January 3, 2017

How Trump could work the market as president

Dean Baker, Huffington Post - Actually, I don’t know that Donald Trump will take advantage of the inside information he will have access to as president, but no one knows that he won’t. And the president has access to a massive amount of inside information.

Just for beginners, the president gets advance access to the monthly jobs numbers and the quarterly GDP report. Suppose Trump finds out that the job growth in March is far weaker than the markets expected or that GDP growth for the first quarter of 2017 is surprisingly strong.

These reports would have a huge effect on the stock and bond markets. Trump could make a fortune by making highly leveraged bets just before the government reports are officially released. Or, if he doesn’t want to make the trades himself, he can pass the information along to Vincent Viola, his designee for secretary of the army, who became a billionaire running a high-frequency trading company. Apparently Viola plans to maintain a stake in his company even after he enters the government.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Don't tell me this is the first time such a thing happens in American history!!