Ghetto Finance Thursday 7/02/09 #2: Oh boy, somethin’s rotten

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/06/members_of_us_house_financial.html

Excerpt 1:

WASHINGTON — As financial markets tumbled and the government worked to stave off panic by pumping billions of dollars into banks last fall, several members of Congress who oversee the banking industry were grabbing up or dumping bank stocks.

Excerpt 2:

There has been no direct evidence that this allowed members to engage in insider trading. But when lawmakers overseeing banks also buy and sell bank stocks, it can create “the appearance of a problem,” said Anthony J. Hartman, a Cleveland securities attorney.

“I do a lot of different types of litigation, and I just don’t think anybody ought to be putting themselves in a situation where as an elected official, I can be suspect of what they are doing,” Hartman said.

Me:  It looks like the party line is that all these politicians have a hands off approach to their investments, but really we can’t know if that’s true or not.  But given how untrustworthy most politicians are to begin with, it’s asking alot to just believe what they say on this.