Insider trading laws --Politicians Exempt-- Any Independents out there ??

[island1fox]

Nice to know our politicians become multi millionaires by avoiding laws that we have to follow. Look at what happened to Martha Stewart. Our "royalty" take advantage of us and no one complains. The fools that are "occuping Wall Street" should realize the clear and present corruption is in Washington DC. This is where real change has to take place when decisions and policies are made for all American's not just for party,power and greed. Sure they "SERVE US" Most People are so blinded by partisan politics they cannot see what is right and wrong , while many others have their heads in the sand and know nothing. This is the greatest danger to our Country. It would be nice to hear from a few Independants--the Right and Left truly have nothing to contribute because they are the problem and do not even realize it.

 

[moreluck]

I always wondered why in the world people would spend so much money to get elected and put up with all the grief for such a low salary......now I know why!

I hope Scott Brown's bill is moved along and passed.

 

[tonyexpress]

Is Congress picking stocks with insider information?



"It’s not illegal, but I think it’s highly unethical, I think it’s highly offensive and wrong.”

 

[wkmac]

Nice to know our politicians become multi millionaires by avoiding laws that we have to follow. Look at what happened to Martha Stewart. Our "royalty" take advantage of us and no one complains. The fools that are "occuping Wall Street" should realize the clear and present corruption is in Washington DC. This is where real change has to take place when decisions and policies are made for all American's not just for party,power and greed. Sure they "SERVE US" Most People are so blinded by partisan politics they cannot see what is right and wrong , while many others have their heads in the sand and know nothing. This is the greatest danger to our Country. It would be nice to hear from a few Independants--the Right and Left truly have nothing to contribute because they are the problem and do not even realize it.

Last week in the "Elections" thread at post #706 I linked a piece entitled "12 Facts About Money and Congress That Are So Outrageous That It Is Hard To Believe That They Are Actually True" but embedded in the article is this video of Nancy Pelosi being questioned by Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes on an IPO stock deal she gained on while at the same time overseeing major legislation that directly effects the company she has a stake in.

[video=youtube;nzKtmPFVGic]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nzKtmPFVGic#![/video]

Reminds me of another politician but the good news at least, this one is fictional, or it he?

[video=youtube;NJG75FJkjr8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJG75FJkjr8[/video]

Not that Nancy is by any stretch alone, she should go on that dancing show and do the side step as her finishing move!

 

[UnconTROLLed]

Nice to know our politicians become multi millionaires by avoiding laws that we have to follow. Look at what happened to Martha Stewart. Our "royalty" take advantage of us and no one complains. The fools that are "occuping Wall Street" should realize the clear and present corruption is in Washington DC. This is where real change has to take place when decisions and policies are made for all American's not just for party,power and greed. Sure they "SERVE US" Most People are so blinded by partisan politics they cannot see what is right and wrong , while many others have their heads in the sand and know nothing. This is the greatest danger to our Country. It would be nice to hear from a few Independants--the Right and Left truly have nothing to contribute because they are the problem and do not even realize it.

What good is occupying DC going to do? Very simple-minded logic that many others have already stated.

What you are missing is that perhaps WALL ST. will "give up the goods" so to speak and let the outsiders IN to what is going on. That is what the MAINSTREAM needs to hear and finally accept, to sway the unthinking, dumbed down voters.

You and I will never get the honesty from the politicians, the most crooked evil there could be...

Just imo and no one else to my knowledge has stated any of the above.

 

[island1fox]

What good is occupying DC going to do? Very simple-minded logic that many others have already stated.

What you are missing is that perhaps WALL ST. will "give up the goods" so to speak and let the outsiders IN to what is going on. That is what the MAINSTREAM needs to hear and finally accept, to sway the unthinking, dumbed down voters.

You and I will never get the honesty from the politicians, the most crooked evil there could be...

Just imo and no one else to my knowledge has stated any of the above.

Sleeve,
In your opinion I am missing something about "Wall ST" todays big bogey man.

I am sure you will come back with an "ENRON" story.
Fact is just as the majority of UPS employees are very hard working extremely decent people there are always a few bad apples.
Same with the major U.S corporations that have provided a vast amount of jobs,benefits,opportunites for generations of Americans.
What or who is Wall street ? UPS --Johnson & Johnson --Microsoft --all the Fortune 500 companies---the Russel 2000 -etc,etc etc.

Let the outsiders in ?? Lets use UPS as an example. Somewhere today a poor person will apply to UPS for a very grueling part time job. As the many years go by this person has loaded, unloaded ,sorted , delivered air,washed cars combo jobbed,
drove as a full time package driver and then a feeder driver.

This person has alot more ambition and drive that most. On weekends and whatever free time possible he completes a college degree and enters management. "Friends" no longer speak to him and he spends long and hard days and nights climbing the "Corporate ladder".
After 35 to 40 years he is in the top 1% of UPS management. He has always been honest and lived his business life with a high degree of ethical standards.

He is retired now -a multi millionaire who has always paid the highest tax rates and has contibuted to numerous charities.

Now the young Occupy wall street punk claims how evil the system is --how no-one can get ahead-the system is rigged.

When the young man is offered a part time job at UPS ---He looks at you like you are crazy ---I am not going to do that.

Today ---he is the HERO
The long time hard worker who has worked to create a succesful life for him and his family is now the "evil Wallstreeter"

You must be right I am missing something !!

 

[trplnkl]

Great post Island, this story epitomizes many of the people in the 1%, I'm not one of them but I herald their success just the same.

 

[trplnkl]

What good is occupying DC going to do? Very simple-minded logic that many others have already stated.

What you are missing is that perhaps WALL ST. will "give up the goods" so to speak and let the outsiders IN to what is going on. That is what the MAINSTREAM needs to hear and finally accept, to sway the unthinking, dumbed down voters.

You and I will never get the honesty from the politicians, the most crooked evil there could be...

Just imo and no one else to my knowledge has stated any of the above.

If it were done right, not in the manner that OWS has done in so many places, it would possibly bring to attention the real root of the problems. Maybe not, but it would do so much more good than those clowns out in the streets now.

 

[island1fox]

trpinkl,

You have always struck me as a person who tells it like it is --a straight shooter. Thank you for your comments !!

 

[wkmac]

Sleeve,
In your opinion I am missing something about "Wall ST" todays big bogey man.

I am sure you will come back with an "ENRON" story.
Fact is just as the majority of UPS employees are very hard working extremely decent people there are always a few bad apples.
Same with the major U.S corporations that have provided a vast amount of jobs,benefits,opportunites for generations of Americans.
What or who is Wall street ? UPS --Johnson & Johnson --Microsoft --all the Fortune 500 companies---the Russel 2000 -etc,etc etc.

Let the outsiders in ?? Lets use UPS as an example. Somewhere today a poor person will apply to UPS for a very grueling part time job. As the many years go by this person has loaded, unloaded ,sorted , delivered air,washed cars combo jobbed,
drove as a full time package driver and then a feeder driver.

This person has alot more ambition and drive that most. On weekends and whatever free time possible he completes a college degree and enters management. "Friends" no longer speak to him and he spends long and hard days and nights climbing the "Corporate ladder".
After 35 to 40 years he is in the top 1% of UPS management. He has always been honest and lived his business life with a high degree of ethical standards.

He is retired now -a multi millionaire who has always paid the highest tax rates and has contibuted to numerous charities.

Now the young Occupy wall street punk claims how evil the system is --how no-one can get ahead-the system is rigged.

When the young man is offered a part time job at UPS ---He looks at you like you are crazy ---I am not going to do that.

Today ---he is the HERO
The long time hard worker who has worked to create a succesful life for him and his family is now the "evil Wallstreeter"

You must be right I am missing something !!

Before you run off being the defender of Enron.

The OWS movement may have a lot wrong but that don't make others right as corp. apologists either. At least many of the OWS folk are honest albeit misguided in their drive for big gov't but unlike many here who keep their eyes closed as to who the real enablers are for big and bad gov't. If they were willing to look around a bit they may understand why big gov't is necessary for corp. power to exist and thus why corp. power is necessary for big gov't to exist.

Island,
I'd like to recommend a book to consider reading. The book is entitled, "The Triumph of Conservatism" by historian Gabriel Kolko. His work studies the so-called progressive era from 1901' to 1914'. This review at Amazon sums it up pretty well.

Historical explanation of the rise of Big Government, January 23, 2001
By
Greg Nyquist


This review is from: Triumph of Conservatism (Paperback)
No book details the historical relationship between big business and the Federal government better than this one. Though confined merely to the so-called Progressive Era in American history (1901-1914), Kolko manages to overturn all the misconceptions about the formation of government regulation in America. Instead of accepting the standard view that federal regulation of business was inspired by the Progressive intellectuals and activist political leaders eager to put a check on the rising power of big business, Kolko shows that it was really inspired by the drive of businessman to limit competition and bring "stability" into the market. The result is what Kolko calls, appropriately enough, "political capitalism." Some earlier reviews have attempted to draw an ideological lesson from this book. This is a mistake. If there is a lesson to be drawn from Kolko's work, it is the failure of all ideologies (whether from the right, left, or center) to adequately explain the rise of political capitalism in America. Both the right and the left share the common assumption that government regulation hurts big business. Kolko proves that this isn't the case, that Big Business is in favor of regulation and the throttling of competition. Kolko's book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand what capitalism and politics is really all about.

Granted, that era is 100 years ago but the fact is bad habits aren't often soon broken, especially when more often than not they tend to work.

 

[island1fox]

wkmac,

Always willing to educate myself and keep an open mind. Have you by chance read a book by Ayn Rand titled "Atlas Shrugged" ? Yet another spin on Big Business and Government involvement. While it was written many years ago I believe it has been recently put on the big screen.

 

[wkmac]

wkmac,

Always willing to educate myself and keep an open mind. Have you by chance read a book by Ayn Rand titled "Atlas Shrugged" ? Yet another spin on Big Business and Government involvement. While it was written many years ago I believe it has been recently put on the big screen.

Yes I have.

I've heard the movie was not that good which is sad because it could have been very good. Another of Rand's books many think is even better is The Fountainhead which was also made into a movie in 1949' starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal. Good movie too.

 

[wkmac]

Seems this Sunday's 60 Minutes will air the program where Kroft confronts Pelosi but it appears her "love seat buddy" will also get some air time. I had to run an errand this morning and because Newt is up in the polls along with revelations of the Fannie deal, I decided to tune in Neal Boortz just to see if that was the subject. Neal not to my surprise is getting predictable at toting other people's water and he had pollster/PR guy Matt Towery on and thank goodness they clarified the whole thing. In short, nothing here, move along, go back to sleep America!

And the very last sentence in the linked piece above in the form of a question knocks the ball out of the park. I knew Townhall still had a person or 2 capable of critical thinking if need be and glad to see evidence of it!

I sure miss the old Neal Boortz before national syndication when doing like the Joneses (no offense Jones) was not his schtick. I think he left many of his critical thinking skills at the ex-wife but sadly nobody over there uses them either. Well there's always Colin Cowherd and sports talk.

 

[island1fox]

Many in the USA complain and mock the English Royalty. Has anyone looked lately at all the "Royalty" in Washington DC.

Please lets at least stop with "they serve us" nonsense. They serve themselves, their power, their status, their party and their financial enrichment.

I am not a fan of Perry but he has expressed an idea of a "part-time" Congress. Reduce their salaries and benefits by 50% and reduce the huge number of staff that is paid by us 50%.

Has anyone ever considered how politicians keep their positions while running for office full time for years . It is because they DO NOTHING but vote. The staffs we pay for collect from the lobbies and write the laws and regulations.

 

[trplnkl]

Many in the USA complain and mock the English Royalty. Has anyone looked lately at all the "Royalty" in Washington DC.

Please lets at least stop with "they serve us" nonsense. They serve themselves, their power, their status, their party and their financial enrichment.

I am not a fan of Perry but he has expressed an idea of a "part-time" Congress. Reduce their salaries and benefits by 50% and reduce the huge number of staff that is paid by us 50%.

Has anyone ever considered how politicians keep their positions while running for office full time for years . It is because they DO NOTHING but vote. The staffs we pay for collect from the lobbies and write the laws and regulations.

Unless I am mistaken it was not intentionally planned in our beginning for politicians to be paid but the federal government. I would suggest that all the law makers in washington DC be paid by their respective states and that salary would be decided by the citizens for their own legislators. We would soon find out what politicians were there to actually help the citizens. One of the first thing we need to do is run all lobbyists out town.

 

[wkmac]

Many in the USA complain and mock the English Royalty. Has anyone looked lately at all the "Royalty" in Washington DC.

Please lets at least stop with "they serve us" nonsense. They serve themselves, their power, their status, their party and their financial enrichment.

I am not a fan of Perry but he has expressed an idea of a "part-time" Congress. Reduce their salaries and benefits by 50% and reduce the huge number of staff that is paid by us 50%.

Has anyone ever considered how politicians keep their positions while running for office full time for years . It is because they DO NOTHING but vote. The staffs we pay for collect from the lobbies and write the laws and regulations.

You are so right about the folks in Washington serving themselves and not us. That's another reason I support a massive de-centralization of Washington power and shifting it all back local. If we really took the time to dig into the actually true costs of sending money up to Washington to only let them pass it around as a bunch of rent seekers stripping away from each dollar and then passing it back down going through several more hands of rent seekers and then finally getting back down to the local level from which it started, that once single dollar has now been stripped down to a fraction of it's original size and then we wonder why nothing ever works or get's solved. What would the impact be if that entire dollar stayed local? Triple or more the results locally at over half the costs in tax savings. What would the economic impact be all that money staying local but then half the current tax costs staying in the local economy too? Think about it!

Yet the oligarchic elite do get richer in the process. And make note of the story dateline for those who want to blame the current administration as the pure culprit not that it's hasn't added to the problem. Hmmm Washington area and NYC area well represented so what does that say? Think it out and drill down!

As for Rick Perry, I might question motive (sorry it's the cynic in me) but I applaud the effort. Perry has also made news in regards to foreign policy as to it's cost. Romney has now spoken in support too. It's not perfect (I'm the cynic) but it's a hell of a good start in the conversation.

One last thing and admitted a bit OT but still it should be noted. A lot of people don't like the "kooky ole' uncle" for a variety of reasons but as the campaign moves forward, more and more in the case of policy whether domestic, economic or foreign, that kooky uncle seems to be driving the bus as to where candidates are having to go to sway voters. That sure sez a lot IMO.

 

[wkmac]

Unless I am mistaken it was not intentionally planned in our beginning for politicians to be paid but the federal government. I would suggest that all the law makers in washington DC be paid by their respective states and that salary would be decided by the citizens for their own legislators. We would soon find out what politicians were there to actually help the citizens. One of the first thing we need to do is run all lobbyists out town.

Boo-Yah! Here! Here! And Zell Miller was right, abolish the 17th amendment.

One other thing we should do as I always found it a conflict to the separation of powers. Lawyers are officers of the court and therefore a part of the judicial branch of gov't. Any lawyer if not before running for Congress at least once elected and before taking the oath of office should be required to resign from the bar and upon leaving Congress barred for a period a say 3 to 5 years from rejoining the bar. That might go a long way in culling the Congress as a milking ground for stinkin' lawyers!

 

[moreluck]

Boo-Yah! Here! Here! And Zell Miller was right, abolish the 17th amendment.

One other thing we should do as I always found it a conflict to the separation of powers. Lawyers are officers of the court and therefore a part of the judicial branch of gov't. Any lawyer if not before running for Congress at least once elected and before taking the oath of office should be required to resign from the bar and upon leaving Congress barred for a period a say 3 to 5 years from rejoining the bar. That might go a long way in culling the Congress as a milking ground for stinkin' lawyers!

I think that law may exist in Illinois and is the reason both Obama & the Mrs. surrendered their law licenses.

 

[trplnkl]

Boo-Yah! Here! Here! And Zell Miller was right, abolish the 17th amendment.

One other thing we should do as I always found it a conflict to the separation of powers. Lawyers are officers of the court and therefore a part of the judicial branch of gov't. Any lawyer if not before running for Congress at least once elected and before taking the oath of office should be required to resign from the bar and upon leaving Congress barred for a period a say 3 to 5 years from rejoining the bar. That might go a long way in culling the Congress as a milking ground for stinkin' lawyers!

On local and state levels I've always had a tendency to vote against lawyers. My reasoning was that you had to be a lawyer to read and understand all those worthless laws they passed. There was no reason for them to be so wordy and complicated.

BTW, I like that idea. There would be pros and cons on the subject though. I would also support term limits and revise any retirement program for law makers.
Asking anyone to give up their career before being elected might be a bit to harsh but once elected...poof goes the license.

 

[wkmac]

I think that law may exist in Illinois and is the reason both Obama & the Mrs. surrendered their law licenses.

What office did Michelle run for and get elected too that caused her to surrender her license in order to comply with this Ill. law you speak of?


POOF! Now we're back just to your personal bias again based on absolutely ........................................... !