As U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares and used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
The Illinois senator’s 2008 financial disclosure statement shows he sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks. The same day, he bought $43,562 worth of Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B stock, the disclosure shows. Altogether, Durbin sold investments worth $116,000 in September. By Oct. 2, he had invested $98,046 in Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway, the form shows.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index plunged 4.7 percent last Sept. 15 after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bank of America Corp.’s government-engineered takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. By the end of October, the index had fallen 22.6 percent.
“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 his spokesman, Joe Shoemaker.
Shoemaker said Durbin didn’t capitalize on anything Paulson and Bernanke told congressional leaders at the Sept. 18 meeting.
Whatever information Paulson gave lawmakers wasn’t secret or classified and was disclosed publicly the next day, Shoemaker said.
If I acted like a Republican, I’d be giving Durbin astanding ovation.
But, instead, I have non-hypocritical liberal values and I say this stinks.
I’m willing to suspend judgment until we know more facts (just like I would with a Republican) but this seems bad.
Jail Him.
typical republican
As U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares and used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
That’s not really a big some of money. That doesn’t make it right. I’m not arguing that he’s not typical politician scum (no offense to pond scum intended). I’m just saying that there are lots bigger fish out there.
At the current price ($92.2K) for BRK-A he gets one share.
Is there a crime committed?
Let me know is someone finds a pony underneath this shit.
Here is an idea. Make everyone that is elected to Congress take a vow of poverty. You are supposed to serve not be served.
#5. Of course not Dallas. In your eyes the Dems walk on water, literally.
Sheesh.
Liberal scum you can believe in.
The real question is, did Durbin use inside information to make a profit or avoid a loss?
Berkshire-B has lost over 36% of its value since Sept 19, when Durbin started buying, but the S&P 500 has fared a bit better than that, losing a little less than 27%. I won’t be asking Durbin for any advice or forward looking perspective.
The fact is, Berkshire is itself similar to a mutual fund, with a wide variety of stock holdings. If Durbin would have converted his mutual fund holdings to cash and remained on the sidelines, that would have been more suspect than the shift he made to Berkshire.
all politicians should be required to give up all all their wealth upon election..
that would avoid all this sillyness
What a nice broad brush some Democrats paint Republicans with. They sound just like the racist and classicist they purport all Republicans to be, which they are not by the way. As an independent I’m getting a little sick of this shit.
Durbin and the Democratic congress have had over two years to deal with this financial mess and they have failed. It happened on their watch and it’s time the media called their ass on it. Pelosi and Reid never really stood up to Bush and yet they still want to blame him. They will probably start blaming Obama real soon for their continued ineptitude.
#11:
“the Democratic congress have had over two years to deal with this financial mess”
The guy’s only been in office for like, a hundred days! Give him a break!
#4:
“That’s not really a big some of money.”
It’s way more money than the typical lobbyist donation, but we make a big deal about that.
# 12 brm said, “The guy’s only been in office for like, a hundred days! Give him a break!”
The Dems (Durbin incl.) have only held Congress for a hundred days?
Martha Stewart served time for LYING to the feds about her stock deals, not about the stock deals themselves.
While I know the saw about politicians and lying, I don’t see anywhere it says Durbin lied to the Feds about this. In fact, sounds like the opposite is the case here.
# 11 GF said, in part:
“What a nice broad brush some Democrats paint Republicans with. They sound just like the racist and classicist they purport all Republicans to be”…
Hey! We classicists resent being lumped together with either Dems or Repubs!
J. S. Bach forever!
– – – – –
I bet several hundred members of Congress, as well as tens of thousands of members of the Executive Branch, as well as millions of non-government workers bought and sold (especially sold) a lot of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc., etc., etc., right around that time. It’s not like that’s the exact day the stock market started down…
“I bet several hundred members of Congress, as well as tens of thousands of members of the Executive Branch, as well as millions of non-government workers bought and sold (especially sold) a lot of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc., etc., etc., right around that time. It’s not like that’s the exact day the stock market started down…”
Yes and they all had meetings with the Federal Reserve?….how does that compare again?
#7 Spotter said “Of course not Dallas. In your eyes the Dems walk on water, literally. Sheesh.”
Spotter. I just like to deal with facts. If the guys committed a crime, shame on him. I could not find anything of the sort.
I see lots of shit being written, but no pony.
This is the first time I can recall that poorly-timed investments are being used to implicate someone of acting on inside information. Is this part of that post-9/11 mentality that I could never understand?
Cripes, and then some…
Again another example that there is absolutely no difference between the two parties besides one has stripe and one has spots.
These are PLUTOCRATS people!
Do we honestly expect anything more?
Are you all that naive?
The system is broken. To fix it we need to start over. NONE of these people can be trusted.
Cursor_
If he used insider information then he should be prosecuted. If he, as millions of others last fall, sold some stock on the news that the world was going to hell, then so what.
As I recall, members of Congress put their investment folios into blind trusts. That way they can’t be accused of using insider information. Of course the trusts aren’t as blind in some, like Ted Stevens and “Duke” Cunningham’s cases but what the hell.
If they couldn’t get Hillary for commodities trading, making 100,000 on a $1,000 investment, I don’t think they’ll find anything here.
# 20 Cursor_ said, “Again another example that there is absolutely no difference between the two parties besides one has stripe and one has spots.”
Yep, you got that right.
Is it a blind trust when you put bundles of money in your freezer? I’m just asking?
#24, Cap’n,
It depends upon if your dog was trained to help you navigate.
😉
If I’m not mistaken, Birkshire-Hathaway went down in value significantly. So did he buy high to keep low? 🙂
I don’t get it. Inside trading is when you act on information about a specific company.
How the hell can dumping a bunch of *mutual funds* — because it’s clear to you that the market is screwed — be considered abusing privileged information?
Surprise, Surprise, He is from Illinois.Must have learned from the best.
Durbin’s one of the good guys.
For example, a couple of weeks ago, he made a public statement saying the Congress had been captured by the banks (financial industry). I was glad to hear a Senator have the courage to publicly state this and I wondered how the banks would retaliate.
To me, it looks like the banks may be stoking up the spin machine to go after him.
He is well-respected in his state for many decades of good service to the state of Illinois. As I said, he is one of the good guys. I doubt this story will hold water.
I’d say it shows he’s a poor money manager. He’d been money ahead if he had just gotten out the market and put his money in a checking account that doesn’t even pay interest.