What Is Insider Trading?

Sure it looks fun in the movies and it is basically what started this whole Martha Stewart mess, but how many of us understand what insider trading is?

Well, there are a good deal of gray areas when it comes to the insider trading laws, much like how traffic laws are open to interpretation but can still land you in jail based on how they are interpreted.

Insider trading laws were enacted in a five-year period following the 1929 crash to combat some common abuses of the era.

Basically, it is illegal for you buy or sell shares of a company based on information that you receive from an officer or key employee of that company.

If this individual tells you, or in some other way, provides information to you that they believe will, or is commonly known to, effect share price and you then go and buy or sell shares in that company, you have then committed a crime.

Here’s the kicker. If the person telling you this information is not an employee of that company nor discloses to you that they heard this information from an employee of the company, you can buy and sell all that you want to with this information, completely legally.

If you are walking down the street and find a memo that says Microsoft is going to stop selling software and develop a new line of oven mitts, you can legally act on that information. More so, if you break into Bill Gates’s house and see this memo on his desk, you can be prosecuted for breaking into his house, but you can buy, buy, buy and sell, sell, sell, fully legally with the information that you saw while you were illegally in his home.

But, if you hear it from a Microsoft employee and you act on it before it becomes public knowledge, you can end up in jail for insider trading.

How Dems Are Bush’s Best Supporters Right Now...

I’m still trying to remain objective here, but I must say that the Democrats are doing one hell of a job of making it difficult for me.

Right now, I’m voting Bush in November, but one of the things I try to do, no matter how one-sided I am on an issue, is try to look at the other side.

I try to make sure that I do not close myself off to just hearing out one side, but make sure that I hear out both sides before making my final decision.

Now, as far as the Presidential Election goes, I keep trying to hear the Democrats out, but these jerks can’t get past their Bush-bashing to actually talk on the issues.

Now, I know the information that finally reaches me is having to go through the media filter that all news does these days, but even hardened Democrats must admit that the level of Bush-bashing is not leaving much media time for the actual issues that I would like to hear about.

I’d like to know how Wesley Clarke plans to keep my family safe amid terror threats. I’d like to know how Howard Dean is going to ensure the economy maintains its recovery. I’d like to know how in the world anyone still actually listens to Al Sharpton.

The problem is that they are too busy talking about aircraft carrier landings and presumptuous banners to get their message through to me, the voter.

So if Bush is talking about issues and they’re talking about Bush, to me, then, they’re Bush’s best supporters right now. Hey, thanks guys!

Back In 1904...

Back in 1904...

...the average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.
...only 14% of U.S. homes had a bathtub.
...only 8% of U.S. homes had a telephone.
...a 3-minute call from Denver to New York City cost $11.
...there were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.
...the maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 miles per hour.
...Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.
...California was only the 21st most populous state with a mere 1.4 million residents.
...the tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
...the average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents an hour.
...the average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
...a competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2500 per year, a veterinarian between $1500 and $4000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5000 per year.
...more than 95% of all births in the U.S. took place at home.
...90% of all U.S. physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."
...sugar cost four cents a pound.
...eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
...coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
...most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
...Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason.
...the five leading causes of death in the U.S. were: 1. Pneumonia and influenza, 2. Tuberculosis, 3. Diarrhea, 4. Heart disease, 5. Stroke.
...the American flag had 45 stars.
...Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn’t been admitted to the Union yet.
...the population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30.
...crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn’t been invented yet.
...there was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
...20% of U.S. adults couldn’t read or write.
...only 6% of all Americans had graduated high school.
...marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
...18% of households in the U.S had at least one full-time servant or domestic.
...there were only about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.
...letters could take months to travel the world. This information came to me in an "electronic" mail, "copied and pasted" by me into a "software program" on a "computer" and delivered to you via the World Wide Web that involves no paper, writing, or teamsters (who drove horses in 1904), in just a couple of seconds...try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years...