Revealed: how US senators invest in the firms they're supposed to regulate

[mysteryowl]

Source: The Guardian

Analysis of financial disclosure data shows 51 senators and their spouses have as much as $96m invested in corporate stocks.

As they set national policy on important issues such as climate change, tech monopolies, medical debt and income inequality, US senators have glaring conflicts of interest, an investigation by news website Sludge and the Guardian can reveal.
Sludge co-partnership

An analysis of personal financial disclosure data as of 16 August has found that 51 senators and their spouses have as much as $96m personally invested in corporate stocks in five key sectors: communications/electronics; defense; energy and natural resources; finance, insurance and real estate; and health.

The majority of these stocks come from public companies, and some are private.

Overall, the senators are invested in 338 companies – including tech firms such as Apple and Microsoft, oil and gas giants including ExxonMobil and Antero Midstream, telecom companies including Verizon, and major defense contractors such as Boeing – in the five sectors as categorized by Sludge.

Picture caption:
Senators Mike Rounds, Shelley Moore Capito, Roy Blunt, John Hoeven, Jim Inhofe, Joe Manchin and Steve Daines in 2015. Senators are far wealthier than most constituents, and in a prime position to increase wealth via policymaking.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/19/us-senators-investments-conflict-of-interest

[RKP5637]

1. It's a damn crooked place!!! Endless hypocrisy! n/t

[CrispyQ]

2. Was it Frist who had his own broker set up in his dining room?

The depth & scope of corruption is stunning.

[DENVERPOPS]

3. So what else is new

I swear, I cannot believe how short people's memories are..........

Remember Rumsfeld declaring the U.S. would stockpile a hundred million doses of CIPRO to counteract Anthrax in the middle of the IRAQ weapons of mass destruction fiasco.........

Three days earlier he himself had "stockpiled" a few million dollars of stock in the sole maker of Cipro. After the announcement was made, he waited three days and cashed out of the drug stock for three times what he had invested.
It's called pump and dump, or insider trading, take your pick. Both flagrantly illegal.....The SEC didn't say a word to him.
The politicians, especially on the appropriations committees have done it for decades and cry all the way to the bank for themselves and their heirs........About the same time, the SEC hung Martha out to dry over a 50K transaction for insider trading and sent her to prison........

[DUar17]

4. I wonder how much money they lost because of the Huawei ban.

n/t