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What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

Started by FunkMonk, November 08, 2016, 11:02:57 PM

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alfred russel

Quote from: Sheilbh on April 01, 2020, 03:43:41 PM
How is this legal? :blink:
https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/loeffler-reports-more-stock-sales-denies-wrongdoing/YFPDT3pChO873nuzNKa44K/

It seems like this is a critical part:

"Loeffler's campaign said an investment firm manages the stocks she and her husband own and neither of them has control over the day-to-day decisions to buy or sell fractions of their vast fortune."

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

There's a fine line between salvation and drinking poison in the jungle.

I'm embarrassed. I've been making the mistake of associating with you. It won't happen again. :)
-garbon, February 23, 2014

Admiral Yi

Quote from: alfred russel on April 01, 2020, 04:45:25 PM
It seems like this is a critical part:

"Loeffler's campaign said an investment firm manages the stocks she and her husband own and neither of them has control over the day-to-day decisions to buy or sell fractions of their vast fortune."

I smell a lawyer weasel.  No day to day control is not the same thing as no control whatsoever.

Sheilbh

Quote from: Admiral Yi on April 01, 2020, 04:48:27 PM
Quote from: alfred russel on April 01, 2020, 04:45:25 PM
It seems like this is a critical part:

"Loeffler's campaign said an investment firm manages the stocks she and her husband own and neither of them has control over the day-to-day decisions to buy or sell fractions of their vast fortune."

I smell a lawyer weasel.  No day to day control is not the same thing as no control whatsoever.
Yeah. I thought that was fairly careful - you know, not having control over day-to-day decisions doesn't exclude giving instructions (on a non day-to-day basis).
Let's bomb Russia!

Camerus

#24933
Meanwhile, Richard Burr, the US senator whose stock sales seemed the most egregious in initial reports, is under investigation by the Justice Department and the SEC.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article241646666.html

I expect the probe to be extended to Loeffler too if it hasn't already been.

The Minsky Moment

Quote from: Sheilbh on April 01, 2020, 03:43:41 PM
How is this legal? :blink:
https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/loeffler-reports-more-stock-sales-denies-wrongdoing/YFPDT3pChO873nuzNKa44K/

The Supreme Court has eviscerated insider trading prosecutions since the days when Rudy was Rudy the Crusading Crime Fighter and not Rudy the Russo-Ukrainian scumbag dumpster diver.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

alfred russel

Something I've never understood is where insider trading begins and legitimately obtained information ends.

For example:

-I am walking through a field and watch a delta jet crash a mile away. I immediately open my etrade app and short delta stock.
-I have a friend working at the CDC who tells me in January that this Corona thing is really bad news. So I short an index of hotel stocks.
-I am a high net worth individual who is concerned about this corona thing in January and hire investigators to go to China to figure out what is really going on. Based on what they report, which shows things are much worse than the Chinese government is letting on, I sell my stock holdings and short the S&P 500.
-I am the same high net worth individual as the bullet above, and after selling my stock holdings and short the S&P 500, I release the results of the information my investigators have gathered to the public, which causes the market to react negatively.
-I am an executive at a major company with insights that, for my company at least, the trends in consumer response are much stronger (or negative) than anticipated as a result of coronavirus. I buy (or sell) index mutual funds before this information is a part of an earnings release.
-I am on the team putting together the consumer sentiment survey. I know the survey results are much stronger than anticipated, so before the release I buy stocks.
-I am a high net worth individual who pays for a survey that mimics the methodology of the michigan consumer sentiment survey so I can know the results before it is released. I trade on this information.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

There's a fine line between salvation and drinking poison in the jungle.

I'm embarrassed. I've been making the mistake of associating with you. It won't happen again. :)
-garbon, February 23, 2014

Admiral Yi

I remember you talking about the michigan survey grift like 10 years ago.  :D

I always thought insider trading was just a company official sharing privileged information with an individual before the general public.  Does it cover privileged information that gets shared with a government agency?  I think it must, based on the Trading Places example of early information about orange harvests. 


Tamas

Quote from: Admiral Yi on April 02, 2020, 10:21:59 AM
I remember you talking about the michigan survey grift like 10 years ago.  :D

I always thought insider trading was just a company official sharing privileged information with an individual before the general public.  Does it cover privileged information that gets shared with a government agency?  I think it must, based on the Trading Places example of early information about orange harvests.

Quite clearly insider trading is part of The Game big investors are playing. A tool in their arsenal, so to speak.

Camerus

I know in Senator Burr's case he specifically received non-public government information in his capacity as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and then allegedly used that information to dump his stocks.

The other part of the story, while not insider trading and not a crime but reputationally damaging, was that he kept saying publicly that things were fine.


Admiral Yi

Quote from: Tamas on April 02, 2020, 10:26:29 AM
Quite clearly insider trading is part of The Game big investors are playing. A tool in their arsenal, so to speak.

Quite clearly, as in you've watched Wall Street?

Tamas

Quote from: Admiral Yi on April 02, 2020, 10:32:32 AM
Quote from: Tamas on April 02, 2020, 10:26:29 AM
Quite clearly insider trading is part of The Game big investors are playing. A tool in their arsenal, so to speak.

Quite clearly, as in you've watched Wall Street?

Quite clearly as in that's my barely-informed opinion and I am sticking to it.


Barrister

Quote from: alfred russel on April 02, 2020, 10:09:24 AM
Something I've never understood is where insider trading begins and legitimately obtained information ends.

For example:

-I am walking through a field and watch a delta jet crash a mile away. I immediately open my etrade app and short delta stock.
-I have a friend working at the CDC who tells me in January that this Corona thing is really bad news. So I short an index of hotel stocks.
-I am a high net worth individual who is concerned about this corona thing in January and hire investigators to go to China to figure out what is really going on. Based on what they report, which shows things are much worse than the Chinese government is letting on, I sell my stock holdings and short the S&P 500.
-I am the same high net worth individual as the bullet above, and after selling my stock holdings and short the S&P 500, I release the results of the information my investigators have gathered to the public, which causes the market to react negatively.
-I am an executive at a major company with insights that, for my company at least, the trends in consumer response are much stronger (or negative) than anticipated as a result of coronavirus. I buy (or sell) index mutual funds before this information is a part of an earnings release.
-I am on the team putting together the consumer sentiment survey. I know the survey results are much stronger than anticipated, so before the release I buy stocks.
-I am a high net worth individual who pays for a survey that mimics the methodology of the michigan consumer sentiment survey so I can know the results before it is released. I trade on this information.

None of these are insider trading, and I think you know that.

Insider trading is someone having confidential information about their own company, or receiving such information from an insider, and then trading in that company's securities.

There are numerous companies and outfits that do what you suggest - they privately try to go out and gain information in order to better predict the market.  It doesn't matter if you gain information just because you have the resources to go out and gather information.  As long as theoretically anyone could go out and et that information you're fine.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

alfred russel

Quote from: Barrister on April 02, 2020, 11:17:14 AM


None of these are insider trading, and I think you know that.


I don't/didn't know that.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

There's a fine line between salvation and drinking poison in the jungle.

I'm embarrassed. I've been making the mistake of associating with you. It won't happen again. :)
-garbon, February 23, 2014

The Larch

Quote from: Camerus on April 02, 2020, 10:32:07 AMThe other part of the story, while not insider trading and not a crime but reputationally damaging, was that he kept saying publicly that things were fine.

Apparently he also organized private meetings with big donors and companies in his state to warn them about coronavirus.