If you haven't been following the news that closely and/or obsessively - and who can blame you: even a news junkie like me is rationing herself to 0-1 news shows per day, and reading a couple of articles online; I figure if it's something major, I'll see it on Twitter and can pursue from there - you may not have heard that a few senators made some suspiciously timed stock market transactions that might lead someone to believe that they traded on insider info on the pandemic.
Right after a late-January meeting in which senators were informed about the seriousness of coronavirus/COVID-19, Richard Burr (R-NC) unloaded some hotel shares (Wyndham) from his relatively modest portfolio. (Less than $2 million.) The pandemic is especially inhospitable to the hospitality industry, so this was definitely good timing on Burr's part. And it doesn't look all that coincidental.
On the other end of the portfolio spectrum, Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) is the wealthiest senator, with a fortune estimated to be about half a billion.
Shortly after the private briefing from health officials, her advisors made some particularly shrewd purchases, buying shares in a company that provides telecommuting software and also making an investment in a company that makes personal protection equipment (PPE). Hmmmm.
Loeffler may not have directed anything and anybody, but it's hard not to see that pillow talk (her husband is the chair of NYSE, among other things) may have wended its way into the ears of her investment advisor. Or maybe they're just really good at reading the tea leaves. They may, in fact, have figured out the "info" coming from the White House, and shamelessly supported by the R senators who actually were privy to the truth, was pure BS.
It's entirely imaginable that these advisors, on hearing about Wuhan, did a bit of calling around to experts. And, unlike the White House, they might actually have faith in expert advice. So they may have been just canny enough to decide that any company that enabled telecommuting, or that produced PPE, was going to be on the upside of the downfall of the economy. But the optics for Loeffler sure are terrible.
Loeffler may not have much longer to serve in the senate, anyway. She was appointed to fill in the term of a senator in ill health, and her appointment wasn't all that popular with some of the more rabid far righties in Georgia. They wanted fire breather, grand Trumpist Doug Collins to get the nod. And Collins, who's opposing Loeffler for this senate seat, is using the financial fishiness as a key element of his attack line on Loeffler. (I say let them eat their own.)
Whatever comes out of this, and it may all get lost in the pandemic shuffle, there really is something unsavory about politicians trading on insider info - especially when, like Burr and Loeffler, they're out there in public downplaying things.
Anyway, all I can think about is what must be going through Martha Stewart's head just about now? After all, Martha spent a few months in an orange jump suit for a pretty venial a sin compared to what's alleged Loeffler and Burr have done.
Meanwhile, if Loeffler's advisors figured out Citrix wa a good buy all on their lonesome, I want them for my finanical advisor. Sheer genius!
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