Congress manipulates Wall Street

Congress manipulates Wall Street and passes legislation to prevent other branches of government from doing it.  Typical hypocritical Congress.  Both sides of the aisle are guilty of padding their own pockets by what appears to be the use of insider information.  From the Washington Post:

One-hundred-thirty members of Congress or their families have traded stocks collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars in companies lobbying on bills that came before their committees, a practice that is permitted under current ethics rules, a Washington Post analysis has found.

The lawmakers bought and sold a total of between $85 million and $218 million in 323 companies registered to lobby on legislation that appeared before them, according to an examination of all 45,000 individual congressional stock transactions contained in computerized financial disclosure data from 2007 to 2010.

So why was Martha Stewart sent to prison and these 138 still running around loose?  They certainly profited from insider information it appears.

Almost one in every eight trades — 5,531 — intersected with legislation. The 130 lawmakers traded stocks or bonds in companies as bills passed through their committees or while Congress was still considering the legislation. The party affiliation of the lawmakers was almost evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, 68 to 62.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) reported buying $25,000 in bonds in a genetic-technology company around the time that he released a hold on legislation the firm supported. Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) sold between $50,000 and $100,000 in General Electric stock shortly before a Republican filibuster killed legislation sought by the company. The family of Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) bought between $286,000 and $690,000 in a high-tech company interested in a bill under his committee’s jurisdiction.

The trades were uncovered as part of an ongoing examination by The Post of the intersection between the personal finances of lawmakers and their professional duties. Earlier this year, Congress responded to criticism of potential conflicts of interest by passing the Stock Act, which bars lawmakers, their staffs and top executive branch officials from trading on inside information acquired on Capitol Hill.

But the act failed to address the most elemental difference between Congress and the other branches of government: Congress forbids top administration officials, for instance, from trading stocks in industries they oversee and can influence. The lawmakers, by contrast, can still invest in firms even as they create laws that can affect the bottom line of the companies.

How screwed up is this?  The executive branch can’t do insider trading but the legislative branch can.  Typical Congress again.  Everyone else has rules to obey but them.  This discovery by the Washington Post might be the new Water-gate.  What shall we call it?  Stock Market-gate?  Trader-gate?

What do the American citizens do to stop the practice of Congress manipulating Wall Street.  How do we make them include themselves in the laws of the nation?  This one should move to the top of the list.