One of the funniest things I know is that Martha Stewart has spent more time in jail than her BFF Snoop Dogg. The reason was because she engaged in insider trading. We had an insider trading scandal with members of Congress during Covid. Most- but not all - of the apparently guilty were Republicans, but the idea that someone like Nancy Pelosi may have used some insider information about the economy in general to make investment decisions was treated as a scandal. It probably helped sink Kelly Loeffler in her Georgia Senate campaign.
We are getting some REALLY juicy insider trading stories running below the surface. This one is crazy.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick used to run Cantor Fitzgerald, a notably mercenary Wall Street law firm. His crotch spawn "runs" it while he's in government "service." Now we have news that Cantor Fitzgerald has been buying tariff refund futures. Basically, if DynaCorps paid $40 million in tariffs and the tariffs are ruled illegal, the government would have to refund that money. Cantor is going in and buying that future refund at about 20% of its' worth. They pay $8 million today against $40 million if the tariffs are illegal.
The tariffs are illegal.
Still, the bullying nature of the Trump Administration means that companies cannot be sure about retribution or simply ignoring the Supreme Court if it rules according to the letter of the law. This presumes the corrupt SCOTUS still cares about the letter of the law.
As hedges go this seems normal. The fact that it's Lutnick is just brazenly corrupt. It might not be the most corrupt thing to happen this week, but it would be the most corrupt thing to happen under almost every American president.
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