How big a problem is financial sleaze?

Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash

While reading the papers with my morning coffee today, I came across the NANC trading fund, which was set up to mirror the stock portfolio of former speaker of the US House of Congress, Nancy Pelosi. 

The fund captures in a nutshell why so many people are disgusted with political elites these days. 

Pelosi came to international prominence by portraying herself as a heroic vanguard against Donald Trump’s corruption and narcissism. All the while, her family was making millions on suspiciously well-informed stock trades.

Last year, her stock portfolio gained 66 percent in value thanks to investments made in Nvidia, the chip supplier fuelling the AI revolution.

In one particularly whiffy case, Pelosi's husband sold 30,000 shares in Google in late 2022 a month before the company was sued for antitrust violations. That led a Republican lawmaker to introduce the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act - or the Pelosi Act for short.

So…