I want you to know (and understand) that I feel there are scumbags in congress who absolutely shouldn't be allowed to buy and sell stock/s but I worded my question the way I did on purpose.ousdahl wrote: ↑Thu Dec 16, 2021 8:25 am I think it’s a conflict of interest. We shouldn’t have to ask ourselves whether the ones making the rules are also breaking the rules.
Despite illy’s attempts to zing me, I think he actually did a good job of making my point for me.
Lawmakers are privy to all sorts of confidential information, and they shouldn’t be able to leverage that for their own personal gain. How is that a free market?
Pelosi’s been a congresswoman for years, always earning under $200k in salary, yet somehow she’s worth almost
$200 mil.
This isn’t the best analogy, but - would you be cool playing basketball if one of the players on the opposing team was also a ref?
Reason being, obviously the the SEC, IRS, FBI, is/are supposed to monitor what a congress person knows and doesn't know in regards to "insider info" and their ability to trade and manipulate stock prices.
If a congressperson is honest and is not privy to "inside info", then it shouldn't be a "conflict of interest" by definition.
I understand those who say it's best to error on the side of caution and assume congress people are NOT going to be honest so they shouldn't be allowed to buy and sell stock but then we enter a very slippery slope. How do we make a law (that would probably ultimately have to be voted on by congress) that would punish the honest people in congress? If they were "banned" from trading stocks then how do we know they are not having people trade for them? How far out do we take it? You're a congress person and your 2nd cousin's doctor isn't allowed to trade?
When our company went public, we were told we can not have immediate family members invest in our company. We have EXTREMELY strict and complex compliance rules and procedures so it's really not even something I would want want to be involved in even if they could invest in our company. Meanwhile, UNKNOWN to me at the time, I found out my brother in law bought stock in our company.
I wasn't happy he didn't initially tell me because I was supposed to report it to compliance. He didn't know that so I couldn't be mad at him but it caused some conflict and the upshot was while he's not "immediate family", of course if I had any "inside info" I could leak it to him and BOTH he and I could get in some serious trouble. I was basically told he can keep his stock (although it would probably be best for everyone if he sold it) but I was to NEVER discuss anything investment related about our company with him.
As far as Pelosi, that's a conundrum. One could assume and say she and her husband made some very good investments but as you have alluded to, how much of that is/was "kosher"? I have no idea.
