Big Tech and Big Pharma give campaign money to politicians who in turn receive non-public information about the corporations which they use to enrich their personal stock portfolios. The lawmakers then have influence over legislation that affects the companies in which they’re personally invested.
Story at-a-glance:
- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s wealth has increased from $41 million to nearly $115 million since 2004.
- At issue isn’t the fact that politicians are multimillionaires — rather, as noted on a recent Twitter thread by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, it’s how they made their millions.
- In the last two years, nearly 75% of Pelosi’s stock trades have involved Big Tech stocks, totaling over $33 million in trading.
- The trading has occurred as major legislation was proposed, controlled by the Committees Pelosi oversees, that could reshape the future of the industry.
- Pelosi’s five most-traded stocks in the last two years — Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon and Google — were those that stood to be most affected by pending legislation.
- The system is corrupt, with most politicians not fighting for the public but, rather, looking out for their own self-interest and wealth accumulation.
Politicians receive very comfortable salaries. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, for instance, earns…
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