Will the shocking insider trading revelations that have come to light
in recent days finally be enough to motivate the American people to
start throwing all of the con men and charlatans out of Congress? On
Sunday, 60 Minutes opened up a huge can of worms when it did a feature
story on insider trading by members of Congress. Up until now, the vast
majority of Americans had no idea that insider trading was actually
legal for members of Congress. In fact, as will be documented later on
in this article, members of Congress have been using secrets that they
have learned during the course of their duties to make huge amounts of
money in the stock market. If you can believe it, during the financial
crisis of 2008 some members of Congress were making huge stock moves
that would only pay off if the stock market crashed really hard at a
time when they should have been focusing on creating legislation that
would help the U.S. financial system survive. It is hard not to feel
sick after learning how low some of our "leaders" have stooped to enrich
themselves. Now that the American people are learning the truth, how
can they ever trust Congress again?
Even before these revelations about insider trading by members of
Congress came to light, the approval rating for Congress was sitting at about 11 percent.
There is a widespread feeling in this country that our political system simply does not work any longer.