Congress corrupt to the core...

How Can The American People Ever Trust Congress Again After Learning Of The Rampant Insider Trading That Has Been Going On?

Will the shocking insider trading revelations that have come to light in recent days finally be enough to motivate the American people to start throwing all of the con men and charlatans out of Congress? On Sunday, 60 Minutes opened up a huge can of worms when it did a feature story on insider trading by members of Congress. Up until now, the vast majority of Americans had no idea that insider trading was actually legal for members of Congress. In fact, as will be documented later on in this article, members of Congress have been using secrets that they have learned during the course of their duties to make huge amounts of money in the stock market. If you can believe it, during the financial crisis of 2008 some members of Congress were making huge stock moves that would only pay off if the stock market crashed really hard at a time when they should have been focusing on creating legislation that would help the U.S. financial system survive. It is hard not to feel sick after learning how low some of our “leaders” have stooped to enrich themselves. Now that the American people are learning the truth, how can they ever trust Congress again?

Even before these revelations about insider trading by members of Congress came to light, the approval rating for Congress was sitting at about 11 percent.

There is a widespread feeling in this country that our political system simply does not work any longer.

Nearly all of our “leaders” seem to be wealthy elitists that are rapidly becoming wealthier. Today, the average net worth for a member of Congress is approximately 3.8 million dollars, and the collective net worth of all of the members of Congress increased by 25 percent between 2008 and 2010.

It would be one thing is they were accumulating all of this wealth legitimately. However, it is just not right for members of Congress to use government secrets and inside information that is not available to the general public to make huge profits in the stock market.

If any of the rest of us engage in insider trading, it could get us thrown into jail.

But as a recent CNBC article noted, members of Congress can pretty much get away with it as much as they want to….

When you buy and sell stocks based on secrets you learned at the office, it could be insider trading.

But when a United States Senator does it, it’s probably perfectly legal.

That’s because the SEC has largely determined that trading stocks based on advance knowledge of action in Congress is not insider trading.

But just because it is legal, that does not make it right.

Former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff made headlines recently when he claimed that “a dozen members of Congress and their aides took part in insider trading“.

Well, it turns out that there has been a whole lot more insider trading going on than that.

If you have not seen the recent 60 Minutes report on this issue yet, you really should take a few minutes and watch it….



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