Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fed to ban policymakers from owning individual stocks

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 232 posts

Re: Fed to ban policymakers from owning individual stocks

#111

Post by m0zg »

Ban insider trading in Congress as well. Double their salaries, ban all speculative activity, and monitor their inflows/outflows and large property purchases so that no shenanigans occur under the table.

It's blindingly obvious corruption when Nancy Pelosi is able to do better in the stock market than Warren Buffett, and all hedge funds save for RenTech: https://twitter.com/nancytracker

It's nuts when congresspeople pretend to "grill" Big Tech and Big Pharma execs while holding multmillion dollar positions in their companies' stocks.

If there is a real "threat to our democracy", this is it. This is the threat. Of course this would deprive congresspeople of billions of dollars in stock gains, so you can be 100% sure no laws abridging any such activity will ever pass, but one can dream.

Re: Fed to ban policymakers from owning individual stocks

#112

Post by fdgsdfogijq »

awb wrote: post #7

The relatively low salaries compared to the huge amounts of power is almost begging for insider trading, influence peddling, etc. > The salary of a Congress member varies based on the job title of the congressman or senator. Most senators, representatives, delegates and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico make a salary of $174,000 per year. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/pay-salary/congressman-... Then a…

Not really, most people very high up in the FED are already independently wealthy

Re: Fed to ban policymakers from owning individual stocks

#113

Post by jkepler »

fragmede wrote: post #74
WaitWaitWha wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just to expand, indeed their salaries are relative average. But, their benefits package both during and after tenure is generous. Their package include health & life insurance outside the general public market, social security, FERS, CSRS, personnel & office and mail allowances, office space, furniture, office equipment, food, laundry, and much more. It will definitely not make them millionaires, but will allow them…

Listen, I know we're all senior developers working at a FAANG, making between $300k-500k/year in total compensation, but $160k/yr is a giant pile of money for many, many Americans. The fact that it's $160k + health insurance plan that qualifies as "really fucking good" makes that $160k far more than the already-above-average Joe's 160k.

I'm a geek working at a nontechnical nonprofit, outside the US, and I don't even have a 6-figure annual salary. And yet, I was reading a book about capitalism and democracy in my current country, and I realized that my salary, which is decent compared to many Americans, puts me in the top 20% of earners here.

So I agree wholeheartedly: $160k is a large salary for the vast majority of the world, and I would guess that its large for many of HackerNews' global readers.

Re: Fed to ban policymakers from owning individual stocks

#114

Post by zz865 »

awb wrote: post #7

The relatively low salaries compared to the huge amounts of power is almost begging for insider trading, influence peddling, etc. > The salary of a Congress member varies based on the job title of the congressman or senator. Most senators, representatives, delegates and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico make a salary of $174,000 per year. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/pay-salary/congressman-... Then a…

Its the other way around - it encourages wealthy people to serve as a public service.

Re: Fed to ban policymakers from owning individual stocks

#115

Post by wolverine876 »

WalterBright wrote: post #107
awb wrote: post #7

The relatively low salaries compared to the huge amounts of power is almost begging for insider trading, influence peddling, etc. > The salary of a Congress member varies based on the job title of the congressman or senator. Most senators, representatives, delegates and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico make a salary of $174,000 per year. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/pay-salary/congressman-... Then a…

Some? How many people would compromise their ethics a bit for $1,000,000? how about $10,000,000? $100,000,000? Most everybody. It's easy to be virtuous when there's no temptation.

> Most everybody.

It depends what you mean, but I think you underestimate people. We all contain virtue and greed, and have the free will to choose which we will favor.

Of course, it's more complicated than that anyway: What happens is that some kinds of corruption become normalized and thus people don't feel they are violating ethics, and some corruption, though objectively no worse, is not normalized and is responded to with outrage.

Re: Fed to ban policymakers from owning individual stocks

#116

Post by nerfhammer »

smolder wrote: post #14
awb wrote: post #7

The relatively low salaries compared to the huge amounts of power is almost begging for insider trading, influence peddling, etc. > The salary of a Congress member varies based on the job title of the congressman or senator. Most senators, representatives, delegates and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico make a salary of $174,000 per year. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/pay-salary/congressman-... Then a…

This is about the Fed banning it's own policymakers from owning them, not about congress.

Would the Fed actually have the authority to even do that, regulate what securities Congress members are allowed to hold?

Re: Fed to ban policymakers from owning individual stocks

#118

Post by dnautics »

nerfhammer wrote: post #116
smolder wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about the Fed banning it's own policymakers from owning them, not about congress.

Would the Fed actually have the authority to even do that, regulate what securities Congress members are allowed to hold?

probably not. Then again, does the fed actually have the authority to do some of the things that it does?

Re: Fed to ban policymakers from owning individual stocks

#119

Post by kolbe »

nerfhammer wrote: post #116
smolder wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about the Fed banning it's own policymakers from owning them, not about congress.

Would the Fed actually have the authority to even do that, regulate what securities Congress members are allowed to hold?

“The Fed” as in the Federal Reserve: no.

“The Fed” as in the Federal Government: yes.

Re: Fed to ban policymakers from owning individual stocks

#120

Post by kolbe »

WalterBright wrote: post #107
awb wrote: post #7

The relatively low salaries compared to the huge amounts of power is almost begging for insider trading, influence peddling, etc. > The salary of a Congress member varies based on the job title of the congressman or senator. Most senators, representatives, delegates and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico make a salary of $174,000 per year. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/pay-salary/congressman-... Then a…

Some? How many people would compromise their ethics a bit for $1,000,000? how about $10,000,000? $100,000,000? Most everybody. It's easy to be virtuous when there's no temptation.

Also think about the thing they’re doing to compromise their ethics: they’re buying stocks with an ‘unfair’ advantage. This isn’t exactly sending kids to war for kickbacks.
Post reply on HN