Insider trading allowed for Congress

Yeah, I know, congress is above the law... duh, right?

Here it is anyway: SOURCE

In a new academic study, four university professors examined investment results on more than 16,000 stock transactions made by 300 House delegates from 1985 to 2001. The result was clear: They beat the market by an average of 0.55% per month, around 6.6% a year. The professors note a previous study showed members of the U.S. Senate did so well they outperformed hedge funds.

In fact, if members of Congress didn't beat the market, they'd be bigger morons than you already think they are. Why? Because insider trading laws don't apply to members of Congress…

You heard that correctly. The Securities and Exchange Act does not apply to members of the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives. Congressional ethics rules say Congressional members aren't allowed to use privileged information for personal gain. But it's just a rule, not a law. It's not legally enforceable. And it's obvious they're taking excess profits out of the stock market…

So, members of congress are greedy and opportunist, so what right? Well here is the problem, there personal portfolios can influence foreign policy which leads to the death of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people.

The Senate Armed Services Committee forbids staff and presidential appointees requiring Senate confirmation from owning securities in more than 48,000 companies that contract with the Defense Department.

But 19 of the 28 senators on that same committee held assets worth between $3.8 million to $10.2 million in companies on the prohibited list between 2004 and 2009.

An interesting point which I read (so cannot take credit for) mentioned that it is better to have unscrupulous politicians, than any that is truly ideological.

The argument is a valid one. The truly ideological politician will stop at nothing to attain their goals because of the conviction that it is "right". Akin to basing policy on religious beliefs, it is right because it is right, and the any means, however horrific, justify the means. (Let's face it, the often cited examples of historic "villains" like Stalin and Hitler, truly believed that they were doing the "right" thing.)
However, at least the person with questionable ethics can be dissuaded of acting in a certain way with rational and logical argumentation.

Your thoughts?

the Billmeister

It seems almost everyone in every government thinks he's above the law nowadays, and if not, just buy your way out of court.

I was only following orders, er profits.
Does that mean I did wrong?
This is disgusting and exactly what I expected from such a corrupt group of greedy ego maniacs.
Yet we still need more "proof" that the system is broken before we are willing to do what is necessary to change it.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


I have seen studies like this before, but it is the one I could find quickly. Source

In essence positions of power are coveted by psychopaths.

Psychopaths demonstrate antisocial behavior and an aggressive narcissism -- they use people through charm, intimidation or violence, she said.

"They have a parasitic lifestyle -- they live off people. Their whole mindset is domination over other people," she said. "Psychopaths are not necessarily criminal in their activities, but they are attracted to positions of power. In the corporate world, there are examples of psychopathic behavior where people use up their employees' life savings with no genuine concern about it. They have no anxiety about their behavior.

However, I'll repeat the discussion point I posted above, is it better to have people of little ethical standards in politics, or someone 100% convinced by their ideology? The latter being more inclined to use any means necessary to achieve their desired ends.

The optimist in me thinks that a compromise can exist and people of strong ethics can be placed in government, however, the cynic in me thinks that the system is set-up to filter such people out, and insure that the political ponzi-scheme continues to profit those in place.

the Billmeister

this is just disgusting.
how do these criminals sleep
at night?

no wonder every one of them
wants their office for life.

reply to post by Billmeister


Lol, that is so funny, I was just watching a documentary where they said that 2 types of people exhibited a certain behavior constantly - economists and psychopaths. (the guy that made the Power of Nightmares)
So true but he forgot to add politicians.