Congress: Trading stock on inside information?

[dustup]

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Congress: Trading stock on inside information?

CBS News)

Washington, D.C. is a town that runs on inside information - but should our elected officials be able to use that information to pad their own pockets? As Steve Kroft reports, members of Congress and their aides have regular access to powerful political intelligence, and many have made well-timed stock market trades in the very industries they regulate. For now, the practice is perfectly legal, but some say it's time for the law to change.

The following is a script of "Insiders" which aired on Nov. 13, 2011. Steve Kroft is correspondent, Ira Rosen and Gabrielle Schonder, producers.

The next national election is now less than a year away and congressmen and senators are expending much of their time and their energy raising the millions of dollars in campaign funds they'll need just to hold onto a job that pays $174,000 a year.

Few of them are doing it for the salary and all of them will say they are doing it to serve the public. But there are other benefits: Power, prestige, and the opportunity to become a Washington insider with access to information and connections that no one else has, in an environment of privilege where rules that govern the rest of the country, don't always apply to them.

Questioning Pelosi: Steve Kroft heads to D.C.
When Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, and other lawmakers wouldn't answer Steve Kroft's questions, he headed to Washington to get some answers about their stock trades.

Most former congressmen and senators manage to leave Washington - if they ever leave Washington - with more money in their pockets than they had when they arrived, and as you are about to see, the biggest challenge is often avoiding temptation.

Peter Schweizer: This is a venture opportunity. This is an opportunity to leverage your position in public service and use that position to enrich yourself, your friends, and your family.

Peter Schweizer is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University. A year ago he began working on a book about soft corruption in Washington with a team of eight student researchers, who reviewed financial disclosure records. It became a jumping off point for our own story, and we have independently verified the material we've used.

Schweizer says he wanted to know why some congressmen and senators managed to accumulate significant wealth beyond their salaries, and proved particularly adept at buying and selling stocks.

Schweizer: There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very wealthy. So it's not illegal, but I think it's highly unethical, I think it's highly offensive, and wrong.

Steve Kroft: What do you mean honest graft?

Schweizer: For example insider trading on the stock market. If you are a member of Congress, those laws are deemed not to apply.

Read More Here: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57323527/congress-exempt-from-insider-trading-laws/?tag=currentVideoInfo;videoMetaInfo


Video here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7388130n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

[SufferedMoreThanJesus]

Me rove you rong time!!!

[dustup]

....pretty much looks like the Dems and Repubs don't want to comment here ......sense both sides of the isle are guilty....but at least this is something that they can agree on.....enriching themselves, friends and Families at the cost of the little guys!  Screwing the Market and extracting America's wealth for their own profit and benefit.......making it legal for them while holding all others to a higher level and prosecuting others to the limit of the law!......Is there such a thing as honest graft If so.............Congress is NOT GUILTY! 

[vel]

And your Ayn Rand inspired idol wants nothing more than to remove any and all of the limited barriers that still exist. Rand's model for uberman was a serial killer, which just goes to show you the respect Rand style "objectivists" have for enforcing laws.

Along with being a purveyor of false equivalency, you're a hypocrite.

[JC3.0]

And your Ayn Rand inspired idol wants nothing more than to remove any and all of the limited barriers that still exist. Rand's model for uberman was a serial killer, which just goes to show you the respect Rand style "objectivists" have for enforcing laws.

Along with being a purveyor of false equivalency, you're a hypocrite.

Hey, go easy on him. Ron Paul supporters do serve a purpose. They run interference for real serious voters. Once he loses the nomination and decides to run as an independant, they will follow him and siphon off more republican votes and help ensure Obama wins by a higher margin.

[dustup]

lol! still neither of you looney goons have addressed the topic of the thread! ......play your little Left-Right Paradigm game....it will result in your being disappointed and feeling a real sense of STUPID......the topic is "Re: Congress: Trading stock on inside information?".....do you think you can manage to get two brain cells to rub together long enough to discuss what that seriously means to America? if not.....just continue on down the Bush-Obama built yellow brick road to the usefulness of the ilk, bow down and kiss their feet...you deserve your reward........

[lucy]

Are our congress representatives and senators bound by the same laws as common people?

Martha Stewart is not happy:D

[vel]

lol! still neither of you looney goons have addressed the topic of the thread! ......play your little Left-Right Paradigm game....it will result in your being disappointed and feeling a real sense of STUPID......the topic is "Re: Congress: Trading stock on inside information?".....do you think you can manage to get two brain cells to rub together long enough to discuss what that seriously means to America? if not.....just continue on down the Bush-Obama built yellow brick road to the usefulness of the ilk, bow down and kiss their feet...you deserve your reward........

There is no law against Congressmen trading on inside information, and they beat the market more than any other group. Martha Stewart went to prison for less, yet the law doesn't cover Congressmen.

Absolutely the regulations should be strengthened and the SEC needs to be back in the business of enforcing its laws after being essentially neutered by Bush and your stupid ideology. We on the left have been for law enforcement. You Ayn Rand cultists have been against it so what is it exactly that you want me to tell you, except that you're a hypocrite and an idiot?

[dustup]

There is no law against Congressmen trading on inside information, and they beat the market more than any other group. Martha Stewart went to prison for less, yet the law doesn't cover Congressmen.

Absolutely the regulations should be strengthened and the SEC needs to be back in the business of enforcing its laws after being essentially neutered by Bush and your stupid ideology. We on the left have been for law enforcement. You Ayn Rand cultists have been against it so what is it exactly that you want me to tell you, except that you're a hypocrite and an idiot?

Can you separate butter from milk?....its a simple process...all you have to do is use reason.....not Government intervention... Bush and Obama are useful idiots of the money barons leaching the life from America....

[lucy]

Well, you think this is okay, then, Vel? That lawmakers do not have to follow the laws set for others?

[IM2]

Ron Paul is a congressman, I wonder how much more money he has made using insider information.

[lucy]

I would doubt he has made any money inside trading, frankly. Not his style. But, I am sure a list is forthcoming so we will see. You find a candidate that is more honest, and let me know. Because right now the field other than Paul is pretty pathetic. Surely we can find a person to be president that is not beholden to foreign interests and corporations.

[lucy]

btw, this is a non-partisan issue. If you think it is okay for them to have inside information and make money from this or give corporations money and then before it is known, buy stock in that corporation, etc...or even give money to their brother in-law or ex-girlfriend's cousin's sister's company, etc. fine...that is your choice. I think it is wrong.

[Pepsi]

I'd like to get a Ron Paul supporters comment on this story

Ron Paul’s Campaign Manager Died of Pneumonia, Penniless and Uninsured

At CNN's Tea Party-indulging debate on Monday, Ron Paul, a medical doctor, faced a pointed line of questioning from Wolf Blitzer regarding the case of an uninsured young man who suddenly found himself in dire need of intensive health care.

Should the state pay his bills? Paul responded, "That's what freedom is all about: taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to take care of everybody—"

He never quite finished that point, letting the audience's loud applause finish it for him. So Blitzer pressed on, asking if he meant that "society should just let him die," which earned a chilling round of approving hoots from the crowd. Paul would not concede that much outright, instead responding with a personal anecdote, the upshot being that in such a case, it was up to churches to care for the dying young man. So basically, yeah. He'd let him die.

Back in 2008, Kent Snyder — Paul's former campaign chairman — died of complications from pneumonia. Like the man in Blitzer's example, the 49-year-old Snyder (pictured) was relatively young and seemingly healthy* when the illness struck. He was also uninsured. When he died on June 26, 2008, two weeks after Paul withdrew his first bid for the presidency, his hospital costs amounted to $400,000. The bill was handed to Snyder's surviving mother (pictured, left), who was incapable of paying. Friends launched a website to solicit donations.

http://gawker.com/5840024/ron-pauls-campaign-manager-died-of-pneumonia-penniless-and-uninsured

[JC3.0]

His campaign manager didn't pull himself up by his own bootstraps........so he died...