AOC Makes Sense On Congressional Stock Trades

I have zero problem agreeing with her. When someone is correct, they’re correct

AOC says it’s ‘not really a mystery’ why Congress hasn’t passed a stock trading ban for lawmakers given that ‘an enormous amount’ of them trade stocks

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York offered a blunt assessment of why members of Congress haven’t voted to ban themselves from trading stocks: because many of them hold lots of stock themselves.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance published on Wednesday, the progressive congresswoman said that it’s “not a mystery to me” why a stock trading ban is “difficult to pass” in Congress, given that “an enormous amount” of members hold stock.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the majority of members of Congress holding and trading and individual stock,” she said. “I don’t know the actual numbers, but it is a very large degree.”

Insider’s “Conflicted Congress” investigation found that 277 lawmakers did not report owning individual stock investments in 2020 — which would mean just under half of lawmakers do have such investments.

Insider also found that existing provisions to combat insider trading, particular the STOCK Act, are poorly enforced, and dozens of lawmakers and nearly 200 staffers have violated the law’s disclosure provisions.

And she’s part of legislation

The New York congresswoman is a co-sponsor of the Ban Conflicted Trading Act, one of several different bills that would ban lawmakers from trading stocks. Notably, the bill allows members to continue holding widely held investment funds.

However, the ban supported by Ocasio-Cortez does not include spouses, which some have identified as a potential “loophole” in any potential reforms, given that spouses presumably discuss personal finances with one another.

Realistically, no one working on Capitol Hill should be allowed to trade stock, from elected officials to their staff to high ranking appointed Executive Office officials, to those working directly for the President and VP. It’d be nice if spouses and family members were restricted, but, as “private” citizens, restricting them would probably be illegal. But, they can be investigated quite a bit.

(Market Watch) (the link goes to Pocket, since the article is behind a paywall) So who were the biggest traders? The table below, based on a Capitol Trades analysis, shows the 41 members of Congress who made stock buys or sells in 2021 with an estimated value of at least $500,000 — or had family members who made such trades.

At the top of the list of the biggest traders on Capitol Hill by dollar volume is Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, who disclosed an estimated $31 million in stock buys and $35 million in stock sales. He’s followed by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California with $34 million in estimated purchases and $19 million in sales, GOP Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee with $26 million in estimated buys and $26 million in sells, and Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state with $15 million in estimated buys and $31 million in sells.

Pelosi, in case you’re wondering, had $12 million in transactions. It’s a nice little bipartisan list, and we see things like

(Ro) Khanna’s (D-Ca) biggest trades included purchases by his spouse of shares in Walgreens Boots Alliance WBA and Microsoft MSFT, along with purchases by a child of shares in Apple AAPL, communications company RingCentral RNG and Facebook parent Meta Platforms FB. The California congressman’s spokeswoman said he “does not own any individual stocks and complies fully with the Ban Conflicted Trading Act, which would prohibit lawmakers from buying or selling individual stocks.” That’s a reference to legislation that has attracted 35 co-sponsors in the House and three in the Senate.

“These are his wife’s assets prior to marriage and managed by an outside financial advisor. No trading is done through joint accounts,” Khanna’s spokeswoman also said.

Wink wink. He’s totally not involved, certainly not giving her info on legislation.

“I let a manager handle it,” Green said in that interview, when asked about efforts to ban lawmakers from trading in individual stocks. “I’ve written it into a letter: ‘Do not take any instructions from me. Don’t listen to me on television and make any decisions.’ And I let him make all of the decisions. I’m for people doing it that way.”

He also said “getting insider information is a crime,” and laws against it “should be enforced.”

That would be Mark Green (R-Tn). And he could be on the up and up, as could a lot of them. But, without serious enforcement, how are we to know.

Save $10 on purchases of $49.99 & up on our Fruit Bouquets at 1800flowers.com. Promo Code: FRUIT49
If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds.

Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed

10 Responses to “AOC Makes Sense On Congressional Stock Trades”

  1. Est1950 says:

    Meta – formerly known as Facebook – should be broken up, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with Yahoo Finance published Tuesday.

    What is problematic for the left at this moment in time is social media and big tech is decidedly on their side when it comes to social and political issues. Yet 49 of the 50 State Attorney Generals and many in congress have called for their break up due to anti-trust violations, the companies continue to be untouched by nothing more than boisterous huffing and puffing.

    The call to break up Facebook is not new; in 2020, 48 state attorneys general led by New York Attorney General Letitia James filed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook in a bid to curtail what they described as the company’s “illegal monopoly” over the social media industry.

    When AOC gets on your case things tend to turn up in the spotlight.

    Unfortunately for all of us, the left has crawled into bed with Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big business while RINO’s on the right continue to do business like this was the 80’s under Reagan when Corporations were the friend and ally of the right and vice versa.

    These entities have left the Right to beat sand and unfortunately for the current patriot movement of the right, they are not only fighting with each other (see the number of so-called conservatives that appear on CNN and MSNBC daily) but they are now fighting Big Corporations who have been filled from the top down by Leftists who have graduated from prestigious leftist business schools and have effectively taken over these corporations.

    • est1950 says:

      I watched a segment of Fox News yesterday from YouTube where the so-called Panel on Brett Beier’s show was pounding the war drum again. Telling us that it was our sworn duty to fill up neighboring nations with US soldiers as per our treaty caused them pesky Ruskies just might attack them too!

      I am seeing this all over the USA media now. The Media is itching for a fight with Russia and God knows why? Well, I think I know why. To make the nation forget about Covid being used as a deception, as John Hopkins said the lockdowns and masks did very little to prevent any deaths or sickness. Or inflation soaring out of control, or the left allowing people to flood over the border and take up jobs that Americans cannot because they have been terrified into staying home.(Perhaps this is the reason, Australia, the UK and now Canada are rescinding lockdowns and mandates??)

      I mean I know why they are beating the war drum but it is a fight the USA cannot win because the moment we get entrenched with fighting Russia, China is going to move on Taiwan and the goodwill that Trump had managed with INDIA is now being thrown out as India is now shaking hands with China.

      Do not let Biden and the MSM lead you to a stupid war in Ukraine.

      The CIA and US encouraged Ukraine to move on and take back the naval base that the Russians took several years ago under Obama. Unfortunately for them, Russia moved with crazy swiftness and the build-up on the border with Ukraine was in response to Ukraine building up troops in what looked by all outside sources to be an effort to retake the territory Russia took years ago.

      All of this comes as the EU is decidedly against the actions of the USA and has in fact told Putin they are NOT INTERESTED IN BIDEN”S SANCTIONS. Why? Because the EU gets hurt and America gets to sell weapons and more weapons and take the eye off of all her own internal problems.

      No thanks says the EU to America which according to some, now love the USA with unwavering affection.

      • L.G.Brandon!, L.G.Brandon! says:

        Since Brandon has ben president (wink, wink) no one has loved the USA with unwavering affection. He has betrayed our allies and gave our enemies head. Cause he’s a cocksucker. I would add even the Democrats don’t love the USA with unwavering affection but they never, ever did. All the way back to 1861 when they broke away from the USA they hated the idea that America stands for.

        As a former Democrat turned conservative turned Republican turned Trumpian I can say for the first time in my life I no linger love the America I see and live in with unwavering affection. And that hurts.

        Plus, since it’s nogger history month the only thing unwavering is the inundation of leftist, marxist, communist, white hating and America hating propaganda to push our “vibrant” neighbors to hate more and more so they can be used by the above listed “Americans” in their continuing efforts to “fundamentally change America” into another leftist shithole like they’ve done to every other country they’ve touched.

        See Baltimore under nogger/democrat rule? How about Detroit, Philly, LA, and I can list at least two dozen other shithole cities run by noggers/democrats for decades that are no more than Reflexions of Calcutta (Good name for a book on Americas decline under lleftism). Idiots crapping, peeing and masturbating on the streets, noggers killing noggers, noggers killing non-noggers, riots, thefts, rapes, the corruption of the DA’s/Judges/Courts are straight out of a banana republic. Now, that is EXACTLY what the democrats and the soviet leftists want to do for the rest of America.

        But first they had to steal an election, panic everyone into submission and destroy the economy. Then convince everyone that all that didn’t happen and if you say it did you’re a threat to “democracy” and should be censored, deplatformed, called names, have your livelihood destroyed, denied food or health care, and be thankful you’re not in solitary in a DC gulag or even shot.

        You’ll take it and you’ll like it!!! That’s the neoDemocrat mantra.

        Let’s go Brandon, it’s time for a two hour speech about the benefits we have been lucky enough to steal off the blacks since they were set free. Like hip-hop, bitch!

        • Elwood P. Dowd says:

          TG Brenda shares more of “his” male-on-male sexual ideation! Self-loathing?

          The cowardly yet hateful TG, Brenda, is afraid to even type “his” favorite word, “nigger”.

          The economy is booming! Millions of jobs have been filled! Wages are rising!

          Brenda’s Dear Leader, DJt, tried to steal his lost election and should be imprisoned. Or hanged. Right-wing judges, right-wing state legislatures and right-wing statehouses are intent on destroying America and rebuilding it as a neofascist, white supremacist “paradise”.

          Dems and the media are afraid (or complicit) to tell the truth about the neofascist movement.

          • L.G.Brandon!, L.G.Brandon! says:

            Dowd: “TG Brenda shares more of “his” male-on-male sexual ideation! Self-loathing?”

            What on earth are you babbling about now Dowd? Did I upset your little feelings calling your newest commie god a cocksucker? Too bad, bitch!

            Dowd: “The cowardly yet hateful TG, Brenda, is afraid to even type “his” favorite word, “nigger”.”

            “cowardly yet hateful”? You are so stupid. I’m not afraid to type nigger. I was trying tom set you off and I SUCCEEDED! You really are a Pollyanna, bitch!
            You and your commie friends can deny stealing the election all you want but the very fact you refused to launch an investigation of it like you did for the 2016 election after millions of complaints PROVES you can’t handle the truth!

            I see the cocksucker brandon launched a strike against some schmuck in Syria. You leftists are all the same: Cowards. You do your fighting by remote control because you’re too cowardly to face your opponents. So how many innocent civilians did he murder this time? It doesn’t matter. There’s an election coming up and the and as usual the Democrats will win “by any means necessary” even if includes another stolen election and murdering more civilians both foreign and domestic like they did last time.

            Let’s go Brandon, kill ya some Muslims and show Dowd how tough you are.

    • Elwood P. Dowd says:

      Yet, it’s progressives like Rep Ocasio-Cortez and NY AG James working to break up facebook citing anti-trust, anti-monopoly rules. Pro-business conservatives are reticent to interfere with monopolies.

  2. Elwood P. Dowd says:

    It’s almost as if our elected representatives make rules to benefit the wealthy, like themselves. It’s a corrupt cesspool.

    AOC is so right on this that even libs and cons should agree. The decision by our elected representatives should not be designed to benefit them but for the mass of the American people.

  3. Professor Hale says:

    Better idea. Instead of forbidding congress and staff from trading stocks, have all of their trades go into an escrow account where they are held for 24 hours. During that time, the public can view the trades and decide if they want to get in on that action.

  4. Alice Parker says:

    I am receiving $88 every hour to work on-net. I’ve never believed like it can be achievable however YTGB one of my greatest pal got $27,000 just in three weeks just working this simple project & she influenced me to avail…View

    more instructions visiting this web page >>> http://Www.GOWORK24.com

  5. MrLiberty says:

    Until ALL government power is gone, and they are prevented in EVERY WAY from picking winners and losers, controlling the economy, helping out their friends, stealing from everyone, etc the problem will never end. No law will stop these criminals, and isn’t the real problem not that they are profiting, but that government is allowed to do any of this in the first place? Government is the greatest evil ever created by man.

Pirate's Cove