CBS News’ Steve Kroft reports that members of Congress can legally trade stock based on non-public information from Capitol Hill.  We’ve already discussed this type of corruption in the past, and it’s great to see the issue receive so much more widespread publicity…  You also see by Nancy Pelosi’s attitude how a two-tiered “Rule of Law” is practically considered a “congressional entitlement” at this point.  Hint to OccupyWallStreet protesters, HERE IS YOUR REAL ONE PERCENT!!! (actually, more like the truly thieving and conniving .1% who want you to grant them even more money and power)

(CBS) “The buying and selling of stock by corporate insiders who have access to non-public information that could affect the stock price can be a criminal offense, just ask hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam who recently got 11 years in prison for doing it. But, congressional lawmakers have no corporate responsibilities and have long been considered exempt from insider trading laws, even though they have daily access to non-public information and plenty of opportunities to trade on it.”

“So in 2004, Baird and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter introduced the STOCK Act  which would make it illegal for members of Congress to trade stocks on non-public information and require them to report their stock trades every 90 days instead of once a year. .. Kroft: How far did you get with this? Baird: We didn’t get anywhere. Just flat died. Went nowhere. Kroft: How many cosponsors did you get? Baird: I think we got six. Kroft: Six doesn’t sound like a very big amount. Baird: It’s not, Steve. You– you could have– ‘National Cherry Pie Week’ and get 100 cosponsors. When Baird finally managed to get a congressional hearing on the STOCK Act, almost no one showed up. It’s reintroduced every session, but is buried so deep in the Capitol we had trouble finding congressmen who had even heard of it.”

“And former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband have participated in at least eight IPOs. One of those came in 2008, from Visa, just as a troublesome piece of legislation that would have hurt credit card companies, began making its way through the House. Undisturbed by a potential conflict of interest the Pelosis purchased 5,000 shares of Visa at the initial price of $44 dollars. Two days later it was trading at $64. The credit card legislation never made it to the floor of the House.”

“In the past few years a whole new totally unregulated, $100 million dollar industry has grown up in Washington called political intelligence. It employs former congressmen and former staffers to scour the halls of the Capitol gathering valuable non-public information then selling it to hedge funds and traders on Wall Street who can trade on it.”

]]> http://www.vlogolution.com/hot/2011-11-15-congressional-insider-trading-scam-our-rule-of-law-doesnt-apply-to-the-1-who-run-the-government-and-the-country/feed/ 0 http://www.vlogolution.com/hot/2011-10-21-obama-admin-gave-500mm-loan-to-gore-connected-electric-car-company-to-build-cars-in-finland/ http://www.vlogolution.com/hot/2011-10-21-obama-admin-gave-500mm-loan-to-gore-connected-electric-car-company-to-build-cars-in-finland/#comments Sat, 22 Oct 2011 00:51:26 +0000 http://www.vlogolution.com/hot/?p=1214

Between government-sponsored “Green-Energy” fraud-laden projects such as Solyndra, SolarReserve, and Fisker Automotive, the conflict-of-interest laden PORK-FEST continues… and when they fail, it’s called a “BET” gone BAD.  Nice to see that our government is in the business of gambling with taxpayer dollars by investing huge sums (that we already can’t afford) in entities that always seem to directly benefit a few politically well-connected folks, from Al Gore, to Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law Ronald Pelosi, among many others. Why don’t more people talk about hanging THOSE “rich” folks out to dry? Or how about all the “rich” bankers who continue to receive interest-free capital loans at the expense of little old ladies? And once their principal is wiped out on expenses, the banks can steal the rest by charging 30%+ APRs on credit card debt that costs them 0% to loan out courtesy of the Fed. Nice gig if you can get it.

And they wonder what the protesters at “Occupy Wall Street” are upset about…

“An electric car company that received more than a half-billion-dollar Obama administration-approved loan is reportedly now assembling its first line of cars in rural Finland, rather than in the United States. What’s more, the car company, Fisker Automotive, is funded by a venture capital firm whose partners include former Vice President Al Gore.” – Obama Admin Gave half-billion dollar loan to Gore-Connected electric car company to build cars in finland

“The SolarReserve project is backed by an energy investment fund where the Minority Leader’s brother-in-law Ronald Pelosi is second in command.” – Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law is given $737m of taxpayers’ money to build giant solar power plant in middle of the desert

“A group of Democratic operatives have formed an investment company called U.S. Renewable Energy Group, or US-REG, which seems to exist for the sake of buying green-tech companies, and then helping them get subsidies. In at least one case, US-REG appeared to be a U.S. beard for a Chinese company seeking U.S. dollars to make wind turbines in China.” – Green subsidies: A breeding ground for corruption

“A senior Energy Department official pushed hard for the government’s $535 million loan to the now-bankrupt California solar energy company Solyndra even after he had disclosed that his wife’s law firm represented the company and he had promised to recuse himself from matters related to the loan application, according to e-mails provided to Congressional investigators by the administration.” – E-Mail Shows Senior Energy Official Pushed Solyndra Loan