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Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

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Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#61

Post by realce »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #55

I'm completely fine with politicians being paid significantly more if them, their partners and their relatives faced serious prison time is they did the sort of insider trading that is considered completely normal and weirdly they're allowed to do but it's illegal if the lowly plebs do it. End of the day these people are paid very little on paper for the amount of pressure and responsibility yet if you follow their f…

Here here! I think we need to deeply reexamine how much we pay officials. Senators/Governors should probably get triple their current pay with severe penalties for any financial fraud.

This was one of the better Andrew Yang points too. Reps have very little financial incentive to do the "right thing" and we could help them realign that incentive by just paying them more.

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#62

Post by user3939382 »

themanmaran wrote: post #15

Outright banning trades will only obscure congressional trading (shell corps, friends/family, etc.) I would prefer a public registry listing all congressional trades. I know this is legally available data, but very difficult to access.

We already have a regulatory framework for managing those issues that was built to deal with insider trading.

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#63

Post by jakeinspace »

leesalminen wrote: post #48
bastardoperator wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's widespread, republicans seem to be doing it more though https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/us/politics/david-perdue-... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/19/doj-will-not-charge-sen-rich... https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/11/rand-paul... https://tulsaworld.com/news/u-s-sen-jim-inhofe-responds-afte...

Bernie Sanders is worth $3 million and has never worked outside of politics in his entire life. Maybe that seems like not a lot to the SV types, but it’s far, far more than what most people I know have to show for a lifetime of actually hard work. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rich-bernie-sanders-210000864...

1: That's not a real source, it just cites celebretynetworth.com. 2: Any particular reason to single him out, considering he's one of the oldest and lowest-net-worth senators? I'd say $3 million is a fairly understandable net worth for an 80 year old who's been in congress 30 years, and held public office for 40. His wife is also fairly successful.

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#64

Post by 34679 »

koheripbal wrote: post #52
_wldu wrote: post #23

We should also do away with the steak dinners, golf trips and other 'perks' that lobbyists/vendors give them in exchange for votes.

So meetings can not take place over a meal? ...or are you specifically saying they can only order certain dishes? Maybe we should force all meetings with politicians to take place on the floor of a mcdonalds. No chairs - that would be too fancy.

Have you never split a check before?

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#65

Post by giantg2 »

seventytwo wrote: post #47
giantg2 wrote: post #35

It's the most blatant example of insider trading. Company insiders might have inside access to a single company. Lawmakers have access to inside information that can affect the entire industry or market. It's a perfect example of how we do have class stratification in society and that rule of law and equality are laughably distant ideas in a sea of hypocrisy.

Good point. Maybe all that’s needed is for better prosecution of insider trading for these guys? Of course the problem is the power they have to resist or meddle in any prosecution efforts… that’s always the problem with holding the powerful to account, I guess.

The biggest issue in enforcement efforts is not that they can meddle, it's that they are "one of us". They are insiders of the system and other insiders don't want to arrest or prosecute them because there are ulterior motives. One is that if they start arresting and prosecuting insiders for something like this, that may remove the longstanding customs that protect themselves from similar things. There's also the idea of upholding the offices they hold. For example, complaints against judges are so secret that they will not disclose information related to them even if they contain exculpatory information and you subpoena them. Why? Because secrecy is necessary to preserve the public's trust in the system. If anything, that secrecy and reasoning should make any rational person question the integrity of the system. There are also plenty of stories of high profile politicians blatantly ignoring any number of laws and putting people in danger (driving violations are extremely common).

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#66

Post by magu0 »

leesalminen wrote: post #48
bastardoperator wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's widespread, republicans seem to be doing it more though https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/us/politics/david-perdue-... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/19/doj-will-not-charge-sen-rich... https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/11/rand-paul... https://tulsaworld.com/news/u-s-sen-jim-inhofe-responds-afte...

Bernie Sanders is worth $3 million and has never worked outside of politics in his entire life. Maybe that seems like not a lot to the SV types, but it’s far, far more than what most people I know have to show for a lifetime of actually hard work. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rich-bernie-sanders-210000864...

Okay, but what does this have to do with trading stocks on inside knowledge?

As far as I’ve heard, that money is from salary and book sales.

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#67

Post by bern4444 »

Trading activity should be limited for federal employees at that level in a similar manner that trading is limited for bank employees and their families. They should be allowed to trade index funds, etfs, mutual funds etc, but perhaps not individual stocks.

Or perhaps there should be a bi-annual or quarterly trading period where they're allowed to trade individual stocks.

Should they be allowed to also trade derivatives (Options, futures etc)? I think so but with similar restrictions.

Perhaps also they should get a raise. Senators and house members make ~175,000. Having to pay for two houses/apartments. It seems a bit low for their relative importance. Perhaps a higher salary would mean they rely less on Wall St too

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#68

Post by koheripbal »

camjohnson26 wrote: post #11

Particularly bad violations have been the Fed presidents making multimillion dollar trades with personal accounts, and Nancy Pelosi’s husband apparently directly trading on privileged information. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/16/fed-chief-powell-orders-ethi... https://fortune.com/2021/07/08/house-speaker-nancy-pelosi-hu...

Your sources do not say that they traded based upon insider info.

In the case of the Fed, they only questioned whether they should be allowed to own individual stocks at all.

....and the selling of tech by NP's husband. That doesn't mean he sold because he had specific info that was secret. The article does not even make that allegation. Tech has gone up a lot - selling some is not unreasonable.

Re: Many believe it's time to do away with lawmakers making stock trades

#70

Post by caymanjim »

leesalminen wrote: post #48
bastardoperator wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's widespread, republicans seem to be doing it more though https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/us/politics/david-perdue-... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/19/doj-will-not-charge-sen-rich... https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/11/rand-paul... https://tulsaworld.com/news/u-s-sen-jim-inhofe-responds-afte...

Bernie Sanders is worth $3 million and has never worked outside of politics in his entire life. Maybe that seems like not a lot to the SV types, but it’s far, far more than what most people I know have to show for a lifetime of actually hard work. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rich-bernie-sanders-210000864...

Senators get paid pretty well, have great benefits, and lots of reimbursed expenses. Sanders is also older than dirt and still hasn't retired despite his age. I can't believe he's only worth $3 million.
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