Free Republic

What’s the best way to get rich in America? Start a business? Get a four-year degree? Take a job on Wall Street? Wrong. The answer is get elected to Congress. Imagine buying shares in companies you regulate, or investing in defense contractors right before a war breaks out, or selling your stocks because you found out before everyone else there’s going to be a global pandemic. James Poulos and the Blaze Originals team traveled to Washington, D.C. to expose how members of Congress get filthy rich. Featuring: Unusual Whales, @RepMattGaetz, Chip Roy, and George Santos.

Congressional leaders in the House and Senate have reached a deal on a spate of appropriations bills, clearing the way for a short-term spending patch that would extend funding deadlines further into March. Appropriators finalized the agreement on Wednesday, two sources told the Washington Examiner, just three days before the government is set to enter a partial shutdown. The proposal would maintain the two-pronged deadlines Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has advocated but would extend the dates slightly to give lawmakers time to finalize the legislative text and bring them to the floor for votes. “We are in agreement that Congress...

In many ways, Speaker Johnson didn’t bail out Democrats from a tough political predicament as much as he did his own Republican members.The outline of the spending agreement House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., cut with Democratic leaders sounds bad on its face. But the underlying reasons for that agreement seem far worse.As I wrote last week, “Speaker Johnson and Republican ‘leadership’ … bailed the Democrats out of the predicament they put themselves in last May.” To which I should make an important addition: In many ways, Johnson didn’t bail out Democrats from a tough political predicament as much as he...

Several establishment members of Congress were among the top lawmakers to successfully trade stocks in 2023, a report by Unusual Whales found Tuesday. The findings raise concerns that many members of Congress trade stocks based on information unavailable to the public. Some of the most notable establishment members to beat the market were: Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) — up 38.2 percent Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — up 65.5 percent Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — up 18.1 percent Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) — up 52.8 percent Rep. John Curtis (R-UT) — up 25.3 percent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a surprise announcement, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi confirmed she will be seeking reelection for yet another 2-year term of lucrative insider trading. "I have long served the people of San Francisco in Congress by enriching myself with privileged information while my hometown descends into chaos," said Pelosi in a statement. "With your support, I hope to continue my important work for another two years. Good morning, Sunday morning." The mayor of San Francisco celebrated the announcement on Friday. "Our city has long been a place of lawless greed and theft, and we're proud to see Mrs. Pelosi...

Rep. Lois Frankel sold her First Republic Bank stock weeks before bank's collapse Florida Democratic representative Lois Frankel is capitalizing on First Republic Bank's collapse and subsequent buyout by JP Morgan Chase & Co, according to congressional financial disclosures reported on by Newsweek. Frankel sold her stock in the San Francisco-based bank on March 16, weeks before the value of its shares dropped 75 percent and U.S. regulators seized the failing bank's assets, Newsweek reported. A few days later, on March 22, Frankel bought stock in JP Morgan Chase & Co, which on Monday bought most of First Republic Bank's...

New York Rep. Dan Goldman really thinks he has the Midas touch. The multimillionaire Democrat and heir to the Levi Straus & Co. fortune has made more than 500 trades worth between $10 million and nearly $31 million since being sworn in as a congressman in January, a Post analysis of his disclosure forms reveals. As Congress considers a bipartisan bill banning members and their families from trading stock while in office, Goldman’s trading activity would make Gordon Gekko envious, his most recent filing shows. He is already far outpacing notorious congressional super-traders like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and...

@unusual_whales This is truly wild. Senator Thomas Carper bought up to $110k in Ranger Equity Bear Bear ETF, $HDGE, an active ETF that shorts US listed stocks. He sits on the Senate Finance Committee. And as a politician, he is actively shorting the US economy.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) called for new House Democratic leadership after a vote to ban congressional lawmakers from trading stocks was stalled indefinitely in the lower chamber. On Tuesday, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced the Combatting Financial Conflicts of Interest in Government Act prohibiting senior government officials and their family members from trading stocks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) directed her to craft the legislation in February. However, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) indicated that the bill would not be voted on before the midterms. “Probably no vote this week,” Hoyer told CNN on Friday, as congressional members...

MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle ripped House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday night for slow-walking proposed legislation that would bar members of Congress from trading stocks while in office. Ruhle criticized the speaker during a conversation with Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia – one of several lawmakers who has submitted proposals that would ban Congressional stock trading. “It’s legal to be sleazy, especially in this case for members of Congress. She wrote this legislation in 2020. Nancy Pelosi has had months and months and months to bring this thing to the floor,” Ruhle said during MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour.”“You’ve got...

Former Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher told CNBC's "Squawk Box" Thursday that it appears that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul have engaged in insider stock trading."Paul Pelosi is getting a lot of attention," Fisher said, when asked about a report from Punchbowl News that House Democrats plan to announce a proposal next month that would ban lawmakers, their spouses and senior staff from trading stocks...."I'm sorry to see that Paul Pelosi and Nancy Pelosi and others appear ... to have taken advantage of inside information. Something needs to be done."

Former Indiana Republican Rep. Stephen Buyer has been charged with insider trading, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday. Buyer, who left Congress in 2011, is accused of buying more than $1.5 million worth of stock in Sprint and Navigant Consulting based on on non-public information he received as a consultant after he left office. Buyer allegedly used seven different accounts to hide the stock purchases. They included accounts he shared with his wife, his son, his cousin, and one that belonged to an unidentified woman who was romantically linked to Buyer. WASHINGTON -- Former Indiana Republican Rep. Stephen Buyer...

Paul Pelosi, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, made a stock purchase of over $1 million in a computer chip company just weeks before a potential vote in congress which would give a massive subsidy to the industry. Mr. Pelosi made a purchase of between $1 million and $5 million shares of Nvidia, which is a semiconductor company, according to a disclosure filing made by Pelosi's office. He exercised 200 call options, or 20,000 shares, the disclosure states. Reuters reported that the Senate could vote on a bill that contains billions of dollars in subsidies within the semiconductor industry as early...

Nancy Pelosi's office responded to her husband's controversial computer chip stock trades ahead of Congress' vote on the semiconductor industry. FOX Business reached out to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office for comment about her husband’s recent stock trades, particularly inquiring about Paul Pelosi's million-dollar purchase of stock in a semiconductor company as Congress is slated to vote on a $52 billion subsidy to the industry as part of a bill to increase U.S. manufacturing of computer chips to make the country less reliant and more competitive with China. "The Speaker does not own any stocks. As you can see from...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul bought up to $5 million in stock of a computer chip company ahead of a vote on a bill next week that would hand billions in subsidies to boost chip manufacturing, a financial disclosure shows. Paul Pelosi purchased 20,000 shares of Nvidia, one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, on June 17, according to the speaker’s disclosure report released Thursday. Now, senators will convene as early as Tuesday to vote on a bipartisan competition bill, which allocates $52 billion to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and gives tax credits for production, Reuters reported Thursday. “It...

On Tuesday Project on Government Oversight, a far-left watchdog group, argued that Madison Cawthorn should be investigated for insider trading for a photo on Instagram with the Let’s Go Brandon cryptocurrency team at a party. The event took place the night before they publicly launched their cryptocurrency. ......... Snip......... Washington Examiner reported: Rep. Madison Cawthorn may have violated federal insider trading laws as he hyped up an alleged pump-and-dump cryptocurrency scheme, multiple watchdog groups told the Washington Examiner. On Dec. 29, the beleaguered North Carolina congressman posed at a party with James Koutoulas, a hedge fund manager and the ringleader...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—This Lent, devout Catholic Joe Biden has announced that he is giving up coherent speaking for the next 40 days. It's traditional for Catholics to give up some mortal pleasure during the 40 days preceding Easter, and Biden is no exception to the custom. "Ffffor -- for the n-next, next 40,000 - excuse me - 40 hundred days, I will be giving up, you know, the thing," he said during his State of the Union address this evening. "The speaking of... of the -- the Eng, English wordle - begyerpardon - English word things, I'm giving all that up,...

It's hard to find a national issue with bipartisan 75% support (and only 5% opposition). Those are the numbers of Americans who want to restrict congressional members from trading stock. It's not surprising that Congress still hasn't acted; a lot of members want to keep making money stock trading while in office. A competent congressional leadership would push this issue, but it's not clear we have that today. There is a growing sentiment in America that those in power are playing by a different set of rules. Politicians flouting their own COVID-19 restrictions have exacerbated this long-running trend. The Pew...

Nancy Pelosi's new excuse for opposing a ban or limit on lawmaker's stock trading activity is that she always defers to 'trusting our members' and claims it's the Justice Department's responsibility to tackle insider trading. 'I do come down always in favor of trusting our members,' the House Speaker said during her weekly briefing on Thursday. 'Now if the impression that is given by some that somebody's doing insider trading – that's a Justice Department issue,' she continued. 'And that has no place in any of this.'

The Washington D.C. wheeler-dealers are making patsies out of the rest of us. Members of Congress get million-dollar-plus expense accounts, lifetime pensions and lavish perks, but for the greedy, that's not enough. They're also racking up big bucks trading stocks in the very same companies Congress regulates. Stock picking by members of Congress should be illegal because they have an unfair edge over the rest of us. They're privy to the regulatory burdens or legal changes these companies are likely to face. And top leaders, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, actually control what's ahead for these companies. That control...