5777

Well sure. There are economists employed all over the place and in dears, private and public, most people don’t think about. This list though just looks like a GOP talking point list. That is a little weird.

5778

Can’t wait to rub this in parents’ faces since they support Trump because he’s “tough on China” …

5779

It’s a somewhat diverse list. Most politicians don’t have huge disagreements over insomnia or breastfeeding.

To the extent that his work supports a right wing agenda, its worth pointing out that academicians are often activists, but that doesn’t make them politicians. For example Lawrence Lessig and Noam Chomsky on the left, Alan Dershowitz and John Lott on the right.

5780

These guys are just really bad at being corrupt.

5781

That style of graft is so 80’s.

5782

I totally read that as “Smocking”.

5783

Once upon a time I worked for a testing company that had a contract with the state of Kentucky. I scored/trained reading and social studies topics. Invariably the kids in KY would spell snakes “snacks.” To this day I still can’t help but refer to snakes as snacks. (And no, I do not literally want snakes for snacks.)

5784

Not to defend this guy but the media is now reporting that the “purchase” was done without the Senators knowledge and that it has been rescinded. However the Senator should instruct his brokers to avoid this kind of stuff in the future. CNN had a past Ethics Office guy on who said he thought the Senator’s real problem was that he sat on a committee that would crucify anyone who came before it and did this.

5785

That’s got to be horseshit though. The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee isn’t aware that he should let his broker know not to invest in defense stock? Fucking horseshit. No way he wasn’t aware of it. Same with the Senators/Congressmen that are on health-related committees and “accidentally” or “unknowingly” invest in health-related stocks through their brokers. All complete shit.

5786

The Ethics guy did say that most office holders limit their purchases to mutual funds to avoid this problem.

5787

This. I mean, a guy who manages my 401(K), or even my personal stock portfolio, probably wouldn’t know if I was on the advisory board of some tech startup that might cause the appearance of insider trading if said startup got gobbled up by some larger firm the fund manager had just bought a bunch of shares in to add to my portfolio.

But if I am the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee you can be damn sure the people managing my investments know that I am, even if I failed to mention it in casual conversation. Given that they’re supposedly licensed, they should also then know to avoid purchasing stock in defense contractors and other companies that would likely cause an ethics issue when those companies had contracts up for review by my committee.

This was 100% swamp operating as normal.

5788

Inhofe became the Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee just a few months ago, after McCain died. I think it’s entirely possible his broker didn’t get the news, or that the transaction was already scheduled before he became chair.

5789

Government officials should be barred from holding investments. If you get elected to the federal government, you should have to liquidate your holdings.

5790

I agree.

5791

They should not just liquidate. In some cases it might even be disastrous to the company if they are big stake holder. Existing holdings should go into a Trust that they and no one associated or related to them has any control over and any sizable trades investigated over some period of time leading up to the election.

5792

Your think government officials shouldn’t have a retirement plan?

5793

Yeah, this is pretty much what blind trusts are made for, right? Put it in a place where you can’t have any control over it.

5794

Blind trusts are a fine idea. But no investments at all is silly.

5795

Nope.

I mean, you can have money saved up. You just can’t invest it in particular parts of the economy that your actions are going to impact. When you get out of government, you can invest that money however you want.

5796

100% yes.