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Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

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Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#181

Post by sakopov »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #50

Similar from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26807695 HN can't see the forest for the trees. Trading isn't the issue. Why are our top elected officials not compensated enough? Income inequality. If it isn't trading, they'll chase Bezos until they "get what they deserve" one way or another.

Are you saying that these insane leveraged trades won't be happening if elected officials are compensated more? That is a preposterous assumption! You're right, trading isn't the issue. Greed and abuse of power are, however.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#182

Post by cubano »

seph-reed wrote: post #94
ek750 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I agree in theory, but I think we've seen in practice that people are easily controlled by mass media. Wouldn't we just be moving the locus of control?

Do you know what liquid democracy is? It's a form of representative democracy, so it should be able to avoid the issues of oligarchy (being centralized and easy to corrupt) as well as the issues of full democracy (where every idiot has a say worth any experts)

Why would you believe that both the individual voters and their delegates wouldn't be susceptible to almost all the same corrupting and manipulative factors that plague voting systems today?

The OP is correct...spending in mass media on the various issues would almost surely allow the purchasing of voter mindshare just exactly as advertising today drives sales of almost identical branded products for inflated prices.

Don't get me wrong...in general I like the idea of "liquid democracy" (I remember it being called "Superdemocracy" back in the 80's when MajorBBS creator Tim Striker very much lobbied for its creation)...but it would be foolish to believe that the same forces that corrupt modern politics wouldn't be able to corrupt it as well.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#183

Post by lend000 »

psychlops wrote: post #151
wpietri wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever the behind-the-scenes truth, I think the appearance of conflicting interests is a problem regardless. For a lot of elected offices and high public service positions, I think their wealth should be put into a blind trust, one constrained by law to buy broad, boring things like index funds. That would surely be a problem for some individuals. But I don't think it's a systemic problem. We only need to find 0.00…

Just require them to announce their trades publicly 24 hours in advance. And let them manage their own finances. All these shenanigan's would disappear.

Why should they be held under less scrutiny than CEO's? They typically have to clear their stock sales with the SEC months in advance.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#184

Post by unholiness »

A lot of justified negativity in this thread.

On the flip side, are there any congresspeople who have publicly put all their assets in a blind trust? Any who have advanced bills requiring this of their colleagues?

The solution to problems like this is elections, and you would think "My opponent is insider trading while I literally can't" would make a great campaign ad.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#185

Post by alexfromapex »

mabbo wrote: post #9

The very people whose job it should be to stop this sort of thing are the ones who are profiting from it. How do you change this? No really, how can we force congress to change the rules so that elected officials can't profit from inside information? Why would they ever vote for such a bill?

To start with, there needs to be lots of advocacy for insider trading investigations

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#186

Post by adolph »

slibhb wrote: post #19
mabbo wrote: post #9

The very people whose job it should be to stop this sort of thing are the ones who are profiting from it. How do you change this? No really, how can we force congress to change the rules so that elected officials can't profit from inside information? Why would they ever vote for such a bill?

Is this not already illegal? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOCK_Act

https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/04/16/17749...

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#188

Post by Zelphyr »

Until we all start holding these people more accountable, and better educating ourselves on the issues, nothing is going to change and they know it.

Here is, in particular, what they know: We as a whole despise Congress but somehow manage to convince ourselves that, "My representative is the only one who is honest!" so we re-elect them over and over again.

Here is another thing they know: the number of people I know personally who bitch and complain about issues based purely on headlines they've read or heard (note, it's ONLY the headlines. they can't be bothered to actually read the article) is, for me, astounding. In other words; the people don't want to do the work of really educating themselves and the politicians take advantage of that.

Let me say it again. Until we educate ourselves and demand that the people we elect be more accountable to us, the people, then they will. not. change.

Re: Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress

#189

Post by [deleted] »

munk-a wrote: post #160
throwaway5752 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I speak for a lot of people that while I agree with you in principle, the sudden interest in this idea in Republican circles after the prior administration's absolute mockery of conflict of interest and self-dealing laws seems hypocritical.

Laws need to come into force sometime - and as long as we're not going to get a ping-pong law that's repealed as soon as republicans get into power then I don't mind it happening while democrats hold the torch. I am well aware of the hypocrisy some folks show on this topic but, honestly, it's a good law no matter who is in power and if we're just trying to be petty we won't get anything done.

[deleted]
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