The point of the regulation is that it would stop an economist (or anyone) from trading with non-public information. And it would be perfectly rational for an

The point of the regulation is that it would stop an economist (or anyone) from trading with non-public information. And it would be perfectly rational for an economist (or someone else) to trade a single stock if they had non-public information and there was no downside. Right now the downsides (it’s unethical / a gray area but depending on one’s position not always illegal) are not fully baking in the costs to society (e.g. a trader with non-public knowledge can get ahead of the broader market, impacting the ability to have a “fair” market and increasing costs for other investors). I strongly believe that policy makers need to be indexed with broad exposure across, at a minimum, industry sectors but more preferably the US economy (or a state’s economy if they are a state representative). There is too much room for misaligned incentives (buy our depressed stock, pass this bill, make a couple million) that should be removed.