Ethics and Morality
Should Congress Be Subject to Insider Trading Laws
Congressional aides are known to have a firsthand look at the creation of laws that have an effect on American commerce. These people are thought to be able to garner knowledge about strategies and government acts prior to the general public. They have access to knowledge about hearings or legislation that can affect stocks and markets. A top aide to the House Speaker has been found to have gained by trading shares of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in a brokerage account with her spouse a couple of days before the government qualified emergency financial support for these businesses. Another aide to Republican lawmakers involved in energy issues, among other things, gained by trading in numerous renewable energy stocks (Mullins, McGinty, and Zwig, 2010). Because of this there should be laws put into place in regards to this. These people should not be allowed to profit from information that only they have access to, just because of where they work.
2) Also consider the opposite side of the argument and discuss the arguments against the position you took in part 1.
If you consider the other side of the argument it could be said that laws are not necessary because aides that have been questioned have said that they haven't gained by engaging in trades based on any knowledge that they had collected while being in Congress (Mullins, McGinty and Zwig, 2010). One could also argue that those things that are discussed in the halls of Congress are always changing so actually obtaining any useful information that could be used to make gains on a trade may be impossible to ascertain.
3) Is it necessary to create laws to prevent this type of insider trading?
It is necessary to create laws to prevent insider trading within Congress because it is not fair to the public in general for the body of legislature that creates the laws in this country to then be exempt from those same laws. If this group thinks that these laws are needed for all the rest of the businesses in the America then they should ethically think that these laws should apply to everyone including them. The fact that Congress is not held to the same standards as everyone else makes them appear untrustworthy and unethical, which undermines the government process as a whole.
4) in your opinion is it necessary to create laws to prevent unethical behavior?
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