We’re feeling the heat of summer in Washington, DC, but hell is freezing over anyway.
Why? Because veteran stock market wizard Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), has come out in support of a bill that will ban members of Congress from trading in stocks or options.
For late arrivals, former House Speaker Pelosi has for more than a decade been the poster child for members of Congress who became rich by trading on inside information to predict the movement of the stock market. Pelosi has long tried to deflect criticism by saying that her husband makes all the stock moves, but the numbers don’t lie: While the S&P index is up by 240 percent over the last 10 years, Pelosi and her husband are up an eye-popping 745 percent.
Peter Schweizer, who wrote about congressional stock speculating in the 2011 book Throw Them All Out, notes on the latest episode of The Drill Down podcast that when she first came to Congress, Nancy Pelosi was worth “a couple million.” Today, “she and her husband are worth about $260 million.”
Schweizer and the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) documented her fortunate efforts in the stock market, which is detailed in a clip in today’s show. She managed to stop a bill from coming to the House floor that would have harmed Visa, Inc. She subsequently was part of that company’s initial public offering and, in two days, watched her shares go from $44 to $64 a share.
Hellbound and Down 