The Corruption Continues. Nancy Pelosi Does More Insider Trading.

Insider trading by Capitol Hill politicos has been an ongoing scandal for years. The U.S. economy is heavily regulated in almost every industry imaginable, including energy, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, technology, defense, transportation, and many more. Those regulations are imposed by countless bureaucrats operating in cabinet departments, independent agencies and through the courts.

Authority for those regulations comes from statutes enacted by Congress written not by members of Congress themselves but by armies of staffers who concentrate on areas of expertise. Before statutes are passed, Congress holds hearings where outside experts and executives are called to testify about the exact impact of any proposed statute or regulation on each industry.

This entire process creates a mountain of inside information that only the staffers and bureaucrats (and the members who employ them) have access to. Will a law pass or not? Will any loopholes be created to favor certain companies? With special taxes or tax benefits be imposed on certain industries? When will the changes take effect?

These are the kinds of decisions that are made behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, which the public learns about after the fact. That time gap between when the decisions are made and when the public learns about them creates an ideal opportunity for insider trading.

One would think that stock trading by Washington insiders at such times would be prohibited as it is for corporate board members, accountants, lawyers and others in the private sector who receive inside information all the time. Not only is this insider trading by political insiders not prohibited, it is actually protected by certain Congressional privileges.

It’s well-known that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi have been major practitioners of this particular form of theft from the general public. Exposure of this practice has not daunted them. In the latest example, Paul Pelosi sold $500,000 of VISA stock just weeks before that company became the target of a Department of Justice anti-trust lawsuit that could be extremely damaging to VISA’s profitability.

There’s no question that Nancy Pelosi’s position as a senior power broker in Congress could have given her access to information about the Justice Department’s plan to sue VISA. Such access is potentially worth a fortune, which may go a long way toward explaining how the Pelosis have acquired a net worth of over $100 million on a Congressional salary.

It’s not a victimless crime because the insiders’ profits come from the pockets of everyday investors who are left holding the bag when the regulatory news is finally revealed. Certain research services mentioned in the article track the trading of members of Congress. It might be wise to consult them to see what your member of Congress has been up to.

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