Hey, Nancy…
Tag: stock market
Nancy Pelosi Doubles Down Despite Criticism, Makes Big-Money Stock Moves
This month, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi argued that members of Congress should not be criticized for owning personal stocks.
Days later, she bought millions of dollars worth of call options for stocks in various companies.
According to disclosures signed Wednesday, Pelosi purchased between $1.75 and $3.6 million worth of call options between Dec. 17 and Dec. 22 for companies including Google, Salesforce, Roblox and Disney.
Her largest purchases were between $500,000 and $1 million for Google and between $600,000 and $1.25 million for Salesforce.
According to the New York Post, Pelosi said on Dec. 15 that members of Congress should be able to hold individual stocks in the U.S.
Members Of Congress And Their Families Traded Over $630 Million In Stocks This Year
Members of Congress and their immediate families exchanged more than $630 million in stocks this year.
A report from The New York Times’ DealBook — based upon research conducted by Capitol Trades — revealed that asset purchases amounted to $267 million, while sales amounted to $364 million:
About 60 percent of these trades were in company stocks, with the rest split among funds, bonds and other assets. Republicans bought $100 million worth of stocks this year, versus $75 million for Democrats, according to the average of ranges that lawmakers provide in filings.
Politicians from the two major parties displayed distinct portfolio preferences:
Democrats are really into tech stocks, which accounted for some $35 million, or nearly half of all purchases by the group (versus only 14 percent for Republicans). Microsoft was the most popular big-ticket buy: The husband of Representative Suzan DelBene of Washington is a former Microsoft executive who sold between $5 million and $25 million in the company’s stock in October, which she reported past the 45-day deadline, prompting criticism. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband is a real estate and venture capital investor who is active on the stock market, making a pair of million-dollar purchases of Microsoft stock during the year, among other trades.
Republicans are more about energy, buying $32 million worth of stock in companies in the sector during the year, about a third of all purchases (versus a mere 1 percent for Democrats). Representative Mark Green of Tennessee was associated with many of the biggest energy trades, spreading six-figure purchases across a range of firms.
According to The New York Times, members of Congress also traded $26 million in stock options and $300,000 in cryptocurrencies.
Of Course Pelosi Doesn’t Want Congress Banned From Trading Stocks — She Rakes In Millions From It
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want Congress banned from trading stocks because she profits big from her and her husband’s investments on a regular basis.
In a press conference on Monday, the Democrat said that representatives and senators should do their best to comply with the reporting standards required by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, signed into law in 2012, but rejected the suggestion that legislators and their spouses should be barred from trading.
“We are a free market economy that should be able to participate in that,” Pelosi said.
Like many others in Congress, Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, a San Francisco real estate investment mogul, have poured tons of money into the stock market and profited millions off of shares largely staked in Big Tech stocks such as Alphabet, Google’s parent company. According to disclosure forms collected in the House, Pelosi has reported holding stocks in Microsoft, Roblox, Netflix, and recently sold Facebook and Apple shares.
Pelosi isn’t the only member of Congress who makes money off of trading on some of the same companies that are regularly called to testify in front of her chamber’s committees. A recent report from Insider found that 49 other legislators not only frequently involved themselves in stock trades but also failed to disclose their dealings in accordance with the STOCK Act in a timely manner or at all. The list is filled with Republicans and Democrats who, despite the law designed to curb any insider trading and conflicts of interest, “offer excuses including ignorance of the law, clerical errors, and mistakes by an accountant” to justify their lack of financial disclosures.
Try not to be shocked…
‘Watters’ World’ investigates Nancy Pelosi’s financial dealings up to $315 million in assets
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has served in Congress for nearly 34 years and presently presides in a top-tier position as one of the most powerful figures in the U.S. government. Amid a recent flurry of complicated decisions she’s had to face as leader of her caucus, Fox News host Jesse Watters launched a “Watters’ World” investigation into her financial dealings during her tenure in politics.
Last week, the Speaker was unable to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill as progressives in her own party signaled their disapproval. Watters condemned her policies, saying they’re making it “harder and harder for average Americans to accumulate wealth,” shackling them with taxes and “destroying the dollar with reckless spending.”
The current salary of a Speaker of the House sits in the low six-figures, yet Pelosi is one of the richest members of Congress.
So what is her secret, asked Watters: “It appears to be her husband, Paul.”
Retail traders follow Nancy Pelosi’s husband’s stock moves to find winners
When in doubt, pick the same stocks that lawmakers’ spouses are buying? That’s what retail investors are doing when it comes to trades made by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, a businessman who owns a real estate and venture capital firm.
Though Nancy Pelosi herself doesn’t trade stocks, her husband does. And that’s enough for some social traders, who see his trades as hers. “We’ve been tracking their performance and every single stock she has bought in the last two years has gone up significantly,” Christopher Josephs, cofounder of Iris, told Yahoo Finance Live. Iris is a social investing app allowing users to see the same stocks friends, influencers and professionals are buying.
Trades made by lawmakers or their family members are required to be disclosed within 45 days of execution.
Complaints on STOCK Act violations stack up against members of Congress
A government watchdog group asked the Office of Congressional Ethics last week to investigate Assistant Speaker of the House Katherine Clark, D-Mass., for apparently failing to timely disclose up to $285,000 in financial transactions — making the potential successor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the latest among numerous House and Senate members to face ethics complaints about allegedly violating the STOCK Act.
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, better known as the STOCK Act, has gained renewed attention during the COVID-19 pandemic when some lawmakers were suspected of using information from government roles to profit.
Broadly, the law prohibits members of Congress, congressional staffers and certain members of the executive branch and federal judiciary from engaging in insider trading based on information they learn through their government jobs. One provision of the law requires members of Congress to make a “full and complete” statement of their assets and their spouse’s assets, debts and income, as well as periodic reports of financial transactions that exceed $1,000 within 30 to 45 days of the transaction.
Lawmakers Benefit From Booming Defense Stocks
Since U.S. military actions in Afghanistan were authorized in September 2001, the stocks of the top five defense companies have risen in value by an average of nearly 900%, strongly outperforming the S&P 500 index.
Among those who have benefitted from investments in the stocks are nearly four dozen members of Congress, the people who approve funding for the contracts that make up the bulk of the companies’ revenues.
At least 47 members of Congress and their spouses hold between $2 million and $6.7 million worth of stock in companies that are among the top 100 defense contractors, a Sludge analysis of financial disclosures found.
The war in Afghanistan has caused an estimated up to 174,000 direct war deaths, according to the Costs of War Project, with economic costs reaching over $2.26 trillion there and in Pakistan. The total cost of post-9/11 wars including Iraq and other operations has surpassed $6.4 trillion through last year.
At least 11 U.S. senators hold up to $1.7 million in defense industry stocks and at least 36 U.S. representatives hold a maximum value of over $5 million. Congress only reports its investments in broad ranges, so it’s not possible to know exactly how much their stocks are worth. Members of Congress have at least 108 investments in 16 major defense contractors, including all of the top 10 companies by defense revenue.
Nancy and Paul Pelosi Making Millions in Stock Trades in Companies She Actively Regulates
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is the sixth-richest member of Congress, according to the most recent financial disclosure statements filed in 2019. As the California Democrat has risen through party ranks and obtained more and more political power, her personal wealth has risen right along with it. Pelosi “has seen her wealth increase to nearly $115 million from $41 million in 2004,” reports the transparency non-profit group Open Secrets. Even by the standards of wealth that define that legislative body — “more than half of those in Congress are millionaires” — the wealth and lifestyle of the long-time liberal politician and most powerful lawmaker in Washington are lavish.
And ever since ascending to the top spot in the House, Pelosi and her husband, Paul, keep getting richer and richer. Much of their added wealth is due to extremely lucrative and “lucky” decisions about when to buy and sell stocks and options in the very industries and companies over which Pelosi, as House Speaker, exercises enormous and direct influence.
The sector in which the Pelosis most frequently buy and sell stocks is, by far, the Silicon Valley tech industry. Close to 75% of the Pelosis’ stock trading over the last two years has been in Big Tech: more than $33 million worth of trading. That has happened as major legislation is pending before the House, controlled by the Committees Pelosi oversees, which could radically reshape the industry and laws that govern the very companies in which she and her husband most aggressively trade.
Hellbound and Down 
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