Finally, I have an issue on which I can agree with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The young solon from New York City is still jaded enough to call out the obvious conflicts of interest when members of Congress trade stocks over whose fates they may have inside information. She is directly confronting her party’s leader on the House, someone whose own daughter has warned of her ability to exact revenge (”she’ll cut your head off”).
Speaker Pelosi, for her part, has seen her husband accumulate a large fortune while she engaged in what is laughably called “public service.” And not just in the distant past:
On Wednesday [July 7, 2021] evening, Bloomberg News published a report titled “Pelosi’s Husband Locked In $5.3 Million From Alphabet Options,” which carried the subheadlines, “Action was week before House panel considered antitrust bills,” and “Antitrust bills target Alphabet’s Google, Apple, Amazon.” (snip)
The trades in question involve 40 call options on Alphabet’s stock at a strike price of $1,200, which were exercised on June 18, a few days before the House subcommittee convened. The contracts gave Pelosi the right to convert his 40 call options into 4,000 Alphabet shares at a price of $1,200. Because Alphabet was trading at about $2,550 when the options were exercised and converted into stock, they were in the money and are now worth about $5.4 million.
The Pelosis are far from the only Congressional families making big money trading stocks while voting on legislation that could affect their value and while gaining inside information. In 2021:
Politicians and their immediate families bought $267 million and sold $364 million worth of assets this year.
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Wouldn't you love to see their private emails and texts?