No member of the national legislature, and no spouse thereof, should be trading stocks. It’s bad ethics, bad policy, and bad politics. There’s no way to shine this sneaker. This is especially true when it comes to the leadership of the national legislature. From Reuters:
In a periodic transaction report signed last Friday and appearing on the House of Representatives’ website on Monday, the senior Democrat disclosed that her husband, financier Paul Pelosi, on May 13 bought Apple call options for between $500,001 and $1 million. On May 24, he bought more Apple call options, in an amount between $250,001 and $500,000, the disclosure shows. On the same day, Paul Pelosi bought Microsoft call options for as much as $600,000.
If you accept, as I do, that Wall Street is little more than an elaborate carny scam, then no elected politician should go anywhere near it. If you want to try and make money at the casino, get out of professional politics. If your spouse wants to guess under which shell company can be found the pea, tell said spouse to wait until you’re out of office.
Pelosi in January signaled that she might be willing to advance legislation to completely ban stock trading by lawmakers. That was a reversal from her previous position defending lawmakers’ right to trade stocks. Proposals by Democrats in Congress this year to prohibit stock trading by lawmakers have yet to pass. Pelosi’s stock trading performance ranked sixth-best in Congress in 2021, with Republican…
