Having Your Cake and Eating it Too: Congresses’ attempt to ban Congressional insider trading

“One of the potential versions of the legislation, sponsored by Senators Jon Ossoff and Mark Kelly, stipulates that lawmakers, their spouses and dependent children would be prohibited from individually investing in stock, bonds, cryptocurrencies and other financial assets tied to particular companies. Alternatively, the legislation would also force members of Congress to divest or move assets into a blind trust, where they would have no involvement in managing the profitability of their investments and require lawmakers to provide detailed transaction summaries for permitted investments.“

NationalNia SmithOctober 22, 2022National, Economy, Insider TradingComment

Arguments Over Stock Ban Reveal Greater Disconnect Between the Public and Federal Government

“A study by the Pew Research center found that only 24% of Americans trust the federal government to do what is right “most of the time.” This percentage has significantly decreased from 60% in 2001 and 77% in 1964. This growing disconnect largely stems from disparities in wealth between politicians and the public.”

NationalJohn PowersFebruary 16, 2022Stock Market, Insider Trading, Congress, Pelosi, Public OpinionComment

NC Sen. Richard Burr Under Investigation for Insider Trading

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced in October that its investigation into NC GOP Senator Richard Burr and his brother-in-law Gerald Fauth was still underway. Burr sold $1.65 million in stock in “February 2020, just before the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. The court filings by the SEC state "Among other things, the Commission is investigating whether, on February 13, 2020, Senator Burr sold stocks on the basis of material nonpublic information in violation of the federal securities laws." One of these laws in question is the 2012 STOCK Act which prohibits legislators from trading stock based on private information. Senator Burr notably voted against this bill.”