Senators propose law that bans members of Congress from trading stocks • Hacker News Board

Re: Senators propose law that bans members of Congress from trading stocks

#81

Post by nullc » Sat, Jul 29, 2023, 6:30 AM UTC

mburns wrote: post #24

nullc wrote: post #20

> The new bill would bar Washington officials from owning or trading stocks, even in blind trusts. Unless you're going to ban congresspersons to hae wealth-- where is the money going to go and what distorting effects will that have -- and will it be superior to the problems of (say) having a blind trust that just holds market indices?

It goes into a blind trust or an index fund. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/349...

Indeed, wtf. the article seems to directly contradict the bill text.

Re: Senators propose law that bans members of Congress from trading stocks

#82

Post by 7jjjjjjj » Sat, Jul 29, 2023, 11:59 AM UTC

nullc wrote: post #20

> The new bill would bar Washington officials from owning or trading stocks, even in blind trusts. Unless you're going to ban congresspersons to hae wealth-- where is the money going to go and what distorting effects will that have -- and will it be superior to the problems of (say) having a blind trust that just holds market indices?

> Unless you're going to ban congresspersons to hae wealth

BASED

If you care more about personal wealth than the American people you shouldn't be running for public office.

Re: Senators propose law that bans members of Congress from trading stocks

#83

Post by spacemanspiff01 » Sat, Jul 29, 2023, 1:33 PM UTC

maxcan wrote: post #61

I've always felt that we should 5x-10x the salaries (Singapore style) of federal elected officials and cabinet secretaries but require them to divest their entire portfolio within 30 days of taking office and only hold securities issued by the US government, states, and localities.

What I've always kinda thought is that each congress person gets a large amount of budget to spend on staff. ~order of 10 million per congressman.

This would allow for the establishment of in house knowledge groups/ staffers, particularly with regards to policy, rather than having to rely on lobbiests. It would also reduce the churn from congressional staffer to industry lobbyist.

Or at least that's my thought. The us gov spends a ridiculous amount of money, spending more in the organization meant to monitor and control that spend. If you even have a half a percentage gain in efficiency would pay for itself.

This is forgetting the ability of congresspeople to be more responsive to constituents.

Re: Senators propose law that bans members of Congress from trading stocks

#84

Post by polski-g » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 5:04 PM UTC

revlolz wrote: post #56

clove wrote: post #21

If they do this, we will lose the smartest members of congress. Hear me out via an example: Consider Nancy Pelosi, who made $20M via trading in 2020. To have predicted the market would crash during otherwise good times and then rise during otherwise hard times, you would have had to be an economic genius. If we had banned our senators from trading, Pelosi would probably choose trading over guiding our nation, essenti…

This seems like a troll post, but I will bite in the spirit of hn and consider it very serious. The brain drain idea is a fallacy. These aren't doctors who will flee to private practices away from Medicare spot where they can earn more money. These are elected public representatives of the people. More power translates to more corruption and tyranny, and I'd be 100% opposed. Our government would be approaching near c…

There are high IQ people who decide against being a doctor because its a lot easier to make $350k programming than working 60hr/week as a doctor (also no educational debt).

Same thing here. If you want high IQ people to do things, then you need to compensate them in some fashion.