• Gork@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    Fun fact: Congresspeople can legally inside trade, but the rest of us cannot.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      That’s not true. It’s still illegal even though they get away with it. You’re thinking of bribery lobbying.

      According to the STOCK Act of 2012, they could be brought up on charges for a trade performed after gaining knowledge of a pending change in legislation that would affect the value of a stock, prior to the legislation being publicly enacted. The SEC just hasn’t charged them.

      What they do is not legal, they just live above the law.

      • DharkStare@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Just to clarify. Insider trading is illegal but it is not illegal for politicians in Congress to use the information they obtain from their jobs (such as through classified meetings) to engage in stock market trades.

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          It’s not a failure of the law. It’s a failure of the SEC for not enforcing it.

          MYTH: Members of Congress are exempt from insider trading laws.

          FACT: Both a Congressional Research Service Report and House Administration Committee memo indicates that Members of Congress are subject to the same insider trading rules as the general public.

          https://perry.house.gov/how-can-scott-help/myths-about-congress.htm#:~:text=FACT%3A Both a Congressional Research

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          That’s simply not true. They have no exemption to insider trading laws. It simply comes down to trade timing.

          The way the law is written, they could be brought up on charges for a trade performed after gaining knowledge of a pending change in legislation that would affect the value of a stock prior to the legislation being publicly enacted. The SEC just hasn’t charged them.

          What they do is not legal, they just live above the law.

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Yes. It is. They just need to be arrested and prosecuted. I agree that it should be taken more seriously, considering that it’s against the law.

          • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            No one has ever been prosecuted in the decade and change that it has been illegal, despite frequent violations.

                  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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                    7 months ago

                    You have a philosophy around what laws are and what they mean that is incongruent with reality.

                    What is the word we use when people have believes that don’t match up with the previous or future state of things?

                    Laws on paper are only one aspect of what a law is. How those laws are interpreted and how they are enforced matter far, far more. Law is what is applied and enforced. If something is a ‘law’ but is not enforced, then its not really law.

                    And its fine that you have a different philosophy around what the law means. I just don’t find it particularly useful because it doesn’t predict the past, present, or future states of the world.

                    In other words:

                    spoiler

    • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Fun fact: Everyone with hundreds of millions+ in holdings either trades with insider information or pays others to do it, because our metrics and enforcement for insider trading are a gallows joke.