Congress Needs to Disclose its Holdings

[paparush]

How deeply invested in the failing companies are the men and women who are hammering out this Bailout?

We know about Paulson's $500M in Goldman Sachs.

Cindy Sheehan says Nancy Pelosi owns half a million bucks in AIG.

Who else is holding stock in these companies? How much?

Who's best interests are being looked after?

[Virginia Dare]

1. They do, and it's public information...

edited to add a link:

http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/index.php

[paparush]

2. Can you point me to where I might find this info?

[Virginia Dare]

3. Did, edited my reply opensecrets!...

a treasure trove of info!!!

[paparush]

4. Awesome. Thanks!

[KharmaTrain]

5. Many Times You Don't Know....

If you have a portfolio, there's a damn good chance you don't know exactly which stock, bonds or funds its tied into. This is especially the case if you're invested in mutual funds and managed accounts where stocks are moved in and out all the time. For years, many of these portfolios were heavy in bank, insurance and real-estate funds since they were cranking in higher interest than many other funds. Did they know if these funds were with AIG or Fannie Mae or Lehman Brothers or Chase? Probably not...all they looked at was the bottom line and what was making money and what wasn't.

I've been against the bailout, but not because I want to soak the rich. I'd prefer to see these large corporates go down...and then have their assets redistributed and then we talk about a "bail out". The sad fact is I know many good people who have seen a good portion of their life savings get wiped out over the past year and years of hard work and savings going down the shitter. Do you have no compassion for these people?

There's a definite problem with money influencing the political system. That will happen unless every industry in this country is nationalized...and even then there'll be corruption as to which factory gets money and which doesn't. You can't take the money out of the system...no matter what system it is. The best we can hope for is to distance the money...it's time to put some heavy restrictions on lobbyists...especially those who jump from the government and lobby their old bosses.

[Virginia Dare]

6. I think probably about the only good that will come from this..

is that the era of deregulation is dead. You're right though, no real change can happen unless K Street is dismantled from top to bottom. The problem is there is virtually no distinction between K Street and Capitol Hill anymore. It's kind of like thos mutual funds you're talking about. Revolving door.