LEE’S SUMMIT, November 19, 2011 – Let me get this straight, Martha Stewart goes to jail for insider trading, the President, Senators, and Congressman all berate Wall Street, yet they have the right to use their knowledge of upcoming legislation or changes in the economy to personally profit? And they actually do it? Good God Almighty, this is truly ridiculous.
I could not fathom writing even a total fantasy story with such audacity. Wait, it gets better! They did this by actually writing a law that [exempts] them from the “insider trading laws”.
In President Obama’s Weekly Address he hopes with the following quote: “the average income for the top one percent of Americans has risen almost seven times faster than the income of the average middle class family. And this has happened during a period where the cost of everything from health care to college has skyrocketed.”
Currently in the US Congress there are 57 members (of 535 total) that are in the top 1% according to a story in the USA Today titled “57 members of Congress among wealthy 1%” by Gregory Korte and Fredreka Schouten. Sure, some of them, like Darrel Issa and John Kerry brought money into their current position.
The list of names is very long, but here are some names of people you may know who’ve used what they knew about legislation to benefit from it:
Nancy Pelosy: “Pelosi and husband Paul, an investor, bought stock in Visa when the House was considering a bill that would limit credit card companies’ ability to levy fees on consumers — a significant source of their revenues.” According to a Newsmax.com article entitled Sarah Palin: Congress Rife With ‘Entrenched Corruption’. In case you are wondering she reportedly made upwards of one million dollars.
Further Schweizer reported on Fox News that “Pelosi Made Killing On Clean Energy IPO While Championing Green Legislation”
Spencer Bachus: “House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., whose stock trading was criticized in Schweizer’s book and the 60 Minutes report, issued a letter Wednesday stating “the book is absolutely false and factually incorrect” in accusing him of short-selling General Electric stock. Short-selling refers to betting that a stock will drop in price.” As written in a story by Brian Tumulty titled, Measure to ban Congressional insider trading gains steam.
This is not new.
Brad Barber, MBA, PhD and Terrance Odean, PhD wrote an article in the Journal of Finance back in April of 200 that showed that the average household typically does about 1.5% worse than the market when they invest. Corporate insiders typically do about 7.4% better, yet the Senate does 12.3% better while the poor folks in the US House of Representatives only do about 6% better than the market.
The TEA PARTY needs to fire up their engines again and start speaking out for smaller government, bound by the laws that apply to the people of the United States.
Remember Lincoln? Remember his famous speech? Remember the part that said “…of the people, by the people, and for the people…” I think we’ve allowed Government to grow outside of the constitution long enough. It is time to get back to the founding principles of this country and limit the role of Government. If we limit it, then we by design we also limit their ability to peddle their influence. If we limit it, we also ensure that they are incapable of causing market swings with their never ending, constantly increasing legislation that affects the business cycle – thus we don’t have to worry about the STOCK bill passing – by the way, just in case, let’s make sure it passes!
It is time again for all American’s to pick up their phones, their pens, and even their e-mail and let congress know – without a doubt – that we want the STOCK bill to pass and stop the US Government from profiting from the impact of their legislation on the markets.
President Obama, Senators, Congressmen, before you go badmouthing Wall Street, CEO’s, and corporate leaders remember the 2000 year old words “…let he without sin, cast the first stone…”
Respectfully Submitted,
The Lee’s Summit Conservative
November 21, 2011 at 1:09 pm
I’m glad you brought this up — I just had a conversation about legislators “short selling” as they anticipate ( or hold off) legislative action. There definitely should be a concentrated effort to end this ability. I also love the Pelosi-Stewart picture. It’s a good comparison.