Do you hear that old familiar music?
As previously reported by The Drill Down many times, Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul have made a killing on Wall Street since Ms. Pelosi has been in office:
Pelosi bet big – and won big – on Alphabet Inc. [Google], Amazon, and Apple during a time when the House Judiciary Committee was voting on antitrust legislation that would greatly impact tech companies.
“The Pelosis participated in at least 10 IPOs,” Government Accountability President and bestselling author Peter Schweizer told Jesse Watters on Fox News. “The fact that a politician’s family is allowed to participate in an investment that when it goes public generally doubles in value is a real indicator that there’s a problem.”
But now, a renewed bipartisan effort may bring an end to NASDAQ Nancy once and for all.
According to The Daily Wire, “The legislation introduced on Tuesday by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), and Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) would ban the trading of individual stocks, bonds, commodities, and futures by lawmakers and their spouses, as well as establish a $50,000 civic penalty for each violation enforced by the Department of Justice and the United States Office of Special Counsel.”
“It’s past time for Washington to do the right thing and ban members of Congress from using their elected position to enrich themselves,” Buck said in a press release. “Members of Congress receive information that the public does not, it is inappropriate for elected officials to then turn around and invest or buy stocks using that insider information. The American people must have trust that Congress uses this information only to conduct official business, not benefit a stock portfolio.”
According to a (damning) analysis published last year by The New York Times, 97 lawmakers or family members of lawmakers purchased or sold assets related to their committee work.
In other words, they had inside information —and profited off of it.
“Only two in ten Americans trust that our government is working in their best interest,” Jayapal added in the press release. “Members of Congress are elected to serve the people, not our own financial interests.”
Two in ten seems a bit high.
