An interesting thing we learned in class was the topic of insider trading. We learned about this topic in a video, and it finally put a face to the looming idea in my mind of the unknown “insider trading”. Insider trading, by definition exists when a party is privy to private information and uses said information to benefit financially by selling or buying stocks. This information could be from knowledge of incoming buyouts, up and coming businesses, new laws, wars, or even a coming pandemic. Now, insider trading is illegal. Our government believes that acting on private information like this is unfair and even criminal. However, when writing the laws to make this action illegal, they excluded themselves.
A timely example of this phenomenon happened as the start of the Covid-19 shutdown. Law officials and government employees of course had early information about shutdowns, shortages, and regulations, and some chose to benefit from this. A journal entry from, a source you’d think might attempt to hide the information, The New York Times, spoke of two Federal Reserve committee members that had insider trading deals go public (Appelbaum, 2021). They had sold off stocks before the Federal Reserves reaction could take effect. Of course, apologies ensued and resignations poured, yet they still benefitted, and still remain free (Appelbaum, 2021). This is just one example, yet where one is, a thousand must also be. If government officials are allowed to exclude themselves from our laws and get away with it, how many more are they also safe from? How would we know? Why do we ignore that officials take office as middle class, yet leave as millionaires?
References
Appelbaum, B. (2021, September 29). Let's make it easier for public officials to be honest. The New York Times. Retrieved December 5, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/29/opinion/public-corruption-insider-trading.html.