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Justice Alito sold Bud Light stock amidst anti-trans boycott effort
(www.lawdork.com)
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this post was submitted on 20 May 2024
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politics
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government officials and their families should be barred from holding stocks, ffs
I'm with you, but that has pretty much nothing to do with this.
Yeah he didn't have any insider knowledge, just seeing the backlash and reacting accordingly.
I think there is more nuance to it than this. Certain government officials who are in sensitive positions should be barred from holding stocks except through a blind trust, an index fund, a mutual fund, or some other vehicle that they can't directly control or influence. Those "certain government officials" should include members of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches who tend to be privy to information that would, if acted upon, constitute insider trading. This would include policy-makers as well as those around the policy-makers whose knowledge would create a conflict of interest.
That is all to say, I don't think that someone working in government IT, doing wildlife research, or doing HR work for a government agency should be required to divest from their stock portfolios. That should be limited to people whose jobs create an inherent conflict of interest.
Why not all stocks? Worried they might become empoverished on those salaries?
Yes, because government pensions have been replaced with essentially a 401k. You would force them to invest only in real estate or individual businesses, which would be much easier to hide bribes.
Oh Justice Alito has quite the retirement ahead of him, guaranteed salary for life https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/371
Real estate as an investment should be outlawed, and operating a business as a government official is already dissuaded, and should also be outlawed. They make enough money.
That's a recipe for more bribes, not less. Investments need to be disclosed. Gifts are subject to less scrutiny, as we've seen.
This just isnt reality. In America, government officials can and do invest tons of money while in office, compared to officials in other countries. And also in America, government officials take tons of money from bribes, compared to officials in other countries. The way it actually works is government officials take all the money they can get away with. They take their big salary, they take their investment income, and even then they are not dissuaded in the slightest from taking bribes, its still more money for them. The limiting factor is what they can get away with. So you crack down on what they can legally acquire, you scrutinize their income and spending, you prosecute violations. Their salaries are plenty to live comfortably already.
I assume you have sources for that. List them.
its kind of hard to look up, because looking up lobbying expenses by country tends to pull up how much other countries are bribing US officials https://www.opensecrets.org/fara
I think it's a pretty uniquely American thing.
I mean since we're speculating on rules, they could easily expand an existing pension program
That's not going to happen because they don't have the experience to manage a pension fund. It doesn't manage itself, so they'll have to pay someone to manage it.
Do you want Goldman Sachs to get their hands on a pension fund for the US Government? Does that sound like a good idea?