Politicians in Congress have been found to be active traders, with many beating the market in 2022. However, a New York Times analysis has shown that over one-fifth of Congress members reported trades that potentially conflicted with their public responsibilities, based on an intersection between their trades and the work of committees which they serve. This raises questions as to whether they have access to insider information. While technically within the rules, these trades often leave an appearance of a conflict, and the extent of this overlap is highlighted by the extent of trading over three years reported by lawmakers from both parties.
—
The Greatest Trader in the World
We all know that the greatest trader in the history of the world is a little old man from Omaha, Nebraska— Warren Buffett. It’s actually not true. The greatest trader in the world is Nancy Pelosi! Everybody knows that! Her record is actually better than that of Warren Buffett.
Is This Even Legal?
Wait, wait. Hold on. Hold on. It’s not Nancy Pelosi. I forgot. It’s her husband. She’s not allowed to trade stocks, I don’t think. It’s her husband that does the most incredible trading in the history of trading. But is there something wrong here? The fact that congressmen and congresswomen are incredible traders, are they using inside information? Today, we’re going to take a look at some of the top political traders in Washington DC. And we’re going to ask the question, is this even legal? Let’s get it!
Politicians as Traders
Alright, guys. Welcome to BitBoy Crypto! My name is Ben. If you like these videos, make sure to smash the like button. Today, we’ll be talking about politicians and those of them that are the most active traders in Washington, DC. Hmmm? Traders Politicians Is this even legal? We’re going to take a look at that. But I do want to give a big shout-out to DTEN. These are the people that provided us with this great whiteboard where you guys get these awesome videos. If you’re interested in having one of these for yourself or your office, make sure to go down below in the description. We got a link for you guys if you want to purchase one of these. This is what I call the Big Daddy right here. It’s the Big Daddy. Look at this. It’s awesome.
Trading Records
“BREAKING” “I have just released the full trading report on politicians in 2022. Despite 2022 being the worst market since 2008, both Democrats and Republicans beat the markets. Many politicians individually beat the market. And many made unusual trades resulting in huge gains.” Here are the members of Congress that beat the SPY in 2022. You guys can see here Patrick Fallon. And, of course, the red ones are Republicans. Blue ones are Democrats, Debbie Schultz, obviously, she was kind of in charge of Hillary’s campaign back in the day. Also, she was in charge of the Democratic National Convention. I don’t know what she does now. But I do know that she is over a 50% winner in the markets. And then it drops off pretty tremendously from 50% to 21%. Looking down here are some names that you might know. Marjorie Greene! That’s my Congress lady here in Georgia. You also have John Boozman, who is in charge of the Boozman Bill. 5% gains Then you look here. Dan Crenshaw. We’re going to talk about him in a little bit. 3.6% Tommy Tuberville, actually, former coach of the Auburn Tigers, he came in at 2.5%, Which is better than he ever did with the Auburn Tigers, I believe. Go Dawgs! Okay. So we break it down a little bit further. We have here the average congressional stock returns in 2022.
Congressional Conflicts
Here are the US House of Representatives. This is the US Senate. More than half of them sat on congressional committees that potentially gave them insight into the companies whose shares they reported buying or selling, An analysis by the New York Times has found. It’s very interesting here. Stock traders reported by nearly a fifth of Congress show possible conflicts. And before we really get into this, I think it’s very important for me to say this. If you are in Congress and you are trading, It’s going to be literally impossible to avoid any potential conflict. There’s always going to be a conflict somewhere. Is it right? Is it wrong? That’s for somebody else to decide. But if you look at it, you get so much information That there’s always something or some committee that people can point to and say, “Oh, so you made this trade based on that.” Are they actually using inside information to make these trades? That’s hard to say. Some of them will tell you, Of course, that they have people that make these trades for them that actually don’t even have any knowledge of what’s going on the committees.
The STOCK Act
The Times analysis demonstrates the scale of the issue. Over the three-year period, More than 3,700 trades reported by lawmakers from both parties posed potential conflicts between their public responsibilities and private finances. And if you don’t think that a lot of these politicians are sharing information that comes from these committee hearings, Then you don’t understand the way that humanity works and society works. Because, of course, there’s being information that’s being shared, so just because someone is on a committee or off a committee, that doesn’t mean that a conflict of interest does not actually exist. It could exist, even if you don’t see it at first. So, here, it says, but many instances show how legislative work and investment decisions can overlap in ways that at a minimum can leave the appearance of a conflict and that sometimes form a troubling pattern. Even if they are technically within the rules. Right. So, what are the rules? This is the STOCK Act. Now, this is going to be quite interesting when we dig into this. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act– you can’t make this stuff up, right? The STOCK Act The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012. Great! Whoever the acronym police are in Washington, you all are the real heroes. The STOCK Act became…
