The Pelosis: Stock Traders Extraordinaire, or Just Crooks?

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Whatever one thinks of the idea of term limits for elected positions, it’s hard not to view Nancy Pelosi as a poster child for just such a policy. She has been in office for decades, and while she has stepped down — officially — from Democratic Party leadership in the House of Representatives, she still wields considerable influence. Despite her age and frailty, she comes from a solidly blue San Francisco area district that would send a chicken pot pie to Congress if there was a “D” carved into the crust, so she’s probably safe to hold her seat as long as she wants.

And, we must also note, she has grown monstrously rich while in office, in no small part due to uncanny success in investing; the Pelosis, Nancy and her husband Paul, have an investment portfolio that has returned an uncanny 700 percent over the last 10 years.

California Representative Nancy Pelosi’s investment portfolio has returned over 700% since 2014. While the former House Speaker’s husband, Paul, executes the trades, his impressive track record of consistently timing the market has given rise to criticism that Nancy could be sharing confidential market information with him, something the politician has refuted for years. While she has hinted at supporting the ETHICS Act floored by bipartisan senators this year to ban Congressional trades, Paul, an investment banker, continues to carry out trades that continue to baffle investors worldwide.

In the world of real estate, people will tell you that it’s all about “Location, location, location.” In managing an investment portfolio, it’s apparently all about “Timing, timing, timing.”

According to a periodic transaction report dated July 30, Pelosi sold 5,000 Microsoft shares worth over $2.1 million at the time. Unusual Whales, which tracks major stock market transactions, including Congressional trades, tweeted on X.com that it was her “largest sell in two years of her portfolio.” While the selloff happened less than two weeks after the Crowdstrike crash that impacted millions of devices operating on Microsoft Windows systems, Paul also likely averted significant investment losses as America’s top watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission, led by Lina Khan, opened a wide-ranging antitrust investigation on November 27 into Microsoft’s cloud computing, software licensing, cybersecurity, and AI segments, seeking extensive details into its business practices. The FTC conducted informal interviews with business partners and Microsoft rivals before formally notifying the AI giant to hand over information crucial to the agency’s probe. Both the FTC and Microsoft have declined to comment on the matter.

What an amazing coincidence! Paul Pelosi really has a knack for knowing just when to sell, doesn’t he?

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Now, we don’t know for sure that Paul Pelosi received any information from his wife on the upcoming FTC investigation. We don’t know that he didn’t, either; I know I will, on occasion, discuss things with my wife that I will not discuss with anyone else, but those topics generally don’t include stock transactions and upcoming federal investigations, in no small part because I have no more access to potentially profitable information than any other regular citizen. But Nancy Pelosi has access to a lot of, shall we say, insider information that she may well be passing on.

And if you do not find the mental image of pillow talk between Nancy and Paul Pelosi to be truly disturbing, you have a stronger stomach than I do.

Congress routinely exempts themselves from laws, rules, and regulations that they pass over the rest of us, and the result is that people like Paul and Nancy Pelosi end up with a net worth of $240 million. And while the ETHICS Act may well help to clamp down on insider trading by Congress, it’s unclear how it would affect congressional spouses.

For those of us who are gray enough to remember the 1994 Contract With America, part of that program was a rule change that Congress could not exempt themselves from any legislation that applied to regular Americans. That, being just a rule change, didn’t last. It may well be time to revisit such a law, this time as binding legislation that applies to members of Congress as well as their spouses. There is simply too much opportunity for graft in this setup.

And, yes, this is a good argument for term limits. Many will point out, rightly, that the best term limit is the vote, but districts like Nancy Pelosi’s CA-11 are not sending anyone but a deep-blue progressive Democrat to Washington; term limits will just increase the frequency with which a new member goes by.

There’s too much money to be made by wielding power. The ultimate answer? Take away most of the power they wield. Return Washington to its constitutionally defined guidelines.