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Wyndeward t1_it38f66 wrote

Reply to comment by Fdizzle_ in Why is Bob Stefanowski even running by pinktwillshirt

When I was a kid, I recall that putting monies in a "blind trust" was something that politicians did, if for no other reason than to provide the appearance of propriety. (I was lucky that, as a kid, I got an education on saving money and investing from my parents...). Sometime between then and now, it is like the politicians stopped even trying to look upstanding. Insider trading is illegal unless you're elected. As a counter-example, which is about the only way I can illustrate this, Martha Stewart got the book thrown at her for insider trading not for what she did -- *ANYONE* who was told the stock was going to take a nose-dive would have done the same... she got the book thrown at her for two reasons. First, she lied about it. Second, as a former stockbroker, she knew better than to sell the stock and lie about it. The politicians get insider information from their day jobs and buy and sell as according said information.

Part of the problem is that folks are ignorant. Yes, we have democratic elections, but we are a republic, if we can keep it. One could argue that it has morphed into an oligarchy, but that is another issue for another time.

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dumbthrow33 t1_it3mu5u wrote

You forgot the part where politicians sell insider stock trading tips to the highest bidder versus making the trades themselves to add another layer of insulation…

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Wyndeward t1_it3o435 wrote

I didn't forget, although I doubt they are actually auctioning it off insider information to the highest bidder in the literal sense. The most egregious thing I am personally aware of in *this* vein was Harry Reid's self-dealing, using his brother as a proxy (land deals) and his "brilliant" ability to time the energy indexes when passing legislature dealing with the energy industry. All very legal, but of questionable ethical value. There are other examples one could come up with involving real estate / fraud (Trump) or cattle futures (Clinton), et al and ad nauseum, but when the political classes start making rules for you and me and exempting themselves, we have an ethical deficit as a bare minimum.

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