The average Congressman is 58, which ought to mean lower returns than the market due to holding more bonds, dividend stocks or other low-risk investments for imminent retirement.
On the other hand, American politicians never seem to retire and may be building generational wealth.
A tedious trope in this debate is that Congressmen can always protest that inside information didn't influence them because they were totally going to buy/sell that stock anyway. Forcing them all to hold a blind trust or similar eliminates the nonsense.
I know it's not your point here, but allowing a revolving-door of employment between the SEC and big banks, FDA and big pharma, or military top brass and weapons manufacurers is another example of an obvious problem that could be easily stopped. They don't want to fix it because they know they're doing wrong.
Ahh.. That's a great insight. I am a firm proponent of term limits. My point is if you could not get your vision done in 20 years, when are you going to do it? -> Its much better to give newcomers a chance.
Yeah. The revolving door also has been an ongoing issue. They would never take firm actions on these firms when they are in power because they know they can down the line join them for a cushy position. Its like that quote
I'm not necessarily against congress members trading but I do think their transaction should be reported as fast as possible, at most within 3 days. I'm also a fan of not letting them or their immediate family members from trading as well. Cool with both but we all know either ain't happening.
I am not sure if that will work. They currently have 30 days to report yet half of them misses that. A much better solution would be to just keep it in a blind trust while they are in the office. After they get out, they can trade however they like.
The average Congressman is 58, which ought to mean lower returns than the market due to holding more bonds, dividend stocks or other low-risk investments for imminent retirement.
On the other hand, American politicians never seem to retire and may be building generational wealth.
A tedious trope in this debate is that Congressmen can always protest that inside information didn't influence them because they were totally going to buy/sell that stock anyway. Forcing them all to hold a blind trust or similar eliminates the nonsense.
I know it's not your point here, but allowing a revolving-door of employment between the SEC and big banks, FDA and big pharma, or military top brass and weapons manufacurers is another example of an obvious problem that could be easily stopped. They don't want to fix it because they know they're doing wrong.
Ahh.. That's a great insight. I am a firm proponent of term limits. My point is if you could not get your vision done in 20 years, when are you going to do it? -> Its much better to give newcomers a chance.
Yeah. The revolving door also has been an ongoing issue. They would never take firm actions on these firms when they are in power because they know they can down the line join them for a cushy position. Its like that quote
'It's A BIG Club & You Ain't In It!'
thanks for the followup post!
I'm not necessarily against congress members trading but I do think their transaction should be reported as fast as possible, at most within 3 days. I'm also a fan of not letting them or their immediate family members from trading as well. Cool with both but we all know either ain't happening.
I am not sure if that will work. They currently have 30 days to report yet half of them misses that. A much better solution would be to just keep it in a blind trust while they are in the office. After they get out, they can trade however they like.
Thank you for the part 2. Quite interesting that they can access inside information but still fall below the market average.
Also it was great to see the industry distribution. Looking forward to read the next one!