monetary antics……Ensign’s poking a staff member…. all the antics by our not-so-squeaky clean representatives.  I have been calling them everything I can think of except effective law makers…..most of them are do nothing pigs….

I recently wrote a post about the insider trading done by members of Congress….that is that members had been making lots of cash trading on information that they got while serving on various committees….and I asked why there is NO ethics violations and the no need for investigation…..but read the post if you need to have it cleared up a bit…….http://bit.ly/jeYLqt

But why am I re-hashing all this?  Good question…..

Let us go back to last week…..the negotiations on the debt crisis with VP Biden did not end well…..Majority leader of the House walked out of the meetings…..that would be Eric Cantor…..and we heard all the clap trap about tax hikes off the table and that Obama is NOT serious about debt reduction….yada yada….all the conserv talking points……but did you know that the big cheese Cantor is shorting US bonds?

Shorting?  HUH?

Shorting, in investment terms, means……Selling a SECURITY, such as a SHARE, that you do not currently own, in the expectation that its PRICE will fall by the time the security has to be delivered to its new owner. If the price does fall, you can buy the security at the lower price, deliver it to whoever you sold it to and make a PROFIT. The RISK is that the price rises, leaving you with a loss.

In a piece written by Steve Tarlow…..

Debt ceiling negotiations were shut down by House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) last week. This raised renewed fears that the U.S. is on the verge of total credit default, and it raised a question as to whether Cantor – the GOP’s key operative in debt ceiling talks – has a “glaring” conflict of interest. According to Salon, Cantor may be fighting against government credit default in Congress, but he’s personally invested in a mutual fund that will “skyrocket” should default occur.

Okay now get this right!  The person that is leading the negotiations on the debt crisis for the GOP will make a substantial profit if the country fails and defaults…..GOT THAT!  The man is BETTING on the failure of the country!  And to beat all, he is the lead man in the negotiations trying to find common ground to save the country from default…..

I asked before why they will not investigate those using inside trading on info they get in their job and now I ask WHY is Cantor NOT up for an ethics investigation?  This guy whose party is so centered on America to succeed, then why is he betting against it?

It is time for Americans to wake UP!  Know your representative….if these guys and gals are taking the country to the cleaners then we need to DEMAND more ethics investigations…….but there will be few investigations…..why?  These people try to protect their own and in doing so are just as guilty as those caught in the act (whatever that may be)………

If you will recall, the media was all over Weiner’s weiner (pun intended)……they spent an inordinate amount of time and with the help of the GOP made this a 2 week story….but yet NOTHING as far as my previous post or the Cantor thing……why is Weiner’s weiner so much more important than the financial shenanigans of elected officials?

We need to demand an ethics investigation into the underhanded antics of elected reps and they need to be held to something that they are seldom held up to……accountability!

Why Is This Not “Insider Trading”?

From the VOMITORIUM

We hear all about the woes of the congress people….how they have to live in their office to save money….but there seems they are finding ways to make ends meet……

This from an article in the HuffPo…….

Four university researchers examined 16,000 common stock transactions made by approximately 300 House representatives from 1985 to 2001, and found what they call “significant positive abnormal returns,” with portfolios based on congressional trades beating the market by about 6 percent annually.

What’s their secret? The report speculates, but does not conclude, it could have something to do with the ability members of Congress have to trade on non-public information or to vote their own pocketbooks — or both.

The researchers, Alan J. Ziobrowski of Georgia State University, James W. Boyd of Lindenwood University, Ping Cheng of Florida Atlantic University and Brigitte J. Ziobrowski of Augusta State University, noted that the circumstances are ripe for abuse.

“In the course of performing their normal duties, members of Congress have access to non-public information that could have a substantial impact on certain businesses, industries or the economy as a whole. If used as the basis for common stock transactions, such information could yield significant personal trading profits,” they wrote.

That smacks of “insider trading” in my mind……let us go to the approved definition….

Insider trading is the trading  by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company.  However, the term is frequently used to refer to a practice in which an insider or a related party trades based on info of  non-public information obtained during the performance of the insider’s duties at the corporation, or otherwise in breach of a fiduciary or other relationship of trust and confidence or where the non-public information was misappropriated from the company…….

Sorry and I feel for the poor abused Congress people (and yes…that is sarcasm)…..They are PIGS…….but if they are trading on info that they got while serving in Congress….then they are criminals and guilty of inside trading…..this should be turned over to the DoJ immediately!