Congress Won't Outlaw Insider Trading For Itself

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   Will Bensonposted 14 years ago

   Posted May 05, 2010 by Peter Gorenstein in Yahoo Finance.
   
   "Even a cynic can find Washington's hypocrisy shocking at times. The Wall Street Journal reports today a House bill that would force lawmakers to make greater disclosures on financial transactions and disallow them from trading on nonpublic information is going nowhere fast.
   
   That's right. Members of Congress are currently allowed to profit on insider trading!
   
   The bill, which has been languishing in the House for four years, would require elected officials "to make their financial transactions public within 90 days of a purchase or sale" and "prohibit lawmakers from trading in financial markets based on nonpublic information they learn on the job," the WSJ reports.
   
   It seems they're above the transparency they've been calling for on Wall Street.
   
   http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/co … 78701.html
   
   This comes a day after the same newspaper reported several lawmakers profited by betting against the housing and stock market in 2008.  And some did it using derivatives they've recently been railing against."
   
   Ques. -- Do you think that any sitting US congressperson deserves to be re-elected?

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      rhamsonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      What!  The "slime on the hill" profited from their unique position? 
      
      "I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty."
      Thomas Jefferson
      
      We need to take the money out of their hands.  Soon you would find them fleeing Congress like a rat abandons a sinking ship.

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   I am DB Cooperposted 14 years ago

   This needs more attention. I think members of Congress should have to disclose all of their trading, because they are in privileged positions that give them access to all sorts of information that they could profit from. When they get rich by trading on that inside information, they are ripping off your average investor, which is why it's a crime when anyone else does it. Thank you for posting this.

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      rhamsonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      "It's good to be King"
      
      Mel Brooks as "Pissboy" filling in as King Louie of France in "The History of the World"

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         Will Bensonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Maybe we're onto something ....
         
         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGfXiIXTpE0

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   Will Bensonposted 14 years ago

   Rhamson & DB -
   
   Yup - fine bunch we've got. Hopefully, in Nov. we'll start tossing some out.
   
   Also, I have a feeling we may not have heard the last of this.

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      rhamsonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      The funny thing is that we have elected and re-elected these "Slimebags" time and time again.  What is it in the American paradigm that compells us to act this way?
      
      We all know that money is at the root of the whole problem yet we continue to up the ante for them to raise as much money (legally or illegally) so they may remain in power to practice more of the same.  Public supported campaign financing is needed more now than ever.  With the money as a distraction they haven't a chance of governing objectively.
      
      My father always said "We have the best government money can buy".

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   Daniel Carterposted 14 years ago

   The bottom line is that Americans, on the whole, are not much different than their congressmen. You can blame them for the ills, but greed is pretty prevalent everywhere. Until we are individually ready to give up the greed that they have access to (if we were in their boots) then we will have to put up with it. If you were in their shoes, how tempting would it be to do what they are doing?
   
   I have often said let congress have the same retirement and health plan benefits that the rest of America has and see how that fits. But until Americans get past their greed and entitlement issues, it's a symptom of society, and we all share the blame until we are all changed.
   
   That's my two cents.

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      rhamsonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with much of what you are saying but are we to have no change because we will not practice what we preach?
      
      If the morals of the "Slimebag Congressman" is an extention of our own morality how can we ever expect change.  That wreaks of a radical solution on the scale of a revolution and installation of a benevolent dictator to effect any change.  Is there any sanity left to confront the problem and make the sacrifices neccessary to put us back on a healthy road?  I hate to think we are doomed to wallow in this slime pit with our congressional agendas.

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      Will Bensonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Politicians get re-elected by "bringing home the bacon" (read "pork").
      
      Most people have a low opinion of other people's representatives, but if their own can get globs of gov't money for unneeded projects, he gets re-elected.
      
      Being bribed with our own money is not only greedy, its ignorant.
      
      My 2 cts.

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         rhamsonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         It is funny you use the term ignorant.  Thomas Jefferson forsaw the fruits of congressional corruption so long ago.  Why are we so ignorant of it today?
         
         "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...[we will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers... And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for[ another]... till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery... And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression."
         Thomas Jefferson
         
         I hate to think of myself as a automaton but the reality of it is becoming clearer.

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            Will Bensonposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            It's almost spooky - reading Jefferson's words.
            
            He and the other framers of our constitution made sure we had the necessary remedies available to deal with these dangers, but they couldn't insure that we'd be smart enough to know when we were being had...and smart enough to know what to do about it.
            
            We owe it to every serviceman serving, every taxpayer laboring and to our descendants to become informed and vote. Never give blind loyalty to any candidate, philosophy or party. Make them earn your vote.
            
            My thoughts, my rant.

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   MikeNVposted 14 years ago

   Do as I say not as I do.
   
   Dodd took a Jumbo loan payoff from Countrywide... he's a criminal... and he's the guy authoring "financial reform".

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   Madame Xposted 14 years ago

   “When the people find that they can vote themselves money,
   that will herald the end of the republic.”
   
   - Benjamin Franklin

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