congress i want to tell you about one you may rarely if ever think about. why are lawmakers allowed to trade stocks in individual companies and write the laws to regulate those companies at the same time? case in point, as the pandemic started in early 2020 several senators came under scrutiny for selling millions of dollars in personal stocks before covid shutdowns tanked the markets. their stocks were dumped around the time senators were getting private briefings about the severity of the virus. in short they knew stuff we didn't. and they acted on that privileged information for their personal gain. anywhere else wouldn't you call that insider trading? now, most people shrug this type of thing off as the kind of soft corruption in washington that's unlikely to change in any meaningful way. but some people are starting to pay more attention to this including some politicians who think banning members of congress from trading stocks is an issue where good politics and good policy align. now, currently there's a weak law in place. it's called the stock trading on