I think he should have used way more money... http://www.businessinsider.com/the-...ncer-bachus-should-resign-immediately-2011-11 Here's the passage from Throw Them All Out, as relayed by Slate's Dave Weigel. According to Weigel, it is only one of many examples of Bachus's insider trading: "On the evening of September 18, at 7 p.m., Bachus received [a] private briefing for congressional leaders by Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke about the current state of the economy. They sat around a long table in the office of Nancy Pelosi, then the Speaker of the House. These briefings were secretive. Often, cell phones and Blackberrys had to be surrendered outside the room to avoid leaks. What Bachus and his colleagues heard behind closed doors was stunning. As Paulson recounts, âBen [Bernanke] emphasized how the financial crisis could spill into the real economy. As stocks dropped perhaps a further 20 percent, General Motors would go bankrupt, and unemployment would rise . . . if we did nothing.â The members of Congress around the table were, in Paulsonâs words, âashen-faced." Bernanke continued, âIt is a matter of days before there is a meltdown in the global financial system.â Bachus was among those who spoke. According to Paulson, he suggested recapitalizing the banks by buying shares. The meeting broke up. The next day, September 19, Congressman Bachus bought contract options on Proshares Ultra-Short QQQ, an index fund that seeks results that are 200% of the inverse of the Nasdaq 100 index. In other words, he was shorting the market. It was an inexpensive way to bet that the market would fall. He bought options for $7,846 on a day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened at 8,604. A few days later, on September 23, after the market had indeed fallen, he sold the options for over $13,000 and nearly doubled his money."
That's ok - he and other elites get to do it over and over again with more but different info. Don't want to draw too much attention in one go. After a while, it'll add up... This is what the election is about - who gets to milk the cow and keep the milk.
60 minutes aired a piece on November 13th about Congress and "insider trading"...oh, and it's all legal, IF you're in congress! http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_1...side-information/?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel
So this idiot is defending himself on TV by saying that he went long GE and didn't short anything. Apparently buying put options on indexes is not a short position. There is really no point in denying it, it is there in the broker statement. The only defense is that he did it in a 2 weeks period not just once, and I think the market was already falling by then....
He's better off not saying anything. Considering the public has an attention span of like 7 seconds everyone will forget about it, if they haven't already.