It Is Quite Likely That Some Of Our Faves Are Implicated

Not everything that is corrupt is illegal, and not all corrupt acts are equally corrupt. But "everybody being a little bit corrupt" leads to a situation where no one wants to confront corruption generally.

Members of Congress, because of the nature of their jobs, have more inside information about markets than almost anyone else in America, except perhaps the executives of publicly traded corporations. And yet our elected officials trade hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stock every year. As a result, congressional insider trading scandals bubble up regularly—more regularly, probably, since the passage of the 2012 law that forces members to disclose large stock trades. It is impossible to avoid the appearance of corrupt self-dealing if the people responsible for oversight of the economy, and for creating the laws that govern how the economy operates, are also allowed to personally trade individual stocks.