>> while money in politics continues to be a massive corrupting force among our
lawmakers, equally egregious behavior includes trading individual stocks,
even when these members of Congress have access to insider information.
Now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked about this behavior and
she didn't like it.
But before we get to her pretty embarrassing video on this,
I do want to go to this investigation that was done by insider in regard to the so
called stock act.
This was legislation that was passed under the Obama administration that was meant to
prevent members of Congress from engaging in insider trading.
Especially considering the fact that these are people who have insider information,
information that we, as ordinary citizens, are not privy to.
And if they're able to trade individual stocks well,
they could very easily engage in insider trading.
So this stock act was incredibly weak, so let me just get that off the bat.
However, it did force members of Congress to report their stock trades, and
it didn't just include members of Congress that also included their spouses and
their staffers.
So if they were making $132,552 and 2021 and
if they were doing stock trades of $1,000 or more,
they're supposed to report it but did they?
Well, here's what we know from this insider investing investigation Insiders.
Investigation of financial disclosures found that 49 members of Congress and
at least 182 of the highest paid Capitol Hill staffers were late in
filing their stock trades during 2020 and 2021.
Now, lawmakers and senior congressional staffers who blow past these deadlines,
they're supposed to report it between 30 and
45 days okay to basically disclose these stock trades if they're late.
If they blow past the deadlines established by this 2012 Stop Trading and
Congressional Knowledge Act on Congressional Knowledge Act,
they're supposed to pay a late fee of $200 the first time.
Increasingly higher fines follow if they continue to be late,
potentially costing tens of thousands of dollars in extreme cases.
Now, did they end up disclosing in time, and if they didn't were, they find well,
based on this investigation, it seems like it ain't happening and
that the enforcement mechanisms here are weak to say the least.
No public records exist, for
instance, indicating whether these officials ever paid the fines.
Congressional ethics staff wouldn't even confirm the existence of non public
ledgers tracking how many officials paid fines for violating the stock Act.
And also 19 lawmakers wouldn't even bother answering questions about
whether they paid a penalty.
Ten other lawmakers said, yeah, we paid the fines, but
they declined to provide proof, such as a receipt or canceled check.
Now Nancy Pelosi was asked about this investigation and
whether members of Congress should be able to trade individual stocks in
the first place and her answer, I think, is to be expected let's watch.
>> Should members of Congress and there's houses be banned from trading individual
stocks while serving in Congress.
>> No, I don't know to this second one,
because this is a free market in people.
We are a free market economy they should be able to participate in that.
>> Nancy Pelosi has done very well in the stock market, and so is her husband.
And, it doesn't surprise me at all that she would use this pathetic excuse of free
market, to essentially provide cover for what these members of Congress are doing.
But make no mistake about it this is insider trading they have
insider information, and
their stock portfolios tend to outperform the overall stock market.
G I wonder why is it because they're these incredibly intelligent investors Or
could it be that they have information that others don't Jake?
>> Well, most mainstream media reporters would say it's an outrageous,
outrageous implication you have there, and obviously they're brilliant.
I mean, Pelosi is such a master legislator she's probably also,
coincidentally, a master stock picker right.
So I'm gonna tell you one particularly outrageous case of what her husband did in
a minute.
But there's two different issues here one is the absurd system of reporting
the stock trades,so in the Senate, it's actually a little halfway better okay.
When you're late to report, they send you an email and then you have to respond.
Okay, Now they're the it doesn't look like they follow up to aggressively either,
but at least they have a system in place in the house it's a joke.
They don't even track it they say,
You're supposed to track it on your own out of good faith, wink.
So they don't send you an email they don't follow up and if you don't pay,
there are no consequences no one's ever chased down.
In fact, they won't even tell the members how to pay.
Members have asked the ones that wanted to actually report themselves have asked
several times.
Hey, what do I do who do I make it out to here inside I did a very good job in this
five month investigation, and I found treasure can't find any of the checks.
I know the House side is clearly choosing to not abide by the law gee,
who is their leader There she is, Nancy Pelosi.
And so and by the way, when the Republicans were in charge,
didn't abide by the law, either.
Yeah, this isn't a Democrat or Republican thing this is about corruption this is
about insider trading this is about people who raise their hands, decided to run
to become public servants and then turn around and say, No, it's a free market.
I mean, obviously I should be able to take advantage of this role that I have to
choose stocks that are obviously going to outperform the market
because I'm privy to the insider information.
And obviously they have control over what legislation gets introduced,
what legislation gets voted on.
And if they have any sense that they might regulate certain sectors of the economy,
that could hurt the stock value of certain companies.
Well, again, that is incredibly important information that is
going to have an impact on the markets.
And they're gonna be able to make these predictions based on that insider
information.
By the way, the other thing is,
if they're heavily invested in a certain business, are they gonna want to
pass regulations that could hurt that hurt the profit motive for that business?
>> Well, that's gonna bring us to Mr Pelosi in a second.
But before we go to the first dude of the house, I'm gonna go to our members tyt.com
slash joining you become part of the show you right in these great comments and
we read them so shipwrecked, superyacht wrote in Funny enough.
How freeze the market really, if they use inside information to manipulate the price
of stocks and that's exactly it.
That's the second gigantic issue here and the one that Pelosi is addressing.
So she says, Well, basically, all of the members should be able to buy
any stocks they like, remember the stories about the reporting requirements.
But a lot of people say, wait, you should all put it into a blind trust otherwise,
you know exactly what to invest in and
just reporting it doesn't actually solve anything, right?
So when asked about that, that's when Pelosi say a free market baby First of
all, that sounds like a Republican.
It's absurd to just say free market on its own free market how What do you mean in
what context?
In this context, part of the protection of the free market is to make
sure that there are laws against insider trading.
Otherwise, you don't have a free market, so
a person you can ask about that is Martha Stewart.
She went to prison for violating these types of rules, right, but
when it comes to the most powerful people in the country,
all of a sudden prison, another member wrote in about prison.
Ain't nobody going to prison I'm fine by the way,
you can make tens of millions of dollars.
The finds $200 for just reporting lat if you reported in on time like I am
stuck it change anything you like, who gives a damn?
We're all getting rich, baby, and there's nobody asleep at the wheel that's why
again, whenever there's great journalism like this, I applaud inside and
did a great job.
All right, so that brings us to Mr Pelosi.
So they're about to,introduce an antitrust bill against Google and
some of the other big tech firms and guess who winds up cashing out
on a call option it appears Mr Pelosi's the speakers husband,
and but it's a tiny little amount.
It appears, according to the reporting, that his profit was $5.3 million.
Okay, you have any idea what bet you gotta lay down to make a profit of $5.3 million?
Okay, and he happened it appears cash out right before they
introduced antitrust bill against Google and hold hearings.
But another amazing coincidence and we call that free market baby.
>> Listen, Paul Pelosi's initials might be pp, but
his investments are not small, very big medicines.
>> So look, in this case, look, the media is actually doing a halfway decent job.
The story itself is good she got asked a question.
And now people are reporting about her absurd answer so that's what we asked for
it in this case not so bad from the media.
It's really Pelosi and and
the corporate Democrats that revel and bask in this corruption.