The Federal Reserve remains focused on fighting inflation, despite warnings of a looming recession. New meeting minutes Wednesday confirm there won’t be rate cuts this year. Members of Congress have once again beaten the stock market. Many traded in large volumes and in the millions of dollars. Do they know something we don’t? The Chinese…

Over 2,600 officials at federal agencies invested in stocks of companies at the same time the firms were lobbying their departments for favorable policies, uncovered an investigation by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). WSJ looked at over 31,000 financial disclosure forms of over 12,000 political staff members, presidential appointees, and career employees—analyzing data of more…

By Nellie S. Huang From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Brokerage start-ups such as Robinhood, M1 Finance, and SoFi are tiny compared with the trillions of dollars in brokerage assets at the likes of Schwab and Fidelity. But they’ve already made a big dent in the way things work. These newcomers pioneered commission-free stock trading and fractional-share…

House Democrats have released their long-awaited bill to ban stock trading by members of Congress, senior government officials, and U.S. Supreme Court justices, with the legislation seeking to cut conflicts of interest, increase transparency around enforcement, and make penalties for noncompliance more painful. The text of the bill (pdf), titled “Combatting Financial Conflicts of Interest in…

House Democrats have released their long-awaited proposal to ban stock trading by members of Congress, senior government officials, and U.S. Supreme Court justices, with the measure seeking to cut conflicts of interest, increase transparency around enforcement, and make penalties for noncompliance more painful. The text of the legislation (pdf), “Combatting Financial Conflicts of Interest in…

There’s a common fallacy out there about trading, that it’s an easy way to get rich fast. But data shows something very different. Prior to the pandemic, retail traders, or traders who bought and sold securities for their own accounts made up about 10 percent of the stock market’s total trading volume. Entering the pandemic,…

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK—The top U.S. securities regulator on Wednesday unveiled a planned overhaul of Wall Street retail stock trading rules, aiming to boost competition for handling orders by commission-free brokerages to ensure mom-and-pop investors get the best price for trades. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler told an industry audience he wants to require…

Is insider trading happening within Congress? The House holds a hearing to address this phenomenon. What are do experts outside Washington say? Investors are buying more U.S. farmland in search of a hedge against inflation, as global food prices hit record highs. Beijing could be backing off on its socialist agenda of “common prosperity” after…

Commentary The Washington, D.C. wheeler-dealers are making patsies out of the rest of us. Members of Congress get million-dollar-plus expense accounts, lifetime pensions, and lavish perks, but for the greedy, that’s not enough. They’re also racking up big bucks trading stocks in the very same companies Congress regulates. Stock picking by members of Congress should…

The House Ethics Committee on Tuesday said that it is reviewing whether Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), the vice-chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, violated ethics rules and federal law when he allegedly failed to disclose his stock trades. Chair of the House Ethics Committee Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and Ranking Member…