Laws Are For The Little People: Senate Scales Back Stock Act

[boedicca]

Congress is making it easier for lawmakers and their staffs to trade on insider information - the same information that will get people in the private sector prosecuted.

They have knowledge of pending laws and regulations which affect an industry or company, and can use that to trade ahead of the public being aware of such. What a racket.

The US Congress has severely scaled back the Stock Act, the law to stop lawmakers and their staff from trading on insider information, in under-the-radar votes that have been sharply criticised by advocates of political transparency.

The changes mean Congressional and White House staff members will not have to post details of their shareholdings online. They will also make online filing optional for the president, vice-president, members of Congress and congressional candidates.

The Senate passed the changes with no debate, and only on a voice vote, late on Thursday night after many senators had left the Capitol for the weekend. The House followed with a voice vote on Friday.

The changes are now set to be signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Political watchdogs were dismayed. “Are we going to return to the days when public can use the internet to research everything except what their government is doing?” asked Lisa Rosenberg of the Sunlight Foundation, which monitors money in politics....

Dismay as US Senate scales back insider law - FT.com

 

[LordBrownTrout]

We're just the clacking class....petulant mob of serfs and peasants.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Congress is making it easier for lawmakers and their staffs to trade on insider information - the same information that will get people in the private sector prosecuted.

They have knowledge of pending laws and regulations which affect an industry or company, and can use that to trade ahead of the public being aware of such. What a racket.

The US Congress has severely scaled back the Stock Act, the law to stop lawmakers and their staff from trading on insider information, in under-the-radar votes that have been sharply criticised by advocates of political transparency.

The changes mean Congressional and White House staff members will not have to post details of their shareholdings online. They will also make online filing optional for the president, vice-president, members of Congress and congressional candidates.

The Senate passed the changes with no debate, and only on a voice vote, late on Thursday night after many senators had left the Capitol for the weekend. The House followed with a voice vote on Friday.

The changes are now set to be signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Political watchdogs were dismayed. “Are we going to return to the days when public can use the internet to research everything except what their government is doing?” asked Lisa Rosenberg of the Sunlight Foundation, which monitors money in politics....

Dismay as US Senate scales back insider law - FT.com

Time to re-read Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer


Justice is only found in the dictionary and the cemetery.....

 

[Rocko]

Wow! What an outrage!

 

[boedicca]

We're just the clacking class....petulant mob of serfs and peasants.

I've noted a few times that we are in an era of Neo-Feudalism being spread by the cabal of unrestrained banks without borders and the Progressive Ruling Elite. They are diligently turning the working and middle classes in the developed world into tax and debt serfs.

That's what happens when their policies crush economic growth...a rush to rent seeking to gain a bigger share of a shrinking pie.