Thursday, August 05, 2010

Senators investments consistently outpace the market

Could our public 'servants' be using their privileged access to 'inside' information to do a little insider trading?  Or could they be making investments in businesses that have matters before the Congress and getting 'extra special' returns like Hillary Rodham Clinton did with her cattle futures?
 “A 2004 study of the results of stock trading by United States Senators during the 1990s found that that Senators on average beat the market by 12% a year. In sharp contrast, U.S. households on average underperformed the market by 1.4% a year and even corporate insiders on average beat the market by only about 6% a year during that period. A reasonable inference is that some Senators had access to – and were using – material nonpublic information about the companies in whose stock they trade.”
Exactly what is it that we are supposed to honor and respect about our leaders?

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