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The amount of corruption I’ve heard against US Senators is staggering. I had no idea stuff like this was done except maybe in some cartoon version of the 1870’s
by Top19 9y ago
The amount of corruption I’ve heard against US Senators is staggering. I had no idea stuff like this was done except maybe in some cartoon version of the 1870’s Gilded Age.
Good example, Max Baucus shorted various financial companies for petty/risky wins as he was helping construct the 2008 bailout. He then later became the ambassador to China :(
> Financial markets were experiencing the greatest volatility on record. Trillions of dollars in stock profits were being washed away. But for Bachus it was different. According to his financial disclosure statements, Bachus netted as much as $50,000 in capital gains by aggressively playing the market during this volatile period. And he netted tens of thousands more in early 2009, when financial reforms were put in place. What makes these results impressive is the fact that options trading is extremely risky. There is a rule of thumb in the financial industry that 75% of options are worthless when it comes time to redeem them, and that 80% of options traders lose money.
http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/excerpt-peter-schweizers-book http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/excerpt-peter-schweizers-bo...
- stevenwoo 9y agoCongress specifically excluded themselves from insider trading laws. It's outrageous but that makes it pretty much a free for all for US congress folks to do insider trading. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/congress-insiders-above-the-law/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/congress-insiders-above-the-law...
- alien_at_work 9y agoI've often wondered about starting a fund where I simply follow any trades certain congress members are making. That's not insider info at that point, right? I guess this strategy can't work for some reason (or others would be exploiting it) but what is the reason? Time delay?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Raidion 9y agoI don't think the trades of congress are public record. You simply aren't able to get that information. And if you are able to get that info, and the rest of the public doesn't have it, then that's inside trading.
- alien_at_work 9y agoI thought trades past a certain size had to be disclosed? But yes, this is probably the reason: I simply wouldn't be able to know until long after the fact.
- austincheney 9y ago> The amount of corruption I’ve heard against US Senators is staggering. Perhaps, but there was no indication of corruption in the article.