U.S. politicians' insider trading a tip of the iceberg of systemic corruption

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 100 members of the U.S. Congress had traded financial assets that intersected with their duty or reported similar transactions by some of their close relatives between 2019 and 2021, The New York Times (NYT) said recently in an analysis.

The most glaring example is outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has, alongside her husband Paul, outperformed legendary investor Warren Buffett in terms of their investment return during the above-mentioned period, thus being hailed as the "Queen of Stonks" by some investors.

These facts shed light on the prevalence of America's "money politics," as well as its "systemic corruption," in which the realization of power and influence is multifarious and way too difficult to be checked.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

In 2019-2021, at least 97 U.S. senators and members of the House of Representatives had reported trades by themselves or immediate family members in stocks or other financial assets that intersected with the work of committees on which they serve, said the NYT analysis.

Among these money-raking legislators were 49 Republicans, 47 Democrats and one independent member -- a shocking revelation that the two parties are on a par with each other in light of insider trading and power abuse.

Top congressional leaders, including Pelosi, have wide influence over the legislative agenda and therefore any trading associated with them could still overlap with their duties, said the analysis.

Pelosi's husband, a real estate and technology investor, bought and sold 25 million U.S. dollars to 81 million worth of stocks, options and other financial assets between 2019 and 2021, public filings showed. Pelosi denied any involvement in her husband's investment.

In March 2021, Paul exercised call options and paid 1.95 million dollars to buy 15,000 shares of Microsoft. Before long, Microsoft secured a lucrative government contract worth nearly 22 billion dollars, with its share prices increasing close to 11 percent.

On Capitol Hill, members of the U.S. Congress are in high positions and have access to a large amount of confidential and sensitive information that could allow them and individuals close to them to make profits.

Congressman Bob Gibbs, an Ohio Republican who sits on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, was reported to buy shares of U.S. biopharmaceutical company AbbVie in 2020 and 2021, while the congressional panel was investigating AbbVie and some of its rivals over high drug prices.

The husband of Assistant Speaker of the House and incoming Democratic Whip Katherine Clark traded in several healthcare companies that contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for which Clark's House Committee on Appropriations sets funding.

Though there is a federal law that seeks to prevent lawmakers from taking advantage of such information for their own good, it is almost impossible to completely root out conflicts of interest and ban insider trading.

An investigation by Business Insider released in December 2021 found that 57 members of Congress and 182 senior-level congressional staffers violated a federal conflicts-of-interest law.

Senator Richard Burr, then chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was said to have dumped stocks worth up to 1.72 million dollars in 33 different transactions on Feb. 13, 2020, a week before the stock market declined sharply due to concern over COVID-19.

The U.S. Department of Justice, however, concluded its insider trading investigation into Burr in early 2021 without pursuing criminal charges.

SYSTEMIC CORRUPTION

U.S. politicians are elected to office, but the process has long been dominated by money. Interest groups and wealthy individuals provide candidates with funding through certain channels for them to run costly political ads and campaigns. After they take office, politicians would return the favor by promoting agenda critical to their donors.

The Wall Street Journal unveiled in October that more than 2,600 officials at agencies from the Commerce Department to the Treasury Department, during both Republican and Democratic administrations, disclosed stock investments in companies while those companies were lobbying their agencies for favorable policies.

The same is true for some judges. In April, an investigation by the Journal found that 152 federal judges around the country have violated U.S. law and judicial ethics by overseeing 1,076 court cases involving companies in which they or their family owned stock.

Political scientists Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens wrote in 2014 that "economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence."

Fred Wertheimer, an American attorney and activist known for his work on campaign finance reform, said in 2017 that "the bottom line is we have very serious problems with the functioning of our democracy caused by the unrestrained flow of influence-seeking money into the elections."

"The corruption in the U.S. does not stem from officeholders putting money in their pocket," Wertheimer pointed out. "This is systemic corruption of the process itself. When you are dealing with billions and billions of dollars, much of that focused on buying influence, it overwhelms the system, and it is much harder to defend against and maintain representation for ordinary Americans."

Matthew Stephenson, a professor of law at Harvard Law School and an anti-corruption law expert, stressed that "certain practices related to lobbying and campaign finance that other countries would consider corrupt are, in the U.S., not only permitted but constitutionally protected."

"The U.S. still has a corruption problem, and it's one that we need to take seriously," Stephenson added.

REVOLVING DOOR

The "revolving door" is deeply embedded in the U.S. society and the movement for lawmakers between public and private sectors is mostly unrestrained despite clear conflicts of interest.

Almost 80 percent of Americans in a poll conducted in late July said there are two tiers of justice in the United States -- one set of laws for politicians and Washington insiders and another for everyday Americans.

In fact, many U.S. politicians and senior officials come from the business sector while many of them would return to private practice for high-paying jobs after stepping down or leaving office. Some would even open their own companies to offer lobbying or consulting services with their influence and resources built in government positions.

Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper spent many years working as an executive at Raytheon Technologies, a major U.S. defense contractor, where he was responsible for government relations affairs. After leaving the Pentagon, Esper became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a distinguished fellow of the McCain Institute, and a partner of a venture capital firm based in Beverly Hills, California.

"While officials in the executive branch, Congress and senior congressional staffers spin in and out of the private and public sectors, so too does privilege, power, access and, of course, money," OpenSecrets, a Washington-based nonprofit organization tracking data on campaign finance and lobbying, wrote in an overview of its "Revolving Door" database.

U.S. political sociologist C. Wright Mills expressed concern about the "revolving door" between the government and large corporations, as political and corporate elites cycle through government and corporate spheres with much ease and regularity. This "power elite" made all the "big decisions" of the day under which Americans had to live, including going to war and building a military-industrial complex, he said.

"Throughout history, from ancient Athens and early Rome, republics have feared corruption, as defined by placing narrow, personal, or special interests above the common good and commonwealth," former U.S. Senator Gary Hart said. "By that standard, America today is massively corrupt, and thus the republic itself is in danger from the 'revolving door' between public service and lobbying for special interests."