November 20, 2011
Sheldon Whitehouse, Born with a Silver Spoon Horseshoe
I mentioned reports that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse had apparently benefited from rules that make it OK for our Washington politicians to engage in what, in any other arena, would be considered insider trading. While Whitehouse continues to deny that he made the trades (instead, it was his financial adviser who did it for him), More details are coming out that reveal a remarkable sense of timing to the benefit of RI's junior senator (h/t Prof. Jacobson):
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island also made a flurry of trades in the days after the Paulson-Bernanke meeting with legislators.As Whitehouse's 2012 Senatorial opponent Republican Barry Hinckley told WPRO:At minimum, Whitehouse sold $250,000 in the stocks below between September 18-24, 2008. He may have sold as much as $600,000 in the stock below according to disclosures.
Look at these trades and the timing of them and the massive volume. He is trading between 5 and 20 percent of his net worth I find it implausible that much of someone’s net worth would be traded without someone’s knowledge....It appears there are two sets of rules for people like Sheldon Whitehouse, who are career politicians, who apparently are trading their own accounts when they should be working for us...whether it is exclusive health care they have for themselves or opting out of Obama care and apparently now they are allowed to inside trade which of course is illegal for the rest of Americans....Rhode Islanders are working hard just to make ends meet and it seems like no matter what they do they can’t get ahead but rich career politicians like Sheldon Whitehouse seem to be getting ahead at our cost.
"While Whitehouse continues to deny that he made the trades (instead, it was his financial adviser who did it for him)"
Without doubt, those trades were for his "blind trust".
Posted by: Warrington Faust at November 20, 2011 4:16 PMWhitehouse is an abomination and the Republicans have a man with about zero name recognition going up against him.
Nice.
This was the race Doherty should've gotten into.
Mr. Whitehouse is voting / has co-sponsored the PROTECT-IP Act. Sheldon sold us up the river to big corporations before, but this is just more blatant and more nasty.
Glad I'll never even be able to vote for him again, and sad I did it even once.
Good luck to Mr. Hinkley, he'll still need it. Why one earth couldn't the GOP come up with someone slightly more credible to run for that seat? I mean no offense, I only met the man once, but he didn't remotely seem like a "New England Republican" to me -- more like darn near a tea partier, and RI won't elect that platform to the national stage.
Posted by: jparis at November 20, 2011 11:28 PM"more like darn near a tea partier, and RI won't elect that platform to the national stage."
Correct jparis.... Rhode Islanders prefer crooks for their elected politicians.
Posted by: ANTHONY at November 21, 2011 12:02 AMI had a good night tonight, so I'll jump on your silly bait Anthony.
You're right too, Rhode Island prefers crooks to people who would put us back on the Gold Standard. One just steals from us, the other collapses our entire economy in a single day.
Posted by: jparis at November 21, 2011 1:53 AMFrom the link:
"The Play: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island also made a flurry of trades in the days after the Paulson-Bernanke meeting with legislators."
He sold five stocks as a result of what he learned in that meeting. Oh, wait, let me phrase this properly: he passed along this information to his investment manager who knew exactly what to do with it.
The next month, every one of those stocks dropped, from 15% to 36% in value.
Would the senator care to disclose the dollar amount that he saved as a result? Savings that most of us, his constituents, did NOT realize because we were not privy to this insider information.
Posted by: Monique at November 21, 2011 7:24 AMThe jr. senator has been paid almost $4 Million dollars in public salary for his 19+ years in public office. That approaches the Kilmartin terrority of "public service".
The stock sell off saved his account almost 500K in losses.
"One just steals from us, the other collapses our entire economy in a single day."
Poor jparis....another day another Hobson's choice for you lefty's. Are you fleabaggers always this depressed?
Posted by: ANTHONY at November 22, 2011 10:52 AM