Insider Trading
by David Atkins
When Senate Democrats finally brokered a compromise over the proposed health-care law, a group of hedge funds were let in on the deal, learning details hours before a public announcement on Dec. 8, 2009.
The news was potentially worth millions of dollars to the investors, though none would publicly divulge how they used the information. They belong to a select group who pay for early, firsthand reports on Capitol Hill.
Seeking advance word of government decisions is part of a growing, lucrative—and legal— practice in Washington that employs a network of brokers, lobbyists and political insiders who arrange private meetings.
Consider this another in a long line of reasons by the public is fed up with both Congress and Wall St. The institutions of American government work almost entirely on behalf of the 1%, and much of the most appalling aspects of it are still perfectly legal.
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