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Sun 5 Feb, 2012 09:08 am
Throw Them All Out
by Peter Schweizer
Book Description
Publication Date: November 15, 2011
One of the biggest scandals in American politics is waiting to explode: the full story of the inside game in Washington shows how the permanent political class enriches itself at the expense of the rest of us. Insider trading is illegal on Wall Street, yet it is routine among members of Congress. Normal individuals cannot get in on IPOs at the asking price, but politicians do so routinely. The Obama administration has been able to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to its supporters, ensuring yet more campaign donations. An entire class of investors now makes all of its profits based on influence and access in Washington. Peter Schweizer has doggedly researched through mountains of financial records, tracking complicated deals and stock trades back to the timing of briefings, votes on bills, and every other point of leverage for politicians in Washington. The result is a manifesto for revolution: the Permanent Political Class must go.
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with Author Peter Schweizer
Q:When did you realize that so many insider trading and sweetheart land deals were going on?
A: When I first discovered that members of Congress are exempt from insider trading laws, I didn’t believe it. Then, when I started to look at their stock trades and compare them with what they were doing in office, I was stunned.
Q: What do you mean by the "Permanent Political Class"?
A: I think politics in Washington has become a business opportunity. Republicans and Democrats are not so different as you think. They work together to enrich themselves. They have designed the system to work so that they can make lots of money doing things that would get the rest of us sent to jail.
Q: What do you mean by "honest graft"?
A: When people think of politicians making money in Washington, they think of bribery and other illegal activities. That’s small potatoes. The real money is made by doing stuff that’s legal, including insider trading on the stock market and land deals.
Q: Politicians are exempt from insider trading laws? You’re kidding, right?
A: No. They write the rules, and guess what: the rules that apply to us don’t apply to them. By the way, they are also exempt from whistleblower laws. If you see your boss committing a financial crime, you can report them and you will be protected. You can’t be fired. But if your boss is a congressman? You’re toast. You are not protected.
Q: What’s wrong with politicians who trade stock? Don’t we want them involved in the economy?
A: Yes, but they are doing exactly what corporate insiders get sent to jail for doing. It’s a double standard and it’s unfair. If Martha Stewart had been in the U.S. Senate, she would have been protected.
From the Inside Flap
Politicians often come into office with relatively modest assets. As investors, they regularly beat the market and sometimes beat the most rapacious hedge funds. Even without making stock trades, they often retire rich. How do they do it?
Billionaires and hedge fund managers often make well-timed investment decisions that anticipate events in Washington. How do they do it?
When such former politicians and federal appointees as Al Gore, Dan Quayle, and Madeleine Albright decide to launch investment funds, wealthy clients sign up. Why?
Welcome to the insidious world of crony capitalism.
Cronyism exists not so much as outright bribery, using suitcases full of cash, but rather in accepted insider routes to wealth: Members of Congress trade stocks based on privileged information. They insert earmarks into bills to improve their own real estate holdings. Campaign contributors receive billions in federal grants. Nobody goes to jail.
Crony capitalism transcends party lines and has become a big business hidden in plain sight. Using personal financial information, government databases, and a team of indefatigable researchers, Peter Schweizer shines a light into the darkest corners of the system — and offers ways to overcome it. It is time to clean house.
Biography
Peter Schweizer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and is the author of numerous books, including the New York Times bestseller Do as I Say (Not as I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy. He lives in Florida with his wife and sons.
@BumbleBeeBoogie,
People have been clamoring to drain the swamp for years, but it never happens.
@rosborne979,
a well aimed tactical nuke would do the job good and proper
@djjd62,
At the very least, most are probably deserving of two terms...one in office and one in prison.
@Irishk,
Seems this guy concentrated on democrates. Does that mean that Republicans are more honest? BS.
@RABEL222,
Not sure how you come to the conclusion that he concentrated on democrats, unless of course you have read the book. But from the part quoted, I didn't get a sense that he concentrated on democrats.
@CoastalRat,
I own the ebook, and in pointing out how politicians have made politics a business (using their power, access and privileged information to accumulate personal wealth), he doesn't attach much importance to party affiliation (unless he's using certain political figures as examples).
For instance, right off the bat he examines and reports on former Speaker Dennis Hastert (remember him?), and his circumstance of entering the office with a mere $200K or so of net worth, and then putting down the gavel just seven years later with an accumulated net worth of around $11M. That's on page
two of the book. Later, he goes on to tell us just how that transpired (no need for these modern day scallawags to stuff money into a freezer -- they have the connections to 'steer of the ship of state into profitable seas' somewhat legally).
Even the most partisan among us can't ignore the title, "Throw Them
All Out".
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