Paul Pelosi and our glorious free-market economy
I was in the neighborhood this weekend and so decided to swing by Nancy Pelosi’s red brick house in Pacific Heights to see what was going on. I didn’t see much of anything, other than a couple of cop cars and a pack of ambulance-chasing television reporters camped out across the street with their cameras and lights and lawn furniture.
This is a weird case for sure. Maybe not Basic Instinct level warped. But it has some some funny, dark characters involved — and not just the Pelosis. I mean…
DePape once lived in Berkeley with Gypsy Taub, an activist famous for protesting nudist bans, and their three kids… Taub started a talk show on public-access TV pushing the theory that 9/11 was an inside job. She was convicted of child abduction and the stalking of a teenage boy in 2021 and is currently in prison near Los Angeles…
Aside from all that, I gotta say that Paul Pelosi being a victim now — as shitty as it must be for him on a physical level — still…it must be a nice change from the usual reason why his name gets mentioned in the press: corruption and insider trading.
For years now rumors and all sorts of circumstantial evidence has been swirling in the news about Paul using Nancy’s access to privileged market-moving information — not to mention her own power to move markets, as a powerful member of Congress — to make timely and personally profitable stock transactions. This privilege, some contend, has allowed Paul and Nancy to balloon their private wealth while she’s been in office.
Sludge, the investigative outfit, has a nice summary of some of Paul more recent dealings:
On June 17, Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi exercised options he had purchased a year earlier to purchase 20,000 shares of stock in semiconductor manufacturing company Nvidia at a price of $100 per share, according to a disclosure filed by the speaker. Nvidia shares traded at between $160 and $169 the following day when markets opened.
Two days after Pelosi bought the stocks, the Senate voted to proceed to consider a bill that would provide about $52 billion in subsidies over the next five years to the U.S. semiconductor industry. Nvidia stock jumped to around $181 a share following that vote.
Trades like that have stoked suspicion that Paul Pelosi, an investment banker, may be making stock trades based on non-public information he receives from his wife, which would violate anti-corruption laws. In a July 20 letter to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) accused Speaker Pelosi and her husband of “cashing in” through what he describes as “arguably inappropriate stock trading activities.” Nancy Pelosi denied that her husband has ever made trades using information she gave him during a July 21 press conference.
Nancy Pelosi is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, and the couple’s net worth has increased rapidly over the past few years. After generally hovering near an estimated $100 million throughout the 2010s, the Pelosis’ net worth began shooting up in 2020 and by the end of 2021 had reached more than $171 million, according to Sludge’s review of financial disclosures.
In 2021 alone, the Pelosis’ estimated net worth increased by $38.9 million, the largest annual increase the couple has enjoyed in all but one other year since 2010.
What’s funny is that Paul’s chip stock buys this summer were so brazen and got so much heat that Nancy basically forced him to sell the stocks off before the chip subsidy legislation was voted in — apparently at a loss — to try to put a stop to all the insider trading “rumors” swirling around.
It’s not like Nancy Pelosi has any ethical problem with what her husband did. It’s all about perception. Fact is, she had long been against any kind of law that bans family members of elected officials (like Paul) from trading stocks. As she explained last year, a law like that that would basically unconscionable in our society. Why? Because “we’re a free-market economy” and people like Paul “should be able to participate in that.”
That’s what having a family member elected in a democracy is all about — getting to participating in the free-market! The wise words of a San Francisco progressive. Anyway, wishing Paul a speedy recovery. Lots of trades to be made.
—Yasha
A real stable genius with a plan: “The man had a plan — but he didn’t tell Paul Pelosi. He later shared it with investigators, the affidavit states. He would hold Nancy Pelosi hostage and talk to her. If she told the “truth,” he would free her; if she lied — which is what he expected — he would break her kneecaps. He figured, she would then have to be wheeled into Congress — and other representatives would learn there were consequences to actions, the affidavit said.” https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Intruder-in-the-bedroom-The-chilling-details-of-17548218.php#photo-23110070
The timing of Nan’s Taiwan excursion & Pauli’s DUI conviction & subsequent 5 day sentence in jail for failing to appear at his hearing is also noteworthy. Did he fall off the wagon when she was gone?