http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/249553/if-were-private-sector-those-congressional-staffers-would-end-jail-veronique-de-rugy
<http://www.nationalreview.com/corner> The Corner <http://www.nationalreview.com/corner> If <http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/249553/if-were-private-sector-those-congressional-staffers-would-end-jail-veronique-de-rugy> This Were the Private Sector, Those Congressional Staffers Would End Up in Jail October <http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/249553/if-were-private-sector-those-congressional-staffers-would-end-jail-veronique-de-rugy> 12, 2010 5:16 P.M. By Veronique de Rugy <http://www.nationalreview.com/author/47929> <http://www.mercatus.org/PeopleDetails.aspx?id=17018> This is really crazy. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal had this <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703431604575522434188603198.html> front page story about how congressional staffers are allowed to use information about policies about to be implemented to invest in stocks and make money. At least 72 aides on both sides of the aisle traded shares of companies that their bosses help oversee, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of more than 3,000 disclosure forms covering trading activity by Capitol Hill staffers for 2008 and 2009. The Journal analysis showed that an aide to a Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee bought Bank of America Corp. stock before results of last year’s government stress tests eased investor concerns about the health of the banking industry. A top aide to the House Speaker profited by trading shares of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in a brokerage account with her husband two days before the government authorized emergency funding for the companies. Now, this is called insider trading in the private sector, and people are going to jail for it. Now, whether one thinks that insider trading is a crime that deserves punishment is not even the issue here. What is stunning is that while insider trading is illegal in the private sector, it is totally legal for government employees to do it, because insider-trading laws don’t apply to Congress. Basically, Congress passed a law making insider trading illegal for the private sector and exempted itself. Some lawmakers find the double standard shocking, and a few years back, a few of them proposed a bill that would prevent members and employees of Congress from trading securities based on nonpublic information they obtain. That bill went nowhere. Here is the interesting part — according to the Journal: When the bill was introduced nearly five years ago, just 14 other lawmakers endorsed it. The current version of the bill has fared worse: Only nine lawmakers support it. There is no companion legislation in the Senate. The whole story is here <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703431604575522434188603198.html> . And here is a follow-up <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704518104575546543960520172.html?KEYWORDS=insider+trading> piece about trying to make it illegal for congressional staffers to trade on information they gather while watching their bosses regulate the heck out of us. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
