XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, or.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics.usa.democrat   
   From: money.grubbing.white.liberal.cunt@splcenter.org   
      
   In article    
   Pirso  wrote:   
   >   
   > Nancy Pelosi made her political bones sucking up to homosexuals and   
   > other child abusing perverts like Harvey Milk.   
      
   Democrats have the opportunity to do something that is good for   
   the   
   country, that would be commonsensical and populist. So why won’t   
   Nancy   
   Pelosi let them?   
      
   I’m talking about the “Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act,”   
   introduced   
   by the Democratic senators Mark Kelly and Jon Ossoff. This   
   legislation   
   (like a similar bill offered by Republican Josh Hawley) would   
   prohibit   
   members of Congress and their families (such as Pelosi’s   
   husband, Paul   
   Pelosi) from buying and selling stocks while they serve. It   
   would help   
   combat the growing consensus that the game is rigged for the   
   powerful   
   and connected—a sentiment shared by top Biden economic adviser   
   Brian   
   Deese.   
      
   Indeed, among some observers, the idea that top political   
   leaders aren’t   
   engaged in insider trading has become a joke. As NPR’s Tim Mak   
   recently   
   reported, “Among a certain community of individual investors on   
   TikTok,   
   House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stock trading disclosures are a   
   treasure   
   trove.” In fact, Mak writes, “you can get a push notification   
   every time   
   Pelosi’s stock trading disclosures are released.”   
      
   First, though, a brief (recent) history of this toxic problem is   
   in   
   order.   
      
   In the midst of the financial meltdown, on Sept. 16, 2008,   
   Treasury   
   Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke   
   held a   
   secret meeting with members of Congress. The result, as Business   
   Insider   
   noted, was that “Congressmen privy to this information   
   reacted—not by   
   dropping everything and drawing up a plan to save the economy,   
   but by   
   dumping stock and avoiding the losses everyone else would take   
   in the   
   coming month. Others bought stocks in financial firms that would   
   later   
   be saved by the federal government.”   
      
   This event is detailed in a 2011 book—Peter Schweizer’s “Throw   
   Them All   
   Out”—which, in turn, inspired a segment on CBS’s 60 Minutes. But   
   the   
   story wasn’t just about the financial meltdown.   
      
   One of the politicians featured in the segment was Nancy Pelosi,   
   who   
   participated in a 2008 Initial Public Offering from Visa, as 60   
   Minutes   
   noted, “just as a troublesome piece of legislation that would   
   have hurt   
   credit card companies, began making its way through the House.   
   Undisturbed by a potential conflict of interest, the   
   Pelosis—whose net   
   worth is well over $100 million—purchased 5,000 shares of Visa   
   at the   
   initial price of $44 dollars. Two days later it was trading at   
   $64. The   
   credit card legislation never made it to the floor of the House.”   
      
   This is a bipartisan problem, and Pelosi was far from the only   
   lawmaker   
   featured in that memorable 60 Minutes episode that helped spark   
   passage   
   of the The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act—a   
   flawed   
   piece of legislation codifying that it it is illegal for members   
   of   
   Congress to use “any nonpublic information derived from the   
   individual’s   
   position… or gained from performance of the individual’s duties,   
   for   
   personal benefit.”   
      
   At least, that’s what the law is supposed to do. The real test   
   would   
   come during the next crisis, which turned out to be the COVID-19   
   pandemic. Despite the law, members of Congress who received   
   coronavirus   
   briefings in early 2020 again made suspicious stock trades just   
   after   
   they found out, just ahead of the public and the markets , how   
   bad the   
   pandemic could be.   
      
   Despite the STOCK Act, none of the members received any serious   
   punishment.   
      
   That’s because it’s nearly impossible to prove that someone   
   acted solely   
   on insider information. Perhaps this is why Pelosi, under   
   pressure from   
   her own party to actually ban stock trading for members and their   
   families, is suggesting stiffer penalties for anyone who breaks   
   the   
   STOCK Act (in fairness, the fines are ridiculously small),   
   rather than   
   enact a more sweeping ban on lawmakers playing the markets.   
      
   It’s fair to say that the STOCK Act hasn’t accomplished its   
   stated   
   goal—and that in the decade since it became law, Pelosi hasn’t   
   done   
      
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