Saturday, June 13, 2009
Dick Durbin, market timer
Bloomburg is reporting that Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) sold about $100,000 of mutual fund securities via computer in his Schwab IRA during the financial meltdown last September, and reinvested the proceeds in the Class B stock of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Some of the sell-side transactions took place the day after then-Treasury Secretary Hank Pauslon and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke briefed Senators in a closed session that it was urgent that legislation be written to help out ailing banks. While there is no implication of impropriety, it is worth noting that Durbin's risk profile changed rather abruptly.
"'Durbin was doing what a lot of other people were doing, taking a look at their savings' and seeing it 'start to tank and trying to preserve some level of wealth by getting out of the market,' said spokesman Joe Shoemaker."Durbin didn't so much get out of the market as he exited certain segments and then fled to the quality of Berkshire Hathaway.
I believe that there are executive branch officials other than the president and vice president who put their investments in blind trusts for the duration of their service. Perhaps it is time for senators to do the same thing -- at least that way they don't have to carve out 10 minutes from their day to trade online. Think of all the bandwidth that would free up around D.C.
3 Comments:
By 
davod, at
Sat Jun 13, 05:26:00 PM:
I have always wondered If Senator Schumer or his friends profited last year when his actions in releasing a letter about a Californian bank caused a ten day run on the bank
By 
, at
Sat Jun 13, 06:49:00 PM:
MArket timer.....maybe? Insider trader....definitely.
By Viking Kaj, at
Sat Jun 13, 08:03:00 PM:
The interesting thing about this is that nobody probably cares.
And, coming from the State of Illinois, Durbin don't know nuttin and nobody who knows Durbin knows nuttin.
Welcome to the Chicago machine at the national level. We now have popularly elected crooks at the head of the federal government.
BTW, this is how the Nazis got their start.
