Invest like a Congress member

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2024

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

There are some new funds that track stock trading by members of Congress and their family. So we thought, why don't we get in on that? Today on the show, we crack open the Planet Money Investment Jar to learn more about how our political leaders play the market, investing in funds tracking Democratic and Republican stock trades.

Whether Congressional stock trading should be limited is a hotly debated matter. So to test whether lawmakers are beating the market, Dartmouth College economist Bruce Sacerdote and his co-authors pitted lawmakers' stock picks against reindeer at a Christmas-styled theme park.

Trust us for this ride! It'll all make sense with some intriguing results.

Related listening:
Stock traders are trying to beat the market — by copying lawmakers
WTF is a Bitcoin ETF? (Apple / Spotify)
Planet Money's Toxic Asset
Planet Money Summer School: Investing

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:03.0	This is the indicator from Planet Money.
0:13.7	I'm Whelan Wong.
0:14.7	And I'm Darren Woods.
0:15.9	And we have NPR's congressional correspondent Deidja Walsh
0:18.9	with us today.
0:19.7	She's dialing in from the House of Representatives.
0:22.2	Hi, Deidja. Hey there. Deidja, the House of Representatives. Hi, Deirdre.
0:23.0	Hey there.
0:24.0	Deirdre, the stock market is on a tear right now,
0:26.0	and you reported this story that caught our attention
0:29.0	about a company that partnered with the financial firm Subversive
0:32.0	to allow everyday people to invest like... that partnered with the financial firm Subversive
0:32.6	to allow everyday people to invest
0:34.7	like members of Congress.
0:36.5	Right, so this was initially created
0:38.5	by a trader who calls himself unusual Wales.
0:41.6	Love the name.
0:42.1	He has created two separate EDFs.
0:45.0	Exchange traded funds.
0:47.0	Right.
0:48.0	That are modeled on the trades by members of Congress.
	...

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