House members, Senate aides traded stocks in early days of coronavirus

[turbinetree]

By MAGGIE SEVERNS and KATY O'DONNELL

03/21/2020 06:59 AM EDT

While Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) sought on Friday to explain sales of stock made at a time when they were reassuring the public about the coronavirus threat, they weren’t the only elected officials to buy and sell stocks at key moments in the unfolding crisis.

A POLITICO review of stock sales and purchases reported by members of Congress and senior aides found that while none had engaged in sales of the magnitude of Burr and Loeffler, several had traded shares at times or in industries that bore a relationship to the coronavirus threat.

Previously unreported lawmakers who sold assets in the weeks leading up to the market crash include Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.), who unloaded thousands of dollars of stock in Alaska Air and Royal Caribbean cruises. A senior aide to Sen. Mitch McConnell made a mid-January purchase of Moderna, Inc., a biotechnology company that had four days earlier announced it would begin developing a coronavirus vaccine. And an aide to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sold off stock in companies including Delta Airlines in late January and later bought stock in Clorox, Inc., which makes bleach and sanitary wipes.

The trades show that -- as much of the public was blindsided by both the pandemic and the economic meltdown over the last two weeks -- a number of lawmakers, aides and their brokers helping manage their portfolios adjusted their investments. Lawmakers in both chambers were being briefed via both classified and non-classified meetings about the coronavirus in late January and February, giving people on Capitol Hill a closer look at how the coming pandemic might shape their lives and finances that much of the country was lacking.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/21/coronavirus-trading-house-senate-140260

This is what fucking insider insider trading is all about.....................and you can even add that russian asset in the white house on this list ( in my opinion ) ...................................

[Chainfire]

1. They figure that

they were just "smarter" than everyone else. It is nothing that five years in the pen would correct.

[Indykatie]

2. Some Level of Portfolio Adjustment Could Be Normal But Burr and Loeffler Stock Moves Was Clear

examples of insider trading. Everyone should have dumped their cruise line stock even if they didn't have any insider information.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. Some caution before leaping to conclusions is in order

There was world wide public media coverage of what was happening in China months ago. People reacted to that differently. Many assumed it could be contained overseas, but for others of a more pessimistic bent of mind, I can see them deciding to lock in their earnings and get out of stocks while the going was good. This needs to be looked at on a case by case basis, who had inside information, when did they get it, were their public statements "reassuring" while they were dumping stock as fast as they could, etc?