Senator Loeffler, Already Accused Of Pandemic Insider Trading, Will Convert All Individual Stock Holdings To Managed Funds
from the bit-late-for-that-now,-ain't-it? dept
Over the last few weeks there's been tremendous attention paid to the prophetic timing of stock sales by two Senators: Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler. Both of whom were insisting publicly that there was little risk associated with the coronavirus and COVID-19, while receiving important briefings in the Senate and quietly selling stocks in retail and travel companies before the market collapsed and -- in Loeffler's case -- buying up stocks in remote work and hospital protective equipment suppliers. It all looks pretty pretty bad. Loeffler, from day one, has defended the stock sales, saying they were done by a third party and she wasn't aware of them. However, the timing and the choices in stocks are still pretty head-scratching.
Loeffler, who is already one of, if not the, richest Senators, has now said that she and her husband (who runs the NY Stock Exchange) will convert all of their individual equity holdings to managed mutual funds. While some are reporting that she's "selling" all her stock, it's not quite that, because she'll just be putting the proceeds into managed funds:
Loeffler, who is the richest member of the Senate, said in a Wall Street Journal opinion page article announcing her decision that her stock holdings would be converted to mutual funds and exchange-traded funds by third-party advisors who handle her investments.
The thing is, of course, that this gets back to the concept we've discussed before of soft corruption. Even if it turns out that it was "legal," the fact that this kind of thing is okay is exactly what makes everyone else assume the game is rigged and corrupt. It makes people trust our institutions less, and that's a huge problem. While it was only a few years back that Congress finally agreed that laws against insider trading should finally apply to elected officials, it seems troubling enough that elected officials own any individual stocks at all. The mere appearance of conflict is damning for a public official. There have been proposals that elected officials ought to be required to move any equity holdings into a blind trust that invests in mutual funds, without the official knowing what's in their investment bucket -- and stories like Loeffler's only gives one more reason why that should be required.
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Filed Under: congress, covid-19, insider trading, kelly loeffler, pandemic profiteering, stock trades
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I got the check for me burning the barn down, but I learned my lesson and will put this money in a nice safe place to earn interest to teach me a lesson.
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Re:
Just make sure that your phone calls to the money managers where you give them the insider point of view are made from an assortment of pay phones (if you can find any) and that you use a previously agreed upon set of code words. There are some even more nefarious ways to disguise your phone calls (for example, hire a homeless person to purchase a couple of dozen pay as you go cell phones from a couple of dozen vendors, a risk in itself (make sure you wipe your prints from the phone before you throw it away)), but the more complicated those tactics are the greater the possibility for error.
For example, there is one Senator who's husband runs the NY Stock Exchange who is going to have a hard time convincing people that between her classified briefings and his close relationships with many, many corporations and the daily variations of the exchange itself actually had no insider information when they made significant trades. The sense of self security is much different than actual security, and sometimes exposure can be excoriating.
But good luck to you, I recommend burying it in the back yard. The only problems with that is that you earn no interest and inflation is against you. There is also the possibility that your or your neighbors dogs might take some interest, and dig it up.
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'No, go ahead without me... yeah, sell those stocks...'
I mean, they could jump through all those hoops to try to hide what they're doing, of they could pick up a phone and start issuing buy/sell orders to their broker in the same room as the briefing that they just got, while everyone else is still there, because it's not like anyone in said room will hold them accountable for it.
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Re:
Why is any elected member of the Congress going to pass any new legislation at all?
Only the voters are expected to act against their economic self-interests. Certainly the Fearless Leader® is showing The Way Forward© 2006, Ford Motor Company
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It's just a little "honest" graft. They seen their opportunities and they took 'em.
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Her timing is again perfect
She announces that 3rd parties are going to manage her wealth from this point on happens to coincide with the market rebound making her 3rd party stock purchases once again perfectly timed.
Martha Stewart did how much time for how much less again?
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Re: Timing is again perfect, thanks again
As State Treasurer of the largest 3ed party in California for six years, we welcome this opportunity
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Re: Her timing is again perfect
For Insider Trading? Martha Stewart didn't do a single second for that. She did time for "Obstruction of Justice".
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location, location, location
as long as they can manage the funds from jail, I approve of this.
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Death is the only real solution to corrupt government officials. How bad things needs to get before some start seeing this fact catch up to them is anyone's guess but you can see how other countries with very corrupt politicians fare on this for a good yardstick measure. Once you do you will clearly see that the US is heading up same way as the inequality of the system becomes too big to ignore.
We truly are living in the worst timeline...
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