(TheRedWire.com) – For decades, no one was better at using legislative knowledge to get rich than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). In April 2012, Congress passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) after the public learned members of Congress could buy and sell stocks based on insider information they gleaned about companies as they wrote legislation impacting companies. A former Obama insider, recently blasted Pelosi over possible ethical violations.
In 2011, Pelosi made a fortune from Visa while buying up stock while Congress wrote legislation benefiting the credit card processor. She bought stocks while lawmakers wrote the legislation away from public view and then sold them after the law passed, helping companies to the tunes of massive profits. That’s the classic definition of insider trading in the private sector, and it’s against the law.
It's a ridiculous comment! She might as well have said "let them eat cake." Sure, it's a free-market economy. But your average schmuck doesn't get confidential briefings from government experts chock full of nonpublic information directly related to the price of stocks.🎂 https://t.co/2yRpEiJgO5
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) December 15, 2021
On Friday, December 17, America learned 52 members of Congress and 182 of their senior staff members violated STOCK by not reporting their stock earnings. Pelosi defended the wrongdoing by members of Congress and, for the first time in a while, touted the free market. It didn’t sit well with former Obama head of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub. The former Obama official stated Pelosi’s defense was disgusting. He said the public is tired of elected officials buying and selling stock and giving the appearance they’re getting wealthy off insider trading.
Schaub added his belief that all lawmakers should be banned from buying and selling stocks because they get confidential briefings full of nonpublic information related to stock prices.
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