Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the house. If there is any person who has sensitive information regarding policy and future policy that may fluctuate the price of certain stocks, it’s her.
This does not stop Pelosi and her husband from constantly trading stocks just before major policy is passed or voted on. This is called insider trading and is incredibly illegal.
The New York Post reported, The Democratic majority leader and her husband, Paul Pelosi, recently bought millions of dollars worth of call options for stocks including Google, Salesforce, Roblox and Disney, financial disclosures published Thursday show.
The Pelosi family’s trades this month include Google and Salesforce call options worth between $500,000 and $1 million each, as well as Roblox call options valued at between $100,000 and $250,000. The duo also bought up between $250,000 and $500,000 in calls for chipmaker Micron Technology and between $100,000 and $250,000 of Disney call options.
Not only does the non-enforcement of insider trading laws against Pelosi allow her to make quick money on the side illegally, but could influence her vote.
Nancy Pelosi is an individual who wields immense power and influence in congress. There seems to be nothing that would hypothetically stop the speaker from voting based on how she think that vote will affect her portfolio. It’s also very possible that her “views” could or would influence her colleagues to vote with her.
This is a major conflict of interest that could lead to an emphasis on money-making over constituent opinions.
“We are a free market economy – the members of Congress should be able to participate in that!” Pelosi said ignoring the fact that she is a public servant elected to her office.
Over the last several years her husband Paul Pelosi has managed to create himself a metaphorical bed of money from big falls on companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google. These are companies constantly affected by the actions of Congress, making it easy for Paul to preemptively trade, likely with information from his wife.