In light of several reports calling for an “outright ban” on allowing politicians to trade stocks on the market, a Dec. 2021 Business Insider report, which not surprisingly escaped significant media coverage, conducted an investigative reporting project entitled “Conflicted Congress.” The Insider’s investigative report revealed “myriad ways members of the US House and Senate have eviscerated their own ethical standards, avoided consequences, and blinded Americans to the many moments when lawmakers' personal finances clash with their public duties.”

Hundreds of interviews of the nation’s most powerful leaders were conducted over a five month period covering almost 9,000 financial-disclosure reports for every sitting lawmaker and their top-ranking staffers. 

Here’s what the Business Insider found: 

“From December 13 to December 17, Insider published more than two-dozen articles and data visualizations that together reveal:

• 57 members of Congress and 182 senior-level congressional staffers who have violated a federal conflicts-of-interest law.

• That lawmakers and top congressional staffers face minimal and inconsistently applied penalties for violating the STOCK Act, and that it's nearly impossible (but we did it anyway) to comprehensively obtain "public records" about senior-level staffers' personal finances.

• Nearly 75 federal lawmakers who held stocks in COVID-19 vaccine makers Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, or Pfizer in 2020, with many of them buying or selling these stocks in the early weeks of the pandemic.

• 15 lawmakers tasked with shaping US defense policy that actively invest in military contractors.

• More than a dozen environmentally-minded Democrats who invest in fossil fuel companies or other corporations with concerning environmental track records.

• Members who regularly chide "the media" but personally pour their money into at least one of the nation's largest news media or social media companies, including Facebook, Twitter, Comcast, Disney, and the New York Times Co.

• 16 lawmakers who buy and hold tobacco company stock, including some who have publicly fought smoking.

• Senators, House members, and top Capitol Hill staffers who will help decide whether the government regulates cryptocurrency — and are themselves invested in bitcoin and altcoins.

• How numerous Capitol Hill staffers are themselves saddled with student loans at a time when Congress is considering erasing education debt. But congressional staffers get loan repayment perks average Americans don't.

• The role the Securities and Exchange Commission could play in policing congressional insider trading.

• Real-estate investment plays made by lawmakers who are also landlords.

• Reasons why some lawmakers abstain from trading individual stocks — and why they believe their congressional colleagues should, too.

• 25 wealthiest members of Congress and where they put their money.

• 50 most popular stock holdings among members of Congress.”

If you think this is appalling, see more in the Insider’s published exclusive, searchable, and sortable database of all members of Congress' personal finances, including their assets, debts, and sources of outside income.

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