"Making" money from buying and selling is always a game of the bigger idiot. The system doesn't work unless there's a bigger idiot willing to pay more than something is worth, or willing to sell for less (sometimes not due to being an idiot but merely desperate... of course, they became desperate somehow...).
If they were all public trades, there would be no reason to be on anything other than the winning side, so there would be no suckers to make up the difference.
Therefore making insider trading as a congressman generally useless. There'd still be idiots to take money from otherwise, but Congress ability to do so would be extremely limited.
"Making" money from buying and selling is always a game of the bigger idiot. The system doesn't work unless there's a bigger idiot willing to pay more than something is worth, or willing to sell for less (sometimes not due to being an idiot but merely desperate... of course, they became desperate somehow...).
If they were all public trades, there would be no reason to be on anything other than the winning side, so there would be no suckers to make up the difference.
Therefore making insider trading as a congressman generally useless. There'd still be idiots to take money from otherwise, but Congress ability to do so would be extremely limited.