If you are a member of Congress, there is no limit to how much money you can earn on insider trading.
Why is that, you ask? Because members of Congress and their staffers are specifically exempted from insider trading laws.
As you might expect, those who work in the hallowed halls are not shy about availing themselves of the opportunity. A Wall Street Journal analysis found that at least 72 Congressional aides in both parties had recently traded shares of companies that their bosses helped regulate.
In 2009, while Senate Banking Committee member Mike Crapo, a Republican from Idaho, was involved in discussing “stress tests” on banks such as Bank of America, his aide Karen Brown traded the company’s stock on several occasions in the weeks before May 7, 2009 — when Bank of America surged thanks to a press release on its stress-test result, assuring Ms. Brown a nifty profit.
Asked by the Wall Street Journal to explain, Sen. Crapo’s office said the trades weren’t really made by Karen Brown but by her husband, who had no knowledge of what was going on in the banking committee. Really? What an amazing coincidence.
Is there anyone, anywhere that believes that one?
Doesn’t that give you a warm, fuzzy, knowing that nonpublic securities information can be used to line the pockets of members of Congress and their staffers? is helping make your friendly local politician more secure as he daydreams new ways to prevent, limit, or appropriate for his own reelection purposes – sorry, the needs of the Republic!– your financial success?
The House ethics manual says that if members of Congress were not exempted “it might tend to “insulate a legislator from the personal and economic interests that his/her constituency, or society in general, has in governmental decisions and policy,”
I just thought I would brighten your day with this information so that you can be assured that your Congressional representatives and their staffers are well informed and empowered to profit from their ability to make the rules.
He who makes the rules pockets the gold.
***Ed Randazzo, is a nationally syndicated author. He has been a conservative activist and consultant for over 30 years and is currently the Chief News Editor of Life and Liberty Media***
