I was invited to a briefing this morning on Term Limits and Congressional Insider Trading. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna presented the agenda. I mentioned at the WEC in November that these two actions would be forthcoming. Anna Paulina Luna is behind the prohibition of Congressional Insider Trading with bypartisan support. In addition to throwing his support behind Luna’s bill to end Congressional Insider Trading, Governor DeSantis also said he is leading the effort across the country to have states certify a Constitutional Amendment for term limits for members of Congress.
I was invited to this briefing this morning. I certainly endorse these efforts. I don’t believe the press is fairly reporting what is going on. So far, I believe 28 states have agreed to propose a Constitutional Amendment for Term Limits. To PROPOSE an amendment via state application: 34 states (two-thirds). To RATIFY an amendment and add it to the Constitution: 38 states (three-fourths). This is the effort and with 2026 being the 250th year anniversary and political change lies on the horizon, we have have a shot at at getting to the formal proposal stage.
If this were solely up to Congress, it would be a real uphill battle. The only way to do that would be to say those who are there now are grandfathered in, but any replacement would then be confined to one term and out.
Congress passes a law saying “the FDA must make rules to ensure safe food” (the statute). The FDA (like the SEC) then creates a specific rule that “eggs must be refrigerated at 40°F” (the rule). The insider trading ban works the same way. Congress NEVER created an insider trading statute. This is all done under the rules of the SEC. The real problem is that the bureaucracy has become so outrageous and vast that we are NOT represented by Congress and this is, in my opinion, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, because we the people have no right to vote for anyone on the bureaucracy.
In 1986, I had written the Greatest Bill Market in History where I did the full account of the formation of the SEC. Insider Trading was that a Director of a Company knew they were going to file bankruptcy so he sold all his stock the day before. When they charged Michael Milken with Insider Trading, I was contacted by the lawyers and explained that the interpretation they were using was exactly opposite of the 1930s. Here they claimed you and I are going to takeover Facebook. The Facebook shareholders do not know. The fraud is supposed to be that they LOST the opportunity to make money. They did not lose money as in the 1930s. One guy went to trial and he won against the SEC.
The SEC will NEVER prosecute a politicians for what they have completely distorted. They can argue that the information is coming from lawyers, not directors. But essentially, the entire “Inside Trading” is completely vague at best and is selectively applied if they want your ass. Most assume there is a LAW and Congress exempted themselves. This is an abomination created by the SEC. Because other countries did not understand the reality of the SEC “rule” in the slightest, various countries passed laws that were not really about privileged “insider” info, but it was just ant-rich Marxism.
Because I had offices around the world, trying to comply as an advisor and an investor became impossible. In some jurisdictions, if you asked me about IBM, and I owned one share of IBM, I had to disclosed my entire investment portfolio. With a team of law firms from every financial center, the conclusion was I could not have a stock account anywhere. It has morphed into me advising of a share I happened to have with no inside information can be a crime. When they tried to investigate me, the US Attorney Richard Owens could find anything and just said “You are one smart SOB.”
Even Ron DeSantis said clearly that when he was in Congress decades ago, they knew about the fraud in Minnesota. They would even talk about it back then but do nothing.
I have informed them that the best way to disguise a bribe is to set up two futures accounts. They enter a buy and sell trade on whatever and at the end of the day, they they allocate the win to the politician and the loss to the payee. This will NEVER show up as “insider trading” just that they were a fantastic trader one time in some commodity.
Like my dogs who will patiently wait for my return, we will have to be very patient on these two actions. They are step in the right direction. Let’s see!