Sen. Dick Durbin, the second most senior democrat in the Senate, cashed out his stock the day after meeting with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Durbin took the money and invested much of the $115,000 in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
The transfers occurred on Sept. 19th. The prior day he met with Paulson and Bernanke on the banking crisis. Bloomberg reports that “The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index plunged 4.7 percent last Sept. 15 after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bank of America Corp.’s government-engineered takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. By the end of October, the index had fallen 22.6 percent.”
I have long advocated a change in the ethics rules to require blind trusts for all members of Congress. Currently, members can make killings on the market by using their access to policy changes and special tips. For prior columns, click here and here.
Durbin, 66, insists that he was only doing what other people were doing: moving his money to safer investments. Moreover, he insists that the thrust of the information that he received from the Administration was released publicly the next day. This may be so. However, as noted in the above columns, senators have performed better than industry experts in the the past and the suspicion is that their success is due in some part to the special information that they received through their positions. More importantly, these trades and investments create an obvious appearance of self-dealing. Why should Senators (who generally have no skills or training in the market) insist on making these investments instead of using an expert in a blind trust? They obviously believe that they can do better — and historically they have. The result is that members routinely invest in areas where they are voting and legislating. If you want to write the laws affecting the markets, you should not be allowed to play the markets.
For the story, click here.
rich you piece of one way crap.
of course you don’t.
Personally, Dick Durbin dressed like a slutty airline stewardess yesterday and I will not be surprised to hear the oldest Obama girl is already pregnant from all the “rappers” hanging around the white house, aka bama digs.
If he cashed out his stocks and bought Berkshire Hathaway, then he just bought more stocks, because that’s Hathaway’s business and Buffett hasn’t been doing much better than the market. Sorry, I can’t see the outrage here.
Indeed it does. The rainbow of corruption parade!
Doesn’t this just make you want to hold a Congressional Pride Festival.
Less than that if you are a VA Judge.
“privilege”?
No matter the subject matter or which committee: they are all owned by the subjects of their scrutiny.
Just admit it.
Once these people (with very few exceptions) get in office and have some position, the coffers coff and then they are no longer worth jack shit.
Generally takes about 1.34 years.
“I have long advocated a change in the ethics rules to require blind trusts for all members of Congress.”
Quite!
Jill 1, June 15, 2009 at 5:40 pm
A.Y.,
Wouldn’t all of them be guilty of insider trading, not just Durbin? Paulson and Bernake forwarned him (I mean, had a great deal of financial acumen which they imparted to Mr. Durbin).
**********************
I don’t think that they intended anyone to act personally on this. If they did the same thing, I want to be a fly on the wall in there office after this news.
A.Y.,
Wouldn’t all of them be guilty of insider trading, not just Durbin? Paulson and Bernake forwarned him (I mean, had a great deal of financial acumen which they imparted to Mr. Durbin).
Seamus,
I second you for Senator! I know you won’t have any trouble, “swearing in”!!!
jim center:
gold bought in 2006 wish I would have bought more.
I saw it coming and baled in June! Thanks Ravi Batra!
Next move, start buying gold QUICK
Vote the mother f……. out of office, it seems pretty simple to me.
the problem is you have morons on both sides of the aisle that will not vote for a democrat or a republican because long dead great grandfather Augustus was a dem/repub. Stupid is a stupid does. So we get the government we are entitled to.
Maybe you should own land to be allowed to vote and be able to read and write at at least an 8th grade level.
Surely, people like Senator DD. do not run for congress just so they have an inside track on the financial markets. I am also certain he had a news conference scheduled to alert his constituents of the pending fiscal collapse, but there were technical difficulties…
The corruption exhibited by all of our governmental officials is wearing us common folk out and I fear that we are just going to give up without caring anymore because there seems nothing we can do to stop the corruption.
Oookay, for the record.
The Junior Senator from the ‘Land of Lincoln’ is a side of the mouth yacking, slithering thru an extortionist minefield to get appointed Maroon, Burris.
The Senior Senator is now an unethical, impropriety dirty bird Maroon, Durban.
There’s zilch to see here, business as usual.
(How I wish that wasn’t the case.)
It’s illegal for brokers to front run orders, but not for Senator of the United States to front run markets.
Whoa, that’s a bad visual BIL! Ouch 🙂
Seamus your state is calling you to US Senate!
Not being a lawyer I think dosent this have something to do with insider trading information. Didnt Martha Stewart do a few months for much less than this?
At the very least the man should resign his senate seat, if he acted on advice from this meeting. This appears to be an abuse of power.
But then I sold in September so maybe the guy is legitimate. It did not take a rocket scientist to see the writing on the wall. He could just be very prescient or just a venal pri….
That doesn’t look suspicious at all, Dick. Nice going. I’d start using whatever stroke you have right now to start digging. Entertaining, sure, but what’s next? Videos of you whacking yourself in the crotch with a t-ball bat while you chase pages around your office clad only in shaving cream and mint jelly? If you’re going to keep this up, you should call Bob Sagat. He’s not on the show any more but I’m sure he can hook you up with the America’s Funniest Home Video people. That’s career ending-ly stupid, Dick. BTW, enjoy your audit.
Let see how the Blue Sky Laws work for Durbin it has no effect. Thanks for the term Blue Sky Buddha. It came from Kansas.
But the SEC which Durbin, clearly has violated:
Illegal insider trading refers generally to buying or selling a security, in breach of a fiduciary duty or other relationship of trust and confidence, while in possession of material, nonpublic information about the security. Insider trading violations may also include “tipping” such information, securities trading by the person “tipped,” and securities trading by those who misappropriate such information.
# Government employees who learned of such information because of their employment by the government; and
# Other persons who misappropriated, and took advantage of, confidential information from their employers.
Link to SEC:
http://www.sec.gov/answers/insider.htm
I think that Durbin should forfeit. If it is good enough for Martha it is good enough for him.
This wasn’t the result of access. It was astute financial acumen on my part. That’s why I make the big bucks! I can’t believe you or anyone else would suggest otherwise.
Sincerely,
D. Durbin
Just checked google finance. This date is just before a large drop in the S&P 500, and presumably other major U.S. indices. I don’t even have any outrage left.