Busting Congress for insider trading

Thanks to the sensational revelations from Hoover’s Peter Schweizer on 60 Minutes and elsewhere, the public is now aware of the uncanny investment success that members of the U.S. Congress enjoy when they personally bet on the stocks of companies with business in the capital. But is it lawful for them to be trading on inside information? I take up that question in my new Cato at Liberty post. More: Bainbridge, Stoll, @AndrewBreitbart.

5 Comments

  • So yet again our ‘public servants’ have enacted laws that apply to everyone except themselves ? What ever happened to Equal Protection under the law ?

  • It is not just insider trading.

    Congress and the Executive Branch exempt themselves from most of the horrific over-criminalization and hyper-regulation they impose on us poor peasants.

  • “Insider trading” is a stupid law to begin with.

    What needs changing is the absolute immunity from accountability that members of Congress have for anything they say in floor debate. They need to become personally liable for fraudulent announcements that entities like Fannie Mae are sound, or that spending programs like ObamaCare will allow Americans to keep their insurance, or for mismanaging the public’s funds of which they are fiduciaries, just as the directors of a Wall Street firm would be liable if they said or did the same things.

  • We cannot lie to congress without going to prison but they can lie to us all day every day and get away with it! congress will point a gun at us and take money out of our paychecks while saying the rich need to pay more! consumers pay all taxes! we pay our personal income tax from our paychecks then when we spend the rest we pay corporate tax at whatever business we shop at and then sales tax on top of that because taxes are a business expense that can be passed on to the consumer plus all other tax related expenses. I am not surprised at all that congress has made it legal for themselves to practice insider trading. and did it in plain view of the public! since the public is not paying attention and frankly doesn’t care what the government dose. why not? they think we are too stupid to figure out whats going on anyway. lets give back states rights and reduce the federal government by 90%. national defense and very limited basic infrastructure is all they need to be doing! let the states handle the rest…

  • […] of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is “bizarre” and “toothless.” Earlier here, here, […]