Congress Quickly And Quietly Rolls Back Insider Trading Rules For Itself
In November of 2011, the TV show 60 Minutes did a big expose on insider trading within Congress. While everyone else is subject to basic insider trading rules, it turned out that members of Congress were exempt from the rules. And, as you would imagine, many in Congress have access to market-moving, non-public information. And they made use of it. To make lots and lots of money. Of course, after that report came out and got lots of attention, Congress had to act, and within months they had passed the STOCK Act with overwhelming support in Congress to make insider trading laws that apply to everyone else finally apply to Congress and Congressional staffers as well. As that link notes:
The lopsided votes showed lawmakers desperate to regain public trust in an election year, when the public approval rating of Congress has sunk below 15 percent.
Of course, here we are in 2013 and, lo and behold, it is no longer an election year. And apparently some of the details of the ban on insider trading were beginning to chafe Congressional staffers, who found it hard to pad their income with some friendly trades on insider knowledge.
So… with very little fanfare, Congress quietly rolled back a big part of the law late last week. Specifically the part that required staffers to post disclosures about their financial transactions, so that the public could make sure there was no insider trading going on. Congress tried to cover up this fairly significant change because they, themselves, claimed that it would pose a “national risk” to have this information public. A national risk to their bank accounts.
Rest here…
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just goes to show how dirty the United States Government really is. We have two faced dirt bags starting from the top ” Obama ” all the way down through the system.
I say the Majority of them need to be indited and spend some real time in jail.
They cant be trusted with Amercas affairs at home, thats been proven! and they are certainly allowing Monopalies to thrive even though there are laws against it.
They went after Ma Bell and cut them up in to smallers businesses because of such activities and now allow major corperations to roll over the same laws in place to prevent these same activities.
So why America deals with terrorism in Boston they undermine the Amercan Public by sneaking roll backs or adjustments to laws already written to prevent these types of activities for personal gains. They need to be held Accountable for decieving the very same people that put them in to office and only the Amercan People can get it done. So contact your local dirtbag in the Senate and in Congress and let them know just how disgusted America really is with their and they will be replaced for diseaving the public for personal gain and send them to jail.
It’s what I’ve said for years….kick them all to the curb and start over. The new ones coming in will get the point quickly and if they want to remain in office they’ll do their damn overpaid comfy job in the way it was intended…by the people for the people…after all; we are the ones over paying these useless and self absorbed congress and senate people for too many years. I feel sorry for the few honest and caring members who are blocked from any kind of progress by the “only here to line my pockets” members who if paid what they were worth….would be less than a minimum wage employee. In the case of our government…it is not ” a few bad apples ruin the barrel”, rather, ” a few good apples can’t save the barrel”.