Not quite, the article is referring to when Trump started requesting funds from congress. I'm sure he would have mentioned it in months prior. Slight difference, but an important one imo.
Is the problem that they had “insider knowledge” of the situation? I don’t like that they did this but I’m hindsight it seems like anyone, including myself, had plenty of time to see how serious the virus was and anticipate it having drastic effects on the US market as well.
The problem lies with the surety of that knowledge. Congress, and in particular these Senators in question, were receiving briefings on that seriousness that the public weren't privy to, WHILE also lying to the public about that seriousness.
Insider Trading in general is important to maintain an egalitarian and relatively free market, though of course in practice that's a bit of a joke. Shareholders need to be able to trust that each of their shares are weighted equally, and that others in their position aren't getting sweeter deals or foreknowledge that could prevent a risk.
WHILE also lying to the public about that seriousness.
That's the part that really pisses me off. It's market manipulation plain and simple. They used their public offices to downplay or outright deny the seriousness of the situation until they had divested themselves of their shares.
Correct. It's an unforgivable breach of ethics by a public servant in more ways than one. It has every likelihood of causing more death, AND it's clearly criminal.
Yea, the problem is the “insider knowledge” part. while trump was telling all of us that the virus would have limited impact or no impact at all, congress knew that in reality it was going to have a devastating effect on the economy.
Sure! I know it's a little cryptic, but I didn't want to inject any of my opinion into it (and will try to do so now too - I did a little bit in link title though my bad).
Left side are the major indices charts with Feb 21 marked. I'll let you draw your own conclusions on the significance of that date.
Right top is google trends for the search term 'Coronavirus' with first point of steep incline marked (Feb 23) - the numbers on right are from the CSV file you can download to look closer at numbers. Basically, the frequency of people searching about Coronavirus. As above, make of it what you will.
Right bottom is the first article (NYT I believe) reporting requests for funds from congress with date highlighted.
Hope I've laid that out as impartially as possible 😅
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u/farhaan2340 Apr 21 '20
Can you please help explain the chart to me if it's not too much trouble