Posted on 12/20/2021 11:15:31 AM PST by John Semmens
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) parried accusations of corruption in her stock market dealings by claiming "it's all part of a free market. Members of Congress are as free as anybody else to buy and sell stocks. The only extra requirement we have is periodically reporting these transactions."
Scrutiny of Pelosi's transaction reports showed a remarkable record of timely purchases of stocks that rose in value after certain pieces of legislation were enacted. In spirit, at least, such transactions seem to violate insider-trading regulations—something that Martha Stewart ran afoul of and spent five months in jail for in 2004.
Pelosi contended that "my speculations are different. Insofar as any legislation I might help get enacted enriches a private company I don't think it is unwarranted for me to be compensated. Buying the stock before the legislation is passed is a legal way for me to get paid." She also alleged that "members of Congress are woefully under compensated salary-wise. As high up in the pecking order as we are, $174,000 per year plus expense is too skimpy. At least my stock trading profits don't come out of the taxpayers' pockets."
In related news, Pelosi professed herself "mystified" by the crime surge in her beloved San Francisco. "We've been very kind to people—letting the accused out of jail without bail, legalizing thefts of less than $950 dollars, granting early release from prison sentences," she exclaimed. "I can't understand why things are getting worse there. It's the red states where people are brazenly disobeying the President's order to get vaccinated. I would have expected there to be more crime in those areas. Luckily for me, I have a $23 million mansion in Florida I can move to. For some reason, crime there is so much lower."
If you missed any of the other Semi-News/Semi-Satire posts you can find them at...
https://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php?topic=456321.0
For Pelosi the market is free of barriers that require other investors to follow investment rules and regulations. There is no limit to the amount of money she will make in the stock market. Hopefully, some day a real FBI will investigate her market transactions.
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