The people who manage to make half my paycheck evaporate each year - the US Congress - is investigating a private individual - Martha Stewart - for selling 4,000 shares - almost - of stock.And the saddest part is, if somebody out there actually has the sense to sell a hyped-up stock, perhaps they should be calling her before a Joint Session to tell America how we can copy her.Politicians may rail against "dishonesty" on Wall Street, which was essentially bought and paid for by the tax code, through 401k legislation.Meanwhile, politicians are themselves such evil liars, that we can't even trust them to administrate a law that woudl regulate their own lying.MP

You sound surprised, but I would think that you of all people would expect this kind of behavior to be endemic in a system like the corporate and political United States.I always say, if you put people in a system that provides incentives for a certain type of behavior, you should not be surprised when you observe that behavior.

And the saddest part is, if somebody out there actually has the sense to sell a hyped-up stock, perhaps they should be calling her before a Joint Session to tell America how we can copy her. >>If it was Martha's sense that caused her to sell the stock, then everyone will cheer her.If Martha sold a hyped up stock, because some guy she slept with hyped and sold a worthless security and let her in on the scam, people will not cheer her.Without guessing how close the truth is to either of the extremes above, I do think there is such a thing as fraud. Insider trading sometimes amounts to being a knowing but passive participant in a fraud, that is you collect the profits (presumably in return for some consideration) but don't personally promote the fraud. This is the sort of insider trading at issue here. At the least, people who do this should disgorge the profits, and I see a good case for further penalties.But Martha's biggest moral crime is to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia shareholders. She arranged for them to pay the premiums on a $120 million life insurance policy. Martha in jail for insider trading is clearly worse than Martha dead from MSO shareholders. So risking jail for $43,000 was a betrayal of their interests.If she is innocent of insider trading, she did almost everything possible to disguise that fact. It calls into question how well she protects the inside information of her company.I don't think politicians, as a class, are any more "evil liars" than anyone else. But maybe you don't like anyone.

If there was fraud, Martha was able to see through it sooner than everyone else.The first incremental information, a few days sooner, may not sound like a lot.But every river starts as a trickle. And grows like a plant.Every incremental dollar Martha makes, she can plough back into getting more information sooner.Eventually, you peel every opaque stream back to the source, and the entire universe...MP

If the guy who creates the fraud tells you about it ahead of time, it's not "finding out about it sooner" it's "participating."

I envy you in the US seeing the Saturday Night Live skits this weekend about Martha in jail.