Senator Durbin's insider trading

Washington Times ^ | June 18, 2009 | Editorial

[JohnRLott]

If you knew what Sen. Durbin knew, would you do what he did?

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat and assistant majority leader, looked like such a great investor. On Sept. 19, he sold off $42,696 in mutual-fund shares, and quickly sold off another $73,000 during the rest of September. The stock market collapsed after that. Within two weeks, by Oct. 3, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen by 9 percent. A month later, by Oct. 17, it had plummeted over 22 percent. On Tuesday this week, the average is still down about 25 percent from Sept. 19.

If Mr. Durbin ever leaves his day job as a Democratic politician, he should have a plum position waiting for him as a market timer. On second thought, maybe not. It turns out that on Sept. 18, Mr. Durbin participated in a closed-door meeting with then-Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. The Fed chairman and Treasury secretary briefed Mr. Durbin and other congressional leaders on the financial crisis and efforts to help financially troubled banks.

Mr. Durbin's great sell-off started the day after this privileged briefing. . . . . .

[BillyKess]

This is an outrage! This guy needs to be dragged off to a cold jail cell in handcuffs! People like this are the scum of society! This rat fink! Just who the hell does he think he-.....

oh... you mean he's not a Republican? He's a Democrat? oh... well... ahem... ah... I mean, let's not jump to conclusions here. After all, we are all innocent until proven guilty, remember? Let's just move along now and forget this little thing ever happened.

http://billykess.com/

[presently no screen name]

Wonder what Martha Stewart is thinking.

[stylin19a]

On Sept. 19, he sold off $42,696 in mutual-fund shares,

Interesting about the date...not that I'm saying insider trading was going on...(Sarcasm off)

1. On September 19, the SEC suspended short selling for 799 financial companies to “protect the integrity and quality of the securities market and strengthen investor confidence“.

2.Rep. Kanjorski: interview:(note: Sept 15, 2008 was Monday. He may have been referring to "Sept 18, 2008.")
"On Thursday Sept 15, 2008 at roughly 11 AM The Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw down of money market accounts in the USA to the tune of $550 Billion dollars in a matter of an hour or two.
Money was being removed electronically.The treasury tried to help with $150 Billion.
But could not stem the tide.