alt Hacker NewsI'm not particularly concerned about unfair gains made possible by insider knowledge. The economy is large enough, and the set of lawmakers (not to mention leadership-level lawmakers!) small enough, that that the overall effect on anything is going to be negligible.
My concern would be that the "skill" we're seeing isn't with using insider information, but with using their power to alter outcomes to make whatever investments they'd previously chosen become profitable post hoc. If they're causing our regulatory landscape to be change to pad their wallets, that's going to have a much greater effect on our overall system than just being able to make a trade a day earlier than the rest of us.
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But we should be concerned shouldn't we? These people are exempt from laws, they and their presecessors made, for which they will happily condemn the common person and profit again when you pay for your crime.
They should be more accountable, not less.
People WILL look at for their interests. We should ask for basic disclosure of what those are and vote for people who have our interests.
> I'm not particularly concerned about unfair gains made possible by insider knowledge.
I am. I work at a company that trades publicly. My wife works at a firm. I can’t do anything with my stocks outside of three weeks a quarter. I can never buy options. My wife has to clear her positions with whatever department. If I have these obstacles, congress should absolutely have them — maybe more. Ideally they can trade index funds and that’s about it.