Insider Trading - Washington DC Style

I bet you didn't you know that the Securities Exchange Commission has no authority to stop members of Congress, their staff and federal employees from using non-public information to make insider trades on the stock market. Quite a nice loophole that our federal officials have made for themselves. Maybe the Congress should pass some legislation to close that unfortunate loophole.

Public Citizen has information on this issue and is calling on Congress to eliminate this accountability loophole. Read their letter in support of a bill to ban it and find other information on the “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge” Act.

Mark

America's House is Divided

The title of this post comes from an article I read in the Cleveland Plain Dealer while visiting my parents last month. I think that the writer nails what is going on in our country right now. I am trying very hard to not dismiss people on "the other side" although they sure can make it hard sometime. The truth is that demonizing any group is not productive in making things better since neither "side" can really do that without help and assistance from each other.

This is how the article starts:

Raising her voice above the jeers and catcalls, the woman at the microphone tries to stay calm, telling the crowd that the co-pay for her medication is now $389 every two weeks.

"I live in fear every day," she says, "that I will lose my home."

The heckling -- a mix of boos, shouts and mock-pity "awwws" -- reaches a crescendo, like maybe the crowd at this New Jersey town hall meeting can't see through the haze of rage to realize that she is about to cry, this woman in a wheelchair.

Welcome to political discourse 2009.

Take a look at the rest of this article if you'd like.

Mark

Just Getting Started

I wanted to give blogging a try and see what it's like to put my thoughts and ideas out there for people to see. We'll see how it goes!

Mark