'60 Minutes' on 'honest graft'

outdoor338 wrote: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bought stock in initial public offerings (IPOs) that earned hefty returns while she had access to insider information that would have been illegal for an average citizen to trade with – even though it’s perfectly legal for elected officials, CBS’s "60 Minutes" reported Sunday night.

In a piece relying on data collected from the conservative Hoover Institution, "60 Minutes" revealed that elected officials like Pelosi are exempt from insider trading laws – regulations that carry hefty prison sentences and fines for any other citizen who trades stocks with private information on companies that can affect their stock price.

In the case of elected officials – this secret information ranges from timely details on lucrative federal contracts to legislation that can cause companies’ stocks to rise and fall dramatically.

How do they get away with it? Lawmakers have exempted themselves from the laws that govern every other citizen.

Pelosi, D-Calif., and her husband have participated in at least eight IPOs while having access to information directly relating to the companies involved. 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,” Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes" reported.


Read more on Newsmax.com: '60 Minutes' Uncovers Pelosi's Insider Stock Trades
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/pelo ... ode=D800-1

If you did a little research, you would see that your "gotcha" is not limited to Pelosi or the left. Both the 60 minutes news report AND the book that this information is based on goes into the graft that prevalent among all politicians.

The program’s correspondent, Steve Kroft, at news conferences on Nov. 3 asked Representative Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and Representative John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, about stock purchases, according to a report today in the San Francisco Chronicle, which is published in Pelosi’s district.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-1 ... -says.html

And if you delve into the book discussed in this news report, you will discover that members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle profit from insider trading, from their knowledge of current and upcoming bills and from making favored votes that help companies they hold stock in.

Be honest next time.

Two identical topics were merged together into this one thread. Thanks!

Doc, this has been covered in "Do as I say Not do as I do" years ago, along with a lot of how the folks "work". Agreed, I beleive Sossel ,<sp?> did uncover some corruption, (as stated in his book "Give me a Break"), but to what end, it's still thereand I don't only limit my veiwing to the Big 3, I don't watch ANY of the Network shows, nor PBS. Before cabl;e/dish, I would read or listen to music, or play Intellavision.

LadyJazzer wrote: Not that this doesn't go on on BOTH sides, and the Stock Act shouldn't be passed ASAP; but apparently the CBS story got it wrong on BOTH Boehner AND Pelosi:

'60 Minutes' Hit On Boehner, Pelosi Falls Short

WASHINGTON -- A "60 Minutes" investigation of stock trading by members of Congress singled out House Speaker John Boehner and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi as having personally profited from investments into companies whose interests were before Congress. The investigation makes a strong case that members of Congress have the ability to profit in the market from non-public information, but in the cases of Boehner and Pelosi the claims made by "60 Minutes" fall short under scrutiny.

The CBS News program flagged Boehner (R-Ohio) for buying health insurance stocks shortly before the public health insurance option was killed as part of health care reform. The public option wasn't killed by Boehner, who had no real power in the previous Congress; it was done in by Blue Dog Democrats and a White House that didn't push for it. The public option returned from the dead repeatedly before finally being laid to rest -- and there's no reason to think that Boehner had any better insight into what was happening within the House Democratic caucus than anybody else reading news reports at the time. And as Boehner says in the "60 Minutes" segment, the trade was decided upon and carried out by Boehner's longtime broker without any input from him.

Similarly, the knock on Pelosi (D-Calif.) leaves out critical details. "60 Minutes" charges Pelosi with purchasing 5,000 shares of Visa stock as part of an exclusive initial public offering and implies that her financial connection to the credit card industry had something to do with the halting of credit card industry reform. But CBS leaves out that fact that the bill passed out of committee at the very end of the legislative session, as Congress was dealing with the Wall Street implosion and bailout, and that the chamber then adjourned until the election.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/1 ... 91656.html

But the problem isn't about "Leftists" or "Righties".... It's about "Greed-ists"...i.e., the "1-percenters"....

I'm not sure what point that article was trying to make because all of that was covered in the 60 Minutes Report.

The point is Congress should be covered by the same laws as everyone else. Pelosi shouldn't be given special IPO stock which is not available to other people (and goes up 50% in two days). And she certainly shouldn't get it when legislation affecting the company is passing through Congress, whether it influenced her or not. Same goes for Boehner and the others they covered. If anything, all holdings they have should be handled by a blind trust until they leave office.

60 Minutes tried to interview them, but they refused. Instead, 60 Minutes had to ask them about it in press conferences where they could fake shock and go on to the next question.

And Pelosi's outrage is hysterically predictable. She (through a spokesman) blames the accuser...

"It is very troubling that 60 Minutes would base their reporting off of an already-discredited conservative author who has made a career of out attacking Democrats," he added.

CBS said it used as a starting point for its story the research of Peter Schweizer, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University.

About a year ago, he began work on a book about "soft corruption" in Washington, CBS reported. The network said it had independently verified the material it used.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/13/politics/60-minutes-pelosi/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Why doesn't she (and Boehner) at least take this seriously and get that legislation to make this stuff illegal out on the floor for a vote?

Par for the course. Act outraged and pretend you are as pure as white driven snow.

I do not remember which pol it was but for some reason this sticks in my mind. It was on CSPAN's Washington Journal 20+years ago and a caller suggested he was bought. He was outraged that anyone could even suggest such a thing. "Contributors do not buy influence, just access."

Edit: here is an interesting list of how their net worth increased.

http://governmentgonewild.org/thelist