If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on TwitterPublic outrage over this news has spurred some members of Congress to take action. Two bills have been introduced in the Senate to prevent government officials from profiting on nonpublic information gained during the course of doing the peoples’ work.On Thursday, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus agreed to hold a hearing on a House version of the legislation know as the STOCK Act — short for Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act.
Bachus (R-AL) himself is a target in “Throw Them All Out” for shorting the market after privately meeting with Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Sen. Bachus fired back against Schweizer earlier this week: The book has “several major and serious untruths and outright factual errors about me,” he wrote in a letter to the publisher.
Other notables who have been cited for profiteering include, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. John Kerry (D-MASS) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). (See: OUTRAGE OF THE DAY: Insider Trading In Congress)
Schweizer, who joined The Daily Ticker’s Aaron Task in the accompanying video, does not believe any sort of law banning Congress from trading on inside information will do much good for two reasons: A sense of entitlement on the part of our elected officials and the fact that the SEC does not have the “guts” to enforce such a law.
Joined Nov 11, 2007
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Opportunity of a lifetime meeting it sounds like to me , especially all the family friends and associates who got to place the big short. What a lucky group of folks!
They need to all not be able to own any stocks imo but if they did that they would (prob do it already) just pass the info to close friends and family for a under the table hand off or maybe just to be nice or a good uncle.
They should all be wiped out of all assets the same as if non-gov investor , trader, asset manager etc , trading on inside info numerous times or even worse then are being treasonous to their country making, not making, or changing laws for personal gain.
They should be held to a much Higher standard with more SEVERE penalties then the stand up guy/gal on Wall street.
Now if they made a mandatory 20 year sentence for violating the public trust and the dignity of their elected position or charged them with treason(in my perfect world they would be charged with treason ,not in real life though), only then perhaps 90 % of them or so would stop.