This is a very important speech and legislative initiative at a time when the leadership is needed and change is required.
Yesterday United States Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed the most ambitious anti-corruption legislation since Watergate to fundamentally change the way Washington does business and restore the American public’s faith in democracy. Here is a direct video link.
When leaders in politics, business, communities and families are corrupt and/or breach the trust of those relying on them, corruption and distrust spreads and undermines social stability and strength.
The map of political corruption is never stagnant. Mariano Sigman, author of “The Secret Life of the Mind,” explains how this instability of political corruption seeps into the actions of citizens. This video clip explains some of the research.
According to @mariuchu, political corruption is contagious pic.twitter.com/aUcrskdtEA
— Business Insider (@businessinsider) August 21, 2018
Of course this is true! This is why centuries of common law and best practices around ethics and positions of trust have established basics like full disclosure (including personal tax returns of Presidents!), transparency, no hidden compensation, fiduciary duty and requirements for avoiding the ‘apprehension of bias’. This is a race that will never be won so long as humans are alive, and always requires ongoing care and scrutiny.
The fact that politicians, financial representatives and other leaders have been allowed to operate short of these established conduct imperatives to their great enrichment, is a huge catalyst for the spreading social upheaval today, and particularly in so called ‘developed countries’ that act as global leaders.
The next wave is a move back to higher standards and greater personal accountability, because the other way lies anarchy.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) has been leading the charge with a series of proposed bills, most recently one called the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act which includes a ban on political insiders from owning individual company shares. A steady stream of scandals around insider trading and government officials confirms this ban is necessary, even if political will to pass it won’t come until the next financial crisis intensifies the cry for sweeping change. Here is a direct video link.
Sen. Warren wants to ban Congress and White House staff from owning individual stocks from CNBC.
Rising asset prices paper over problems and can make fools and fraudsters look savvy for a while. But they never were investors, just gamblers banking on blind luck to continue. Classic money behaviors are timeless and repeatedly end the same way. See After the boom: hard lessons for cryptocurrency investors:
Pete Roberts of Nottingham, England, was one of the many risk-takers who threw their savings into cryptocurrencies when prices were going through the roof last winter.
Now, eight months later, the $23,000 he invested in several digital tokens is worth about $4,000, and he is clearheaded about what happened.
“I got too caught up in the fear of missing out and trying to make a quick buck,” he said this week. “The losses have pretty much left me financially ruined.”
