Devry Laws420H Week 7 Discussion 1 & 2 Latest 2015 October

A study published in 2004 by Alan J. Ziobrowski of Georgia State University found that U.S. senators, on average, beat the market by 12% a year. "The results clearly support the notion that members of the Senate trade with a substantial informational advantage over ordinary investors," Ziobrowski stated, noting that the law does not prohibit senators from trading stock on the basis of information acquired in the course of their work.

Wall Street brokerages, moreover, have made billions in recent years by using complex software to foretell what their large customers, like mutual and pension funds, will be doing before they do it, based on their knowledge of the customers' past behavior.

If the authorities turn a blind eye to public officials who profit from non-public information and corporate insiders who make money based on what they learn behind the boardroom doors, and if it is legal for big trading houses to take advantage of what they know about their customers' trading habits, what is the value of insider trading law?

Some have argued that seeking to benefit through ingenuity and shrewdness is good business, and good business is as important a professional trait as good medicine, good law, good education, and so forth. Do you agree?