Posted on 11/14/2011 9:51:58 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Washington is buzzing about last night's 60 Minutes report that revealed the startling frequency with which members of Congress financially benefit from inside information they get as legislators.
Most of the focus has been on the ethically questionable trading of House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the two highest-ranking and most-visible members of the House.
But the most shocking revelation actually concerns a lesser-known Congressman, Rep. Spencer Bachus, who shorted the market as the economy collapsed in 2008, at the same time that he was the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee.
The 60 Minutes report just touched on the Bachus trades. Luckily, the new book on which the broadcast was based has more details.
Slate's Dave Weigel got an early copy of the book, Throw Them All Out by Hoover Institute fellow Peter Schweizer, and the evidence is pretty damning. According to Schweizer, Bachus and Pelosi got secret briefings from Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, who basically told the legislators that it was "a matter of days before there is a meltdown in the global financial system.”
From the book, via Weigel:
The next day, September 19, Congressman Bachus bought contract options on Proshares Ultra-Short QQQ, an index fund that seeks results that are 200% of the inverse of the Nasdaq 100 index. In other words, he was shorting the market. It was an inexpensive way to bet that the market would fall. He bought options for $7,846 on a day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened at 8,604. A few days later, on September 23, after the market had indeed fallen, he sold the options for over $13,000 and nearly doubled his money.
And that's only the beginning
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Thomas Sowell
The MSM seems to want us to believe the Bachus incident excuses Pelosi for her actions in her official capacity in killing legislation and directly profiting .
Pelosi may be criminal but not stupid.
She didn't kill it, she simply delayed it until she and her husband had made the killing.
Note that she can now say with a frozen face and uncoordinated hand gestures that she (eventually) passed consumer protection legislation against VISA and the big banks.
My policy is the DRIP policy;
D on't
R e-elect
I ncumbent
P oliticians
I did not know that Britain barred lawyers from being legislators, but I damn well like the idea.
Wall St.
Big Oil
Mega-Corp.....
All pikers compared to the legal industry in this country. They’ve got the biggest self sustaining, self regulating racket going.
Corrupt to the core.
Is Bachus a Dem or a Pubbie?
She “resigned” from the Congressional Progressive Caucus, an offshoot of the Democratic Socialist of America, upon becoming Speaker of the House.
She was a role model for many of us…
Speaking at the funeral of Vivian Hallinan who, along with her husband Vincent, was deeply involved with communist activities via association with several U.S. fronts of the Communist Party, a friendship with Daniel Ortega and relations with Fidel Castro.
If we are ever going to protect the American people, we must have an outside independent committee.
Quotesandpoems.com (subsequently removed)
Referred to raids by ICE which were conducted pursuant to procedures established by Congress as, un-American.
March 14, 2009
And, then this warning spoken to a reporter:
Anybody who’s ever dealt with me knows not to mess with me...
The best way to skin the Pelosi cat is to go after the broker that allocated her 5000 shares of a “hot” IPO. The stock was issued at $44 a share and the first trade was $55 a share meaning an instantaneous %55000 profit in her account Having spent a number of years as a syndicate manager allocating IPOs on Wall Street, I can tell you everyone in the world wants a hot IPO but it is very rare for an individual investor unless the investor is Buffet size having produced massive commissions for the broker in the past to get 5000 shares. Pelosi is small potatoes. The best way to get at Pelosi is to embarrass the brokerage house and ask who and in what amounts they allocated their shares to and watch them dance redfaced while they try to explain why this one individual account received a lion’s share of the allocation relative to the other individual investors in their firm subscribing for the stock who were denied any allocation at all.
Bachus is my rep. Look up “empty suit” in the dictionary and you’ll see his picture.
Exactly right. Bachus isn't smart enough to make real money out of an insider tip.
This same book also details how 80% of the DoE green energy loans and grants money went to Obama bundlers, campaign chairs and DNC contributors
And they are the real crooks.
He’s a republican. Not that that makes any difference.
Why not stop electing people who are lawyers? Deceit and greed are their stock-in-trade.
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Look up the missing 13th Amendment.
Does anyone know when this passed? Is it recent or decades old?
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