Paul Ryan traded on insider information to avoid 2008 crash

[Octafish]

The guy's a regular Man from BFEE.

Paul Ryan traded on insider information to avoid 2008 crash

It should probably come as no surprise to anyone that someone like Paul Ryan would trade on inside information gained through his position as a congressman to line his pockets, but this particular instance is especially egregious. Ryan attended a closed meeting with congressional leaders, Bush's Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on September 18, 2008. The purpose of the meeting was to disclose the coming economic meltdown and beg Congress to pass legislation to help collapsing banks.

Instead of doing anything to help, Ryan left the meeting and on that very same day Paul Ryan sold shares of stock he owned in several troubled banks and reinvested the proceeds in Goldman Sachs, a bank that the meeting had disclosed was not in trouble. This is the guy Republicans want one heartbeat away from the presidency? He seems more than a little shady to me.

Have a look at Ryan's financial disclosure form for 2008--you can click on each page to enlarge them. The "Transactions" section begins on page 12--scroll through and look at all the trades Paul Ryan made on "9-18-08":

CONTINUED w amazing interactive features...

http://www.the-richmonder.com/2012/08/paul-ryan-traded-on-insider-information.html

What's telling, We the People have a captive press: Almost none of this is making it through to Corporate McPravda.

What's most telling, We the People have a Department of Just Us that goes hog wild on whistleblowers but does zip against Wall Street criminality.

[woodsprite]

1. Hmmm, didn't they jail Martha Stewart for less. n/t

[Octafish]

2. Paul Ryan's buddy, Eric CANTOR, worked to make Inside Trading LEGAL for Congressional spouses...

STOCK Act Has Loophole That Could Allow Insider Trading By Congressional Spouses

By: David Dayen Friday July 20, 2012 12:55 pm
Firedoglake.com

CNN managed to do some news reporting outside of reading viewer Twitter feeds today, and they came up with a loophole in the STOCK Act that would render it fairly meaningless. If you remember, the STOCK Act was the bill that rocketed to passage after allegations of insider trading among members of Congress, using at times non-public information to profit off of companies over which they held oversight responsibilities. The bill, which languished for years, was quickly taken up and passed with overwhelming majorities. But it turns out that there’s a potentially gaping hole in the legislation:

The STOCK Act requires that any trades of $1,000 or more made on or after July 3 have to be reported to the House and Senate within 45 days. But the House and Senate have two completely different interpretations of that rule.

In the Senate, the Ethics Committee released one page of guidelines last month ruling that members and their spouses and dependent children all have to file reports after they make stock or securities trades. But the House Ethics Committee disagreed.

Its 14-page memo notifies House members and aides covered by the law that their spouses and children aren’t covered. The Office of Government Ethics, which oversees all federal executive branch employees, sided with the House, informing its employees that their spouses and children don’t need to file these periodic reports.

Both of the lead sponsors of the Senate bill didn’t realize the discrepancy until CNN brought it to their attention.

So in the House, currently led by Republicans, you could just advise your husband or wife of the non-public information gleaned from your position as a Congresscritter, have them trade on it with family resources, and nobody would be the wiser. The Senate didn’t add a loophole this craven in the interpretation of the law. So now you have two versions of one bill that was signed into law, which could get chaotic when applied in practice.

CONTINUED...

http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/07/20/stock-act-has-loophole-that-could-allow-insider-trading-by-congressional-spouses/

[BanTheGOP]

3. Romney and Paul BOTH need to be indicted by Eric Holder

This is just too juicy to pass up. Holder's DOJ should start the investigation pronto, and acquire the damning evidence in time to serve up a federal indictment sometimes in the middle of October. This will eliminate two birds with one stone. They need to be destroyed politically, pure and simple.

Meanwhile, we need to work on destroying the republican party as a whole. It is, without question, the most despotic organization in the history of the planet, based upon its historical and future damage it has unleashed upon millions of Americans, and billions of global citizens. Even the Nazi party affected a relatively few hundred million global citizens; the GOP, with its control of the 1%, needs to be fully investigated, and dissembled, through RICO financial racketeering statutes.

[Octafish]

4. Throw in Paul, too, and his Old Man. CANTOR is the CROOK with the best gig.

Eric the Majority Leader -- only a heartbeat away from Boehner in the GOP hierarchy.

'Mudcat' Saunders: Eric Cantor is a 'bought and paid for crook'

By Aliyah Shahid
Thu Jul 12, 2012 10:57 PM EDT

Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, the fiery Democratic strategist, has found his latest crusade: he's a senior strategist for Wayne Powell, the Democratic challenger for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). On Thursday's The Rachel Maddow Show, Mudcat had some choice words for the Virginia Republican: he called him a "bought and paid for crook."

"Of course he's vulnerable," Saunders said of Cantor when asked if Powell could really topple a key GOP leader with a massive war chest and a national profile. "He's a bought and paid for crook. ... We're in the midst of a coin-operated government and he's the leader."

As proof of that rather incendiary charge, Saunders pointed reports that casino mogul Sheldon Adelson had promised millions of dollars to a group linked with Cantor. Adelson has also pumped tens of millions of dollars into the presidential election.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saunders' candidate is a retired military intelligence officer, and the strategist promised that Powell's campaign would focus on "social justice for all people, that includes gays and women. And we're going to shout that from the rooftops."

"We don't want to just beat [Cantor], we want to ruin him," Saunders said. "He shorted U.S. Treasury bonds. He bet against the United States of America while he was majority leader for his own financial portfolio.. .. Cantor was taking bets against his team."

Saunders was referring to a 2011 Salon report charging that Cantor was personally invested in a fund that “aggressively ‘shorts’ long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, meaning that it performs well when U.S. debt is undesirable.”

CONTINUED...

http://leanforward.msnbc.com/_news/2012/07/12/12711434-mudcat-saunders-eric-cantor-is-a-bought-and-paid-for-crook?lite

What a gas.

[nc4bo]

5. Very interesting. Story comes up, gets squashed down (by TPM), story raises its head again..

Oh my!

[Octafish]

8. Remember those housewives of Wall Street using TARP money?

I imagine it would be like this, except more toward hyperdrive for the connected crony crowd in Congresss.

Why is the Federal Reserve forking over 220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?

EXCERPT...

It's hard to imagine a pair of people you would less want to hand a giant welfare check to — yet that's exactly what the Fed did. Just two months before the Macks bought their fancy carriage house in Manhattan, Christy and her pal Susan launched their investment initiative called Waterfall TALF. Neither seems to have any experience whatsoever in finance, beyond Susan's penchant for dabbling in thoroughbred racehorses. [font color="green"]But with an upfront investment of $15 million, they quickly received $220 million in cash from the Fed, most of which they used to purchase student loans and commercial mortgages. The loans were set up so that Christy and Susan would keep 100 percent of any gains on the deals, while the Fed and the Treasury (read: the taxpayer) would eat 90 percent of the losses[/font color]. Given out as part of a bailout program ostensibly designed to help ordinary people by kick-starting consumer lending, the deals were a classic heads-I-win, tails-you-lose investment.

PS: Sorry, nc4bo. Would've posted the item below in response to yours had I known you were going to post.

[nc4bo]

11. To them, the taxpayer is nothing but a cash cow.

How easy it is to be wealthy and well connected - cash just rains from heaven.

Us? We get poorer and more destitute as they suck as dry.

[Octafish]

6. UPDATE -- Story is NOT de-bunked, no matter what Ryan's toadies say.

From economist Brad DeLong:

Yes, Paul Ryan's Flacks Snookered Benjy Sarlin: Republicans Lie, All the Time, About Everything Blogging

According to his 2008 financial disclosure report, Paul Ryan made 58 trades in individual stocks in 2008--27 of them in large money-center banks.

Benjy Sarlin writes:

Paul Ryan Insider Trading Rumor Quickly Debunked | TPM2012: It had the makings of a scandal: Paul Ryan traded banking stocks during the financial crisis the same day as a meeting with top Treasury Department officials, a Virginia blog wrote Monday…. The Romney campaign said Ryan had nothing to do with the trades in the first place. They were part of a Russell 1000 index fund that automatically traded stocks as part of a pre-set formula. Ryan’s disclosure forms include several similar trade patterns at various points throughout the year.

Russell Investments says:

Russell 1000 Index - U.S. Large Cap Index: The Russell 1000 Index measures the performance of the large-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. It is a subset of the Russell 3000® Index and includes approximately 1000 of the largest securities based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership. The Russell 1000 represents approximately 92% of the U.S. market. The Russell 1000 Index is constructed to provide a comprehensive and unbiased barometer for the large-cap segment and is completely reconstituted annually to ensure new and growing equities are reflected.

There is no way in hell--if you are rebalancing to try to track the Russell 1000 index--you make only 58 trades in a year, that you make 27 of those 58 in large money-center banks, and that 10 of those trades involve shifting your money from Citi to Goldman and back five times.

No way in hell.

CONTINUED...

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2012/08/yes-paul-ryans-flacks-snookered-benjy-sarlin-republicans-lie-all-the-time-about-everything-blogging.html

Gee, Brent. I'll go with Brad.

[nc4bo]

10. Octafish

There's something in the far right corner that's beginning to spew clouds of smoke.

There's something there I'm sure. These types are thick as fleas and are ruthless when it comes to a dollar bill.

Until this has been thoroughly investigated I'll have to go with Brad too.

I wonder why TPM seemed so easily satisfied with the explanation?

Hmmm...

[hughee99]

7. Can you sell stocks and make trades after the market closes?

I'll admit, I'm not exactly sure how "after hours" trading works. It could be that he was "late trading" as well (different from after hours trading), which is also illegal. The meeting with Paulson and Bernanke was held after the close of market on the 18th.

[Octafish]

9. Here's something about Ryan's trades that may be of interest to Wisconsin tax collectors...

The guy and his wife may've incorporated something special in tax-free Florida.

Zach said...

I am a little more concerned about the fact that these disclosures show Paul Ryan and his wife have a rather large limited investment partnership headquartered in income-tax-free Florida given that he's so proud of having never left his roots and all. I wonder if the homestate coattails would be a little less effective if folks in WI started asking whether Ryan's been scamming them out of income tax money. This and another partnership could also hold interest in Ryan's family business... a sizable inheritance would really put a dent in the whole Galt image.

SOURCE: http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2012/08/yes-paul-ryans-flacks-snookered-benjy-sarlin-republicans-lie-all-the-time-about-everything-blogging.html

Regarding your question:

Definition of 'After-Hours Trading - AHT'
Trading after regular trading hours on the major exchanges. The increasing popularity of electronic communication networks (ECNs) has greatly facilitated after-hours trading, which is no longer restricted only to large institutional investors but is now available to any investor. Also known as the "after-hours market."

Investopedia explains 'After-Hours Trading - AHT'
After-hours trading volume in specific stocks often surges upon the occurrence of market-moving events, such as earnings reports, pre-earnings announcements or M&A activity. Lower liquidity and wider bid-ask spreads are a common feature of after-hours trading. However, investors may consider this a small price to pay for the privilege of exiting a losing position before regular trading commences, or initiating a new position ahead of the crowd.

After-hours trading is heaviest in the first hour or two after markets close, before tapering off sharply. As financial markets become increasingly integrated with the advent of globalization, after-hours trading is likely to expand going forward.

SOURCE: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/afterhourstrading.asp#axzz23Yfeg4ER

[/siv]

Yes, I'm no expert, but from what I can see, when it comes to the love of money and property, no one tops the modern greedhead as exemplified by today's Republican leadership and the class of crony capitalists for whom they toil.

[freshwest]

12. I've met people who stay up all night to see what the Asian markets are doing to make money when the

NYSE opens in the morning who are busily living 'the good life,' too. Could be that the market never closes. The opening and closing bells at NYSE many not mean as much for a determined speculator as it once did. Some people are on top of the globalism game, making use of time while others sleep.