Speaker Pelosi Is Back – With More Corruption And Crony Capitalism

Originally Posted at Free Market Shooter

Currently sitting as House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi is all but a lock to return as Speaker of the House in the 116th Congress, following the 2018 midterm elections and DNC House takeover.  In spite of her long-standing history as a Congressional insider trader and crony capitalist, the DNC has “credited” her with the House’s success, and has refused to consider someone new to represent the party as the no.3 in line to the Presidency.

Even 60 Minutes, an outlet often lambasted by FMShooter for its heavy liberal bias coupled with shoddy reporting that is still considered a “standard” for journalism, has taken Pelosi to task, covering her sketchy participation in IPOs back in 2011:

Pelosi, D-Calif., and her husband have participated in at least eight IPOs while having access to information directly relating to the companies involved. One of those came in 2008, from Visa, just as a troublesome piece of legislation that would have hurt credit card companies, began making its way through the House.

“Undisturbed by a potential conflict of interest the Pelosis purchased 5,000 shares of Visa at the initial price of $44 dollars. Two days later it was trading at $64. The credit card legislation never made it to the floor of the House,” Steve Kroft of “60 Minutes” reported.

Pelosi and husband Paul Pelosi, who manages a San Francisco venture capital investment firm, have been undeterred in light of their corrupt practices being exposed to the public.  And as articulated by both Zerohedge and Twitter user J Pierpont Morgan, Pelosi’s family has a major financial incentive to ensure the success Amazon, Apple, and Facebook:

Paul Pelosi appears to act as the “trading” arm, with Nancy working as the “insider”, according to Heavy’s description of the couple:

According to San Francisco Gate, Paul Pelosi lives and works in San Francisco, but he spends about a week each month with his wife Nancy in Washington, D.C. According to National Review, Nancy and Paul’s vineyard in California is worth somewhere between $5 million and $25 million.

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Paul Pelosi’s exact net worth is not known, but in 2014, Nancy reported between $43.4 million and $202 million in assets.

So Paul spends 75% of his time working for his fund, and 25% of his time in direct contact with the House Minority Leader, and former/future House Speaker, who has access to classified/market moving/privileged information.  This plays out about how you would expect:

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband bought up to a quarter million dollars of stock in a now financially troubled green energy company just weeks before it announced a major 2014 acquisition that sent stock prices soaring, public records show.

Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, had invested just in time. He bought between $100,000 and $250,000 in SunEdison stock on Oct. 24, 2014, according to congressional financial disclosures. The company announced its First Wind acquisition on Nov. 17.

SunEdison has maintained strong a strong presence in Washington throughout its financial woes. The company has spent more than $1 million on its lobbying operation since 2011.

This is not something that is new and/or unique to the Democratic party – FMShooter has in the past exposed both parties trading on insider information, and outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan has been accused of insider trading and duplicitous financial practices while serving both as Speaker and in his other Congressional roles.  However, Ryan has been notably anti-Trump since Trump first ran for office, and having been labeled as part of “the swamp” Trump has promised to drain, opted not to run for re-election.

Meanwhile, Zerohedge made an astute observation when it detailed Pelosi’s conduct:

With Nancy battling the increasingly socialist progressives of her ‘new’ party to maintain her role as leader, one wonders what Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders will make of this ugly capitalism being unleashed at such an opportune time.

With the DNC undergoing a populist revolution of its own with the rise of Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, both of whom have lambasted the companies that are heavily owned by the Pelosi family, will the up-and-coming DNC stars oppose Pelosi on the pork-laden crony capitalist laws she puts before Congress…

…or will they join the scam with her, voting with Nancy while simultaneously insider trading using husband Paul’s crony capitalism playbook?