60 Minutes: How Congress Trades On Inside Information

Congressional Insider Trading Exposed By 60 Minutes

Related:

Jon Stewart Blasts Congress For Gutting STOCK Act

Comments

[DailyBail]

All This Botched SWAT Team Raid Achieved Was a Man’s Death

http://gawker.com/5862858/all-this-botched-swat-team-raid-achieved-was-a-mans-death

[ETM]

Something I got from the comments on that link DB:

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/11/26/us-senate-to-vote-on-bill-that-will-allow-the-military-to-arrest-americans-on-american-soil-and-hold-them-indefinitely/

Between this and the Internet censorship bill I'd say we've stopped "slowly backsliding" and have truly fallen off a precipice.

All so a few thousand people (who may be "citizens" but for all intents are people without a country and loyal only to themselves) can have a bigger slice of the pie.

[DailyBail]

In the 1970s, only a small percentage – about 3% – of retiring members of Congress went on to become lobbyists. But by 2009, more than 30% did, as the profession grew incredibly lucrative. Wall Street is very generous when it comes to buying influence – former chairs of Congressional committees and subcommittees are paid upwards of $2 million a year to influence legislation in their former committees.

http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2011/11/28/congress-insider-trading-lobbyists/

[S. Gompers]

Try getting the good old boys club to do something about it.

[ETM]

DB, you can see the problem in an oblique way just by visiting DC and looking around at home prices. It is the only place in the country where home prices continue to rise! Where you used to be able to buy a 1000 square foot townhome (that's a smallish 2 bedroom) for 200k - 300k (affordable with two decent salaries, say doctors, engineers, scientists, professors, etc), you can now buy the same home for 3/4 of a million. Want a garage or an extra bedroom? You're well over a million now. Last month I randomly walked into an open house in Georgetown for a truly miserable, circa 1980s one-bedroom "condo" that they had the gall to ask 650k for! I wouldn't give them 50! There is a ton of poisonous money floating around that town and you can feel it just walking around.

[SageBrush]

Looks like the Sold Out Bankster Senate is going to make sure the CFPB is put on hold till they can figure out how to gut it completely.

How do these corrupt morally bankrupt money mongers get reelected for term after term?

http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/08/news/economy/consumer_bureau_confirmation/index.htm?iid=HP_LN

[john]

Why Is Eric Cantor Blocking the Congressional Insider Trading Act?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45612773?__source=google%7Ceditorspicks%7C&par=google

[John]

From my previous entry....

Why Is Eric Cantor Blocking the Congressional Insider Trading Act?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45612773?__source=google%7Ceditorspicks%7C&par=google


UPDATE:

Rep. Eric Cantor Blocked Foreclosure Crisis Fix While Owning A Financial Stake In Mortgage Businesses

http://www.republicreport.org/2012/cantor-mortgage-crisis-profit/

[snip]

–- Cantor invested in several mortgage banks, and owned a portion of a Cantor-family run mortgage company. According to Cantor’s 2009 personal finance disclosure, Cantor owned up to a $500,000 share of a mortgage company called TrustMor run by his brother.

–- While Cantor blocked a fix to the foreclosure crisis, his wife Diane Cantor served as the managing director of a bank with a high foreclosure rate. Diane Cantor at the time worked as a managing director to New York Private Bank & Trust, a major mortgage bank and TARP recipient. SNL Financial later reported that Cantor’s bank was among the top three banks in the mortgage business “with the the greatest percentage of family loans in the foreclosure process.”

[John]

DELETED: See How Eric Cantor Fulfilled Wall Street’s Wish And Gutted The Stock Act

http://www.republicreport.org/2012/stock-act-cantor/

[snip]

Last week, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) attached a strong transparency amendment to the Stock Act that requires political intelligence firms to register as lobbying firms. The political intelligence industry consists of lobbyists and other K Street consultants who mine Congress for inside information to then sell to Wall Street speculators. Grassley’s modest amendment simply required these firms to register as any other lobbying interest — but Wall Street prefers secrecy. As the New York Times reported, the big banks and hedge funds mobilized quickly over the last few days to strip this provision. And, it turns out that House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), who managed the Stock Act’s vote today, actually removed Grassley’s amendment only 24 hours before the vote. See a screen shot of the deletion below:

[John]

Here is an update from 60 Minutes that aired at the very end of the program last night:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7398557n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

Note: While they take credit for congress looking into the matter, the programs producers should have been paying attention to what I have mentioned in my last 2 comments (above) prior to this post.

[John]

UPDATE:

Congress members face new curbs on insider trading

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/22/us-usa-congress-insidertrading-idUSBRE82L0WZ20120322

[snip]

The Senate on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to send President Barack Obama legislation imposing new curbs on insider trading by members of Congress, even though the measure was weaker than a version it passed in February.

Note: How telling... "even though the measure was WEAKER than a version it passed in February".

[Sagebrush]

"even though the measure was WEAKER than a version it passed in February".

John, I think they pretty much Gutted it before they voted to send it to Obankster.

[John]

I know.

[John]

UPDATE:

Members of Congress trade stocks of companies they oversee

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/06/24/politics/members-of-congress-trade-stocks-of-companies-they-oversee/

[Howard T. Lewis III]

All that filthy lucre and tax dodging ends up going into off shore banks owned by the queen of England and the Rothschilds, who claim lack of jurisdiction for authority to do bank inspections. If you want to be elected to congress or the presidency, you must get the favored television and press coverage. Less than 1/3 of American voters know anything for sure about their candidate beyond face and name identification and party affiliation (Polsby & Wildavsky, et al) Since all nationwide corporate news coverage is controlled by the Rothschilds through the Council on Foreign Relations and the CFRtv, and the CFRtv is the main source of information for these satanic mewling dog and pony shows of electoral degradation, candidates MUST lick the Rothschild boots to obtain this campaign coverage to get the votes. Witness Jerry Brown in 1988 and Ron Paul in 2012. Both had larger crowds than the other candidates combined, but negative, persistent slanderous and just plain false cheap-shot coverage on the CFRtv. They lost.

Drop a neutron bomb or a virus that homes in on effetes on The City of London and Buckingham Palace (save the antiques), and peace will reign on earth for many years. They have been the patrons of these attacks on the U.S. over the past 13 years and more. The Mossad was not started in Israel. The Mossad was started by the Rothschilds in London in 1927. And they think they are SO smart, and yet they are SO far in debt.

[john]

In Gutting The STOCK Act, Congress Plays By Its Own Rules

http://nyulocal.com/national/2013/04/26/in-gutting-the-stock-act-congress-plays-by-its-own-rules/

[snip]

The STOCK Act, a law that was designed to stop insider trading among government officials, was gutted last week when a key part of the law was repealed unanimously by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama. But if anything, it’s more of a surprise that Congress passed the law with such a wide margin in the first place given its ubiquity in Washington.
In an investigation a year and half ago, 60 Minutes uncovered evidence of several instances of insider trading among prominent government officials. The trades, while technically legal can hardly be considered ethical.

[john]

Insider-trading spies going after big and small schemes


http://www.pressherald.com/business/insider-trading-spies-going-after-bi...



ROCKVILLE, Md. - Cameron Funkhouser heads a spy agency that most Americans never knew existed.

His operation is based in a nondescript beige building in the leafy suburbs outside Washington, a short drive from the National Security Agency, the CIA and the FBI.

Inside, dozens of analysts pore over a torrent of sophisticated data that has become a front line in an aggressive government battle.

Red flags pop up on their computers when something seems amiss, then investigators get to work tracking down leads. The most promising targets are identified in high-level meetings inside what the organization calls its war room.

This isn't a hunt for terrorists. They're snooping for Wall Street cheats: insider traders acting on hot -- and illegal -- stock tips.





No wonder Congress again legalized insider trading for themselves.

[john]

TTIP Update:

'Nein Danke' - smaller German firms see U.S. trade deal as threat

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/28/us-eu-usa-trade-germany-idUSKBN0P805D20150628?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Martina Roemmelt-Fella, who owns a small, family-run turbine manufacturer in Bavaria, should be a cheerleader for a trade deal between Europe and the United States that promises to ease the flow of goods and services across the Atlantic.

But instead she fears the Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) being hammered out between Brussels and Washington will give too much power to big multinationals at the expense of small companies like hers.

"The proposals are being negotiated behind closed doors with the help of 50 or 60 big corporates," said Roemmelt-Fella, whose firm is one of the thousands of small and medium-sized companies known as the 'Mittelstand' that account for 89 percent of Germany's exporters and form the backbone of the economy…

..."TTIP may bring significant benefits for big multinationals, but I don't think there are big advantages for the Mittelstand," she added.

Her opposition underscores the depth of scepticism towards TTIP in Germany, Europe's largest economy, where media coverage has focused largely on protests from anti-globalisation groups and labour unions. It also highlights the challenge facing German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she tries to overturn entrenched suspicion of the pact.

While Merkel and big businesses, such as industrial group Siemens and car parts supplier Robert Bosch [ROBG.UL], remain strongly in favour of a deal, public support has fallen sharply over the past year, according to a recent opinion poll. Such widespread German mistrust could mean a deal has to be diluted or is even blocked.

Hurdles are also growing in Brussels, where as negotiators prepare for their 10th meeting next month, the European Parliament is so split on the subject that it cannot even agree to debate it.

Earlier this month, Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel declared that the talks might fail.,,

,,,Roemmelt-Fella, whose company specializes in making turbines for hydropower plants, is not the only exporter with misgivings.

A Commerzbank study last year found only 15 percent of Mittlestand companies believe TTIP would be a good thing for their business.

A separate survey by the BVMW Mittelstand association, showed more than 80 percent of its members believe the government is not doing enough to represent their interests in the negotiations.

Much of their concern focuses on how companies settle disputes under the pact. They worry U.S. multinationals will use an Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clause to bypass national courts and bully governments into doing their bidding.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates the average legal and arbitration costs of ISDS cases to be around $8 million (7.1 million euros), an amount that is far beyond the means of the average Mittelstand firm.

A further gripe is the proposed creation of a regulation council, designed to smooth the consultation process on new laws, but which opponents say will make the legislative process more susceptible to manipulation.

[john]

http://commondreams.org/news/2016/08/19/good-be-king-very-good-loans-key-lawmakers-get-wall-street-banks