House Democrats Plan To Deploy a Stock Trading Ban for Lawmakers in August

Vignesh Karunanidhi
House Democrats Plan To Deploy a Stock Trading Ban for Lawmakers in August
Source: Lawfare

House Democrats are likely working on legislation that would prohibit lawmakers, their spouses, and staff from trading stocks. The reports were published by Punchbowl News, which received information from sources that are familiar with the matter.

The legislation, if passed by the House Democrats, would cause US lawmakers to move forward with a decision that would cause the lawmakers to either divest their stock portfolios or put them in a blind trust.

As per the reports, the legislation is likely to be pushed through Congress in September. The legislation, if implemented, will seriously hamper the theory of the free market and people and would be totally against the free market economic principle. It is still unclear whether the proposal would receive 60 Senate votes.

Over the years, there has been more vigilance placed on parliamentarians’ capacity to trade stocks. Similar legislation was put on the table by Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley this year that would place a ban on stock trading by lawmakers. But the legislation eventually faded away.

Are House Democrats indirectly pushing portfolio diversification?

The move by House Democrats indirectly implies a hidden necessity to diversify the investment portfolio. A lot of things are currently happening, as the Fed raised the interest rate by 75 basis points and the US officially slipped into a recession.

The US economy is clearly in a recession, on the one hand. Politicians, on the other hand, openly reject this and completely redefine recession.

Ahead of the event, the White House website even updated the definition of a recession from “two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction” to saying that the two-quarter rule is incorrect.

As the Fed announced the interest hike decision, the global crypto market entered a positive rally. The crypto market is trading in green as bitcoin and ethereum rose by 6.75% and 9.18% respectively. Bitcoin is currently trading at $22,911.75 and ethereum at $1,627 at the time of writing.