Stock trading is always a risky venture, and people never know if their hunches are going to pan out and make them rich - or lose them a whole lot of money.
Yet for members of Congress, that risk has so far seemed to be a lot less, with their "bets" mysteriously paying off a lot more frequently, delivering them huge financial wins.Is it really "luck" or is it... corruption? Such an ongoing pattern seems a little too convenient, and doesn't feel coincidental.Luckily, some lawmakers want to restore trust and crack down on any conflicts-of-interests. A bipartisan group of Senators have just introduced
the ETHICS Act, which would ban members of Congress and their families from trading individual stocks.
Sign the petition to demand Congress reform itself by passing the ETHICS Act and hold its own members truly accountable!In fact, trading portfolios for members of Congress consistently perform much better than those of the public. This trend is so strong and so pronounced,
many companies now create stock trading portfolios that mirror lawmakers' holdings, in the hopes that other people can benefit from this mysterious "good luck."
For example, just before the 2008 financial crisis, multiple members of Congress pulled huge profits from making big changes to their financial portfolios - changes that showed they knew something big was about to happen.
Insider trading is technically illegal, but hard to prove and enforce. And it has a huge impact on the integrity of our political system.
If members of Congress are allowed to have a personal financial stake in the laws they're voting on - say, if a particular bill would positively or negatively affect an industry's stocks -
that is a giant conflict-of-interest and is absolutely unacceptable.
Similarly, if they receive advance information letting them know an industry is about to go through a huge shift, that gives lawmakers a corrupt and unfair advantage to profit from this information.
Lawmakers are supposed to be public servants. They're not supposed to be here to profit from secret or early knowledge. They need to get their priorities in order - it's the only way to restore our trust.
Sign the petition to demand that Congress pass the ETHICS Act and prove it will clean up its act!