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In reply to the discussion: Paul Ryan traded on insider information to avoid 2008 crash! [View all]grok
(550 posts)32. Nothing new.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/members-of-congress-trade-in-companies-while-making-laws-that-affect-those-same-firms/2012/06/23/gJQAlXwVyV_story.html?hpid=z1
Congress Riddled With Insider Trading
Study find 1-in-8 Congress trades pose potential conflict of interest
The Washington Post has pored over the 45,000 stock transactions made by members of Congress between 2007 and 2010, in a mammoth investigation into just how bad the government's insider trading problem is. The result130 members of Congress or their families bought and sold up to $218 million in 323 companies registered to lobby on legislation that comes before their committees. That amounts to 5,531 trades, or nearly one in eight (although the Post notes that not all these trades are insider trading, only that the trades represent potential conflicts of interest).
It is also a problem split fairly evenly between the parties, with 68 Democrats and 62 Republicans. Sen. John Kerry had the highest value of stocks that overlap with companies that appeared before him, between $42 million and $86 million, while Texas Rep. Michael McCaul had the highest number of overlapping trades. Only six senators use ethics-committee approved blind trusts, and the House does not even keep track. "Members need to bend over backwards to show people they are there for the good of the country," said former Rep. Brian Baird, who co-authored a failed bill to stop insider trading in Congress in 2006, adding "if there is an appearance of an impropriety, there just might be an impropriety.
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Seems like a double standard where rules applied to Martha but not Ryan. So can I at least
Justice wanted
Aug 2012
#15
A wholly dishonest, devious, and despicable person imv with more than a dash of
indepat
Aug 2012
#44
Are you absolutely 100% certain that insider trading statutes do not apply here? If so,
coalition_unwilling
Aug 2012
#19
Make it law to forbid insider trading by elected representatives and name it for Ryan.
SleeplessinSoCal
Aug 2012
#56
What do you think. In your opinion, do they rise to 'doing something wrong' forgetting legal distinc
stevenleser
Aug 2012
#8
Also based on the transactions, he was regularly trading many of those stocks throughout the year.
cbdo2007
Aug 2012
#14
Note, too, that September 18 was awfully late to be selling bank stocks.
mahatmakanejeeves
Aug 2012
#23
If it makes anyone feel any better, it looks like he lost money every time he traded GS stock
cbdo2007
Aug 2012
#13
How much time passed between that meeting and the public getting knowledge of these Banks' health?
Ian_rd
Aug 2012
#38
Business Insider article on this, already getting a lot of tweets and Facebook recs:
highplainsdem
Aug 2012
#41
He made the trades before the 7 pm meeting, but that doesn't let him off the hook.
pnwmom
Aug 2012
#54
I did this above. Look for my posts. He lost money on most of his stock trades related to this.
cbdo2007
Aug 2012
#61
if this story is verifiable in a rock solid way - this can be very, very big
Douglas Carpenter
Aug 2012
#59