Do lawmakers beat the market?

greatest investors? Wall Street is the obvious place to look; after all, it is home to lots of hedge-fund managers who would claim the title. Other gurus reside in Greenwich, Connecticut; some have relocated to Palm Beach, Florida; and there is at least one contender in Omaha, Nebraska. Perhaps, though, the correct answer is Washington, .Americans hate politicians-cum-stockpickers. Famous examples include Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy, the Democrat speaker of the House, and Richard Burr, a Republican senator. Some suspect their success is not solely attributable to their trading talents. An investigation by the , a newspaper, found that between 2019 and 2021 a third of congresspeople reported trades by themselves or a close family member—and half of these sat on committees where they might have gleaned pertinent information.