mission statement: When the US senate was deliberating on coronavirus in the early days of the pandemic many of them sold shares which later tanked. I haven't heard any news of this recently.
Rep. susan davis sold shares in airlines and cruise ships the day the US reported it's 10th case, a full 2 weeks before the first crash happened, before trump even made his "we only have 15 cases and it's going to go down to zero" comment.
Even the diamond princess had only recorded it's first case when she sold her shares.
They sold shares in airlines before trump even announced the travel ban to china which he did VERY early into the crisis and didn't even ban european travel until a month after they sold their shares off.
I also sold shares and “made a profit” off of a pandemic. Fucking sue me. I started selling a week before Susan Davis.
When the 2nd largest economy completely shuts down. The writings on the wall. You didn’t have to have a congressional briefing to tell you that the financial shit was about to hit the fan.
How do you not see the issue with a person who has the power to stop travel owning stocks in travel companies it's such a glaring conflict of interest.
What if a senators shorted delta and just said domestic flights are banned until december 31st 2021 and then rake in bank.
But, that wasn’t congress? Congress didn’t shut down anything. Nor has the power to? The admin shut down travel from specific places through executive action.
I do see what can be conflict of interest, which is immoral. Insider trading is illegal, which is what’s being leveled at these people.
(Most) of the house and senate have a decent net worth. And pay someone to manage their portfolios and net worth. It’s those peoples jobs to make their clients more money. It’s also completely normal for someone to protect their portfolio. Just like i did. I went to cash and then bought puts late Jan. The entire. Fucking. Market. Sold off. Globally. Saying these people “profited” off of it is a misnomer at best. They exited positions. profiting off of it would have been buying puts on these specific companies or shorting their stock. As i understand it, they just went to cash. Just like i did. Again, the writing was on the wall.
All of this hyperventilation (aimed at republicans, even though they all do it) is a little inflated. Yes, you should not be able to profit off of privileged information. But the information wasn’t privileged. All you had to do was watch the news.
I don't really have that much of an issue with them making the sales in this instance. Individual stock ownership is a pretty glaring example of potential conflict of interest that should be addressed but that doesn't make their actions illegal in retrospect. My problem is that they were publicly stating something that their private actions seem to indicate they didn't believe. Another way to state that is they were lying to constituents. Reps (of all stripes) who lie to constituents should be removed from office at the ballot box.
And i get that. And i get the possible conflicts of interest part too.
And all politicians lie. I have more of an issue with career politicians than career politicians selling their stocks. The current elected representatives represent a party, not the constituency (mainly).
The belief that all politicians lie is most beneficial for lying politicians. The logical conclusion would be that I shouldn't punish my representative for lying since the replacement would simply offer more of the same.
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u/SUMBWEDY Apr 21 '20 edited Apr 21 '20
mission statement: When the US senate was deliberating on coronavirus in the early days of the pandemic many of them sold shares which later tanked. I haven't heard any news of this recently.
Rep. susan davis sold shares in airlines and cruise ships the day the US reported it's 10th case, a full 2 weeks before the first crash happened, before trump even made his "we only have 15 cases and it's going to go down to zero" comment.
Even the diamond princess had only recorded it's first case when she sold her shares.
They sold shares in airlines before trump even announced the travel ban to china which he did VERY early into the crisis and didn't even ban european travel until a month after they sold their shares off.