U.S. senators' stock portfolios outperformed index

[swag]

(Cash Subscribers only, http://www.pionline.com/article.cms?articleId=50599)

Pensions & Investments, June 13, 2005, page 14

By Vinc Calio

CHEVY CHASE, Md. --- Legislative risk is an area portfolio managers should be looking at, according to Stuart Sweet, president of the Capitol Analysts Network, a legislative risk management firm in Chevy Chase, Md.

According to the firm's research the personal equity portfolios of U.S. Senators, on average, outperform the Standard & Poor's 500 Index by 12.5 percentage points per year over the past five years, he pointed out.

One distinct advantage senators have over the average investor is that they are more aware of the political climate and can better predict legislative changes than ordinary investors, Mr. Sweet explained. "What they (senators) are doing is not illegal, because no single senator can write the law. But they can have opinions just like everyone else. The difference is that they are more skilled at predicting future political events and in speculating upon what's going to happen."

. . . more

[swag]

1. Hm.

[Erika]

2. Exactly! n/t

[swag]

13. Thanks for the understanding

Erika.

The public assumes that elected federal office comes with buffers from such blatant conflicts of interest, but it turns out that Senators, on average, can do what almost no money manager can: beat the index by double digits.

These people are bringing home double bacon. No wonder the US is so dedicated to corporate welfare.

[converted_democrat]

3. Damn. I mean damn.

Somebody should look into that. I mean, they'll probably just make a new law to make it legal, but can't we look into this? I know it's not a crime to have a good financial adviser, wouldn't it be a crime to use legislature as a financial tool?

[swag]

9. I would certainly have more confidence in what they did if they were

forced to put their investments into blind trusts composed of target retirement funds, themselves composed of broad market indices.

If these people want to "serve" and make decisions, they should abandon their conflicts of interest, and they should serve the public interest.

[burrowowl]

4. And they sent Martha

to jail for insider info. Hypocrites!

[AX10]

5. kick

[mbperrin]

6. Just the quiet humming of fine minds, eh?

THANK GOD NONE OF THEM EVER GET ANY INSIDE INFORMATION, SINCE THAT IS ILLEGAL!

fuckers........

(Apologies to fuckers everywhere)

[thoughtanarchist]

7. We could probably mirror their ROI...

by tracking a faux portfolio based on lobbyist effectiveness and the corporations they represent.

...it smells like insider trading when congress can invest based on which corps get the sweetheart deals, govt subsidies, and favorable legislation...

[zoeb]

8. Bullshit

how many of those senators get investment tips from the corporations that line their pockets?

[swag]

12. And since Congress holds the purse strings,

it knows which industries and companies will profit from the current (massive and unparalled) government spending.

Reps and Sens, and members of the executive branch need to have their investments put into blind trusts that invest only in targeted retirement funds composed of broadly based indices, so as to avoid inevitable conflicts of interest.

[jpgray]

10. When you can hand out defense contracts, it'd be hard to do badly

How closely are those conflicts watched? Or is "national security" the get out of jail free card there?

[swag]

11. If Senators are consistenly outperforming the market by 12.5%,

thus doing far better than 80% of all professional portfolio managers, it seems that a higher level of scrutiny is called for.

But more than that, elected and appointed Federal officials should be required to put their investments into blind trusts composed of targeted retirement funds or broadly based index mutual funds, so as to avoid inevitable conflicts of interest.

[swag]

14. It's mildly amusing to note, by way of a kick for the morning crew,

that in spite of the extraordinary advantage most Senators enjoy over the rest of us in the capital markets, America's Leading Vivisectionist and author of Good People Beget Good People, Bill "Haircut" Frist still managed to lose over half a million in campaign money in the stock market.

Apparently good people don't beget such good stock pickers.