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NYT investigation into politicians trading stocks (1 Viewer)

In any case that can be a determining factor for you when you vote for them.
You could say the same thing about age requirements, citizenship requirements, residency requirements and any other requirements to be in public office. Some stuff is so important that we just don’t even let voters decide whether it matters or not. For me, this is WAY more important than all of those.
 
I would like everyone to be as rich as they want and have as many opportunities to do this if that is what drives them.
I don’t want legislators who are driven by becoming as personally rich as possible.
What if they want to donate all this to charity or start up a foundation?

In any case that can be a determining factor for you when you vote for them.
Allowing corruption because they might want to donate the proceeds to charity doesn't seem like a good thing
 
In any case that can be a determining factor for you when you vote for them.
You could say the same thing about age requirements, citizenship requirements, residency requirements and any other requirements to be in public office. Some stuff is so important that we just don’t even let voters decide whether it matters or not. For me, this is WAY more important than all of those.
I guess I don't necessarily think every person who trades in the market is out to screw us and only get rich. Take Nancy Pelosi, her name has been brought up, she is very rich. Her husband is also very rich and is some finance guy. I assume this guy isn't dumb enough to make trades based on what her hears from Nancy and risk going to prison. I also assume he would be crafty enough to use this information in other ways to make money if so inclined.

Isn't making all their trades public and available to scrutiny by regulators and the like the better way to keep watch of this?
 
I would like everyone to be as rich as they want and have as many opportunities to do this if that is what drives them.
I don’t want legislators who are driven by becoming as personally rich as possible.
What if they want to donate all this to charity or start up a foundation?

In any case that can be a determining factor for you when you vote for them.
Allowing corruption because they might want to donate the proceeds to charity doesn't seem like a good thing
I am not saying allow corruption. What is the best way to keep it from happening?
 
Isn't making all their trades public and available to scrutiny by regulators and the like the better way to keep watch of this?
I don’t think so for at least two reasons:
1) it’s really hard to prove that a particular trade was due to some specific information. I don’t see transparency as sufficient to actually stop shady activities.
2) The problem is not only that legislators are actually doing shady stuff, but that there is a perception that they are doing shady stuff. That’s damaging to the public confidence in government even when some of the trades are totally legit.
 
Isn't making all their trades public and available to scrutiny by regulators and the like the better way to keep watch of this?
I don’t think so for at least two reasons:
1) it’s really hard to prove that a particular trade was due to some specific information. I don’t see transparency as sufficient to actually stop shady activities.
2) The problem is not only that legislators are actually doing shady stuff, but that there is a perception that they are doing shady stuff. That’s damaging to the public confidence in government even when some of the trades are totally legit.
For point one. If they are on a committee and trade a lot within that area they are open to some serious probing. Have at it. If someone has some amazing track record or trades one stock a year that always goes up or down miraculously as they do...get after them.

I mean they put Martha Stewart in jail over some stock tip, they should be catching all these people as well. Some of the examples in the article seem very fishy, get into it SEC.

People's perceptions I guess is a thing. If it makes them feel better about the government that Senator Corker can't buy Coca-Cola stock I guess. I'd personally rather the scumbags get caught doing this so we know who they are.

I guess I don't really care that much. I am not going to be in Congress no skin off my nose if they want to do this. I have zero faith that this solves much however, I guarantee there will be ways around whatever system they try to put in place. I think if their trades are heavily scrutinized it would make it easier to catch people.
 
I mean you had the one congressman ask on the floor or meeting something along the lines of as long as we still get stock information.....

Not the best post as my memory is fuzzy and I don't recall who it was
 
I think if their trades are heavily scrutinized it would make it easier to catch people.
Doubtful. If there is a politician in a heavy left or right district, it has been shown over and over that almost no level of corruption will result in them being voted out.

These politicians make 174K a year and take in millions of political donations. They get a pension for life after just 5 years. They get speaking engagements that pay 10's of thousands of dollars. They make enough money that they do not need to be gaming the system any more with "insider" trading.
 
I think if their trades are heavily scrutinized it would make it easier to catch people.
Doubtful. If there is a politician in a heavy left or right district, it has been shown over and over that almost no level of corruption will result in them being voted out.

These politicians make 174K a year and take in millions of political donations. They get a pension for life after just 5 years. They get speaking engagements that pay 10's of thousands of dollars. They make enough money that they do not need to be gaming the system any more with "insider" trading.
If they are making trades based on info they gathered that is not available to the public they should be arrested.

Ted Cruz or AOC or whoever buying and selling Apple every few weeks doesn’t really concern me.

The speaking arraignments, lobbying, gerrymandering issues you raised are higher on my list of concerns if we are worried about undue influence / them being crooks.
 
Good twitter thread on this investigation.
"Although Pelosi was not included in the report," :lol:
So Pelosi keeps getting brought up. The Pelosi‘s are very wealthy and the husband is some finance dude.

What trades has he made that are so suspicious? I googled a bit and he was trading stuff like Apple and Nvidia at the height of market frenzy and made bank WOW that is shocking...and lots of stuff like this.

There has to be more than this.
 
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I would like everyone to be as rich as they want and have as many opportunities to do this if that is what drives them.
I don’t want legislators who are driven by becoming as personally rich as possible.
What if they want to donate all this to charity or start up a foundation?

In any case that can be a determining factor for you when you vote for them.
Actually that falls into Tim’s greater good fallacy. Do you want your retirement dictated by politicians who determine that their charity is more worthy of YOUR money than how you can spend it? If so, just give all your money to the people crossing the border now, they need it worse than you, and it’s a great cause.
 
I would like everyone to be as rich as they want and have as many opportunities to do this if that is what drives them.
I don’t want legislators who are driven by becoming as personally rich as possible.
What if they want to donate all this to charity or start up a foundation?

In any case that can be a determining factor for you when you vote for them.
Actually that falls into Tim’s greater good fallacy. Do you want your retirement dictated by politicians who determine that their charity is more worthy of YOUR money than how you can spend it? If so, just give all your money to the people crossing the border now, they need it worse than you, and it’s a great cause.
I was only making the point that I don’t assume people who want to make money are evil or going to do it by cheating.

If someone is cheating the system they should be held accountable. The penalties for people doing this ideally would be more severe the more influence you actually have.
 

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