4 ms·

It’s worse than that, those tasked with overseeing the market, including Federal officials, are also trading on inside information with impunity, from Pelosi to

• deevolution 5y ago
  Regulators have too much power and influence on markets - they're worried about market manipulation but as far as I'm concerned they are the only ones manipulating markets.
• carnitine 5y ago
  That story says that Powell had owned a relatively small allocation of munis for years, before the Fed bought munis as part of QE triggered by an unexpected pandemic, which makes perfect sense given their aims. Very hard to call that insider trading in general, and it hardly even seems morally dubious compared to what people like Pelosi seem to be up to.
  • grey-area 5y ago
    The chairman of the fed simply shouldn’t own the assets the fed might buy. That’s a clear conflict of interest. But you’re right there are more clearly corrupt officials including two fed presidents. This is a systemic problem of poor enforcement and violated norms. The rule of law matters and regulators should be above reproach.
    • dageshi 5y ago
      The issue is I suppose, what can a Fed chairman invest his/her personal money in that absolves him/her of a conflict of interest? The fed's policies affect every area of the financial system. Can't put it in a bank because they'll almost certainly be above the insured amount and will have an incentive to bail out that bank if it's in trouble, another conflict of interest. Perhaps some special account at the fed that pays a specific interest rate and is fully insured? But then why do Fed presidents get special access to such an account that normal folks don't? I don't know that there is anywhere he could put his money and be above reproach, him putting his money in muni's seems like a good faith effort to do that though.
      • grey-area 5y ago
        Well it did seem a good place till the fed started massively distorting the bond markets in a ‘temporary’ measure which has so far lasted a decade.
        • dageshi 5y ago
          That's not an answer to the question. Where does the person who is responsible for the smooth running of the financial system put their money so they have no conflict of interest? Because otherwise it's easy to just cynically say he's lining his own pockets when in practice the position inherently makes it impossible to have zero conflicts of interest.
          • grey-area 5y ago
            You gave some suggestions yourself. The fed could invest in an independent fund for such a purpose, they could invest elsewhere in the world. This is not a difficult problem and it is already heavily enforced for smaller fish in the financial ecosystem - e.g. traders at financial institutions are highly regulated. Anything would be better than buying the very assets they are meant to oversee. You’re defending the indefensible here with sophistry about how hard it is to be honest and avoid double dealing. These fed presidents dealt in the very securities they had inside information on.
• xyzzy21 5y ago
  The only way to win in financial markets is to NEVER PLAY! I was 100% out after 2008 (I saw it coming; I saw the Dot Com crash coming - I finally realized the entire system is utterly corrupt and only "the house" wins - you are NOT the house.
  • javagram 5y ago
    This means you would lose money to inflation every year. Simply invest in a total market fund and you get the average returns of the market. Even investing in 1999 or 2007 in a total market fund would put you ahead of a savings account by now.
  • ModernMech 5y ago
    Here is what I learned after 2008: yes the market goes down, but the powers that be will do everything they can to make those numbers go back up again. They will spend any amount of money to make that happen, and it will be their first priority in the face of any disaster. 2020 confirmed that a thousand fold.