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Saturday, January 07, 2017

House Dem Pushed Muni Bond-Friendly Legislation, Then Invested Herself

Rep. Maloney bought bonds after House approved bill that would encourage banks to buy them

A House Democrat who oversees financial markets traded as much as $1.3 million in government-backed securities in the months after authoring legislation to encourage banks to buy such securities, public records show.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.) bought and sold municipal bonds nearly two-dozen times in 2016, personal financial disclosure forms show. Her first purchase came in February, when the House passed a bill coauthored by Maloney to change federal law to encourage large banks to buy such bonds.

That legislation directed federal regulators to count investment grade municipal, or “muni,” bonds towards banks’ liquidity requirements. The House passed Maloney’s bill, which was cosponsored by Rep. Luke Messer (R., Ind.), on Feb. 1, 2016. It awaits consideration by the Senate.

On Feb. 26, Maloney began a spate of municipal bond trades totaling between $363,000 and $1.3 million. Members of Congress are only required to disclose the range of an asset’s value, making specific measures of the trades’ values difficult.

The bonds in which she traded included ones issued by the city and state of New York and local bridge, transit, and toll authorities.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As long as it was disclosed, I don't see the problem. And muni bonds are not used for capital appreciation. If she owned companies that benefited from municipal projects, now there's a smoking gun.

Anonymous said...

That was a Hillary move and se profited. Is this not inside trading. Remember Martha Stewart?