On 2011-12-10, at 5:05 PM, Wojtek S wrote:
> I would not even call it a "republic" - kleptocracy, maybe. Or to
> paraphrase a Pakistani pun, every country has commercial interests,
> but in the Etats Unis commercial interests have a country.
"Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, recently calculated that Congress members have a median net worth of $891,506 – not including their homes – making them nine times wealthier than the average American. About 11 per cent of lawmakers have net worth of more than $9m, putting them in the top 1 per cent.
"In a new book, Throw Them All Out, Peter Schweizer of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, accuses Spencer Bachus, the Republican from Alabama who chairs the House financial services committee, of short selling stocks based on insider knowledge.
"Mr Schweizer found 'no less than 40 options trades' by Mr Bachus between July and November of 2008, many of them within days of receiving closed door briefings from the likes of Henry Paulson, then Treasury secretary, and Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve.
From: "Support grows for Congress insider trading ban", By Anna Fifield in Washington, Financial Times, November 20, 2011
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ad3fb44e-1167-11e1-9d04-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1eFYhXo7R