[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by Chico23231

Pelosi fires back at '60 Minutes' report on 'soft corruption' - CNN.com

Good example of politicians taking advantage of their power and "insider" knowledge to gain monetarily. Truly sickening and the fact that they deny it and consider it consequence is humorous to say the least. This stuff happens on Wall Street everyday, but to think it happens on Capitol Hill is just bullsh*t. Surprised they dont have some laws to discourage it.

Im gonna quote you in this thread because I think this is so important and its going to get buried in the OWS thread. Hope that’s cool….

Unfortunately I didn’t catch last night’s 60mins. I work in the financial industry and ill say that Boehner’s statement is most likely true, not just for himself but also for the vast majority of representatives. People who have a lot of money are able to get top tier advice and have access to the best type of products to invest in. I’m certain that you would be able to find conflicts of interest for any member of congress that has a 1 million invested in a taxable account were multiple Separate Account Managers are used. Regardless I don’t think Boehner’s statement rings true for every member and I would also speculate that many or most multi term members likely acted on non-public info at least once in their careers.

The problem is that regardless of how hands off people are (like Boehner or maybe like Pelosi) with their investments is that some members may not be (Bachus buying options sounds shady), but also, and just as importantly to me, since there are conflicts of interest there is the perception of wrong doing. Plus members of Congress and their aides are expressly allowed to make transactions based off of insider knowledge, which is shocking when you think about it.


What so troubling with Pelosi’s response is that shes ignoring the issue and instead just talking about the positive she has done for consumers. It almost sounds like the rationalizing people make towards Paterno's inaction. In her eyes she’s done so much good for consumers who cares if she or others do wrong every now and then. Whenever the issue is brought up in Congress they ignore it, which is rediculous considering the crap that choose to get involved in and because its soooo easy to fix. All they have to do is hold lawmakers, judges and their aides subject to the exact same standards as financial representatives and corporate officers, why would that be so bad?