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”