Thousands of executive federal government officials reported owning or trading stocks in companies whose fates were directly affected by their agencies

This is one strong argument among others for small and limited government. More power creates conflicts of interest or worse corruption!

The demented and senile 46th President and his family clan and Anthony Fauci are probably only the tip of an iceberg!

"An analysis of more than 31,000 financial-disclosure forms for about 12,000 senior career employees found more than 2,600 officials made such disclosures. They include a top EPA official who reported purchases of oil and gas stocks and an FDA official who owned dozens of food and drug stocks on the agency’s no-buy list. U.S. law prohibits federal officials from working on any matters that could affect their personal finances. The Office of Government Ethics, which oversees the conflict-of-interest rules across the executive branch, is “committed to transparency and citizen oversight of government,” said a spokeswoman."

"To do that, the Journal collected and analyzed data on about 850,000 financial assets and more than 315,000 transactions for about 12,000 officials at 50 federal agencies between 2016 and 2021. ..."

"Across 50 federal agencies ranging from the Commerce Department to the Treasury Department, more than 2,600 officials reported stock investments in companies while those companies were lobbying their agencies for favorable policies, during both Republican and Democratic administrations. When the financial holdings caused a conflict, the agencies sometimes simply waived the rules. ..."

How WSJ Analyzed 12,000 Federal Officials’ Financial Disclosures for Its ‘Capital Assets’ Investigation The federal government doesn’t maintain a comprehensive public database of the mandatory financial disclosures of all senior executive-branch officials. So The Wall Street Journal built its own.

Six Takeaways From WSJ’s Investigation Into the Stock Trades of Government Officials Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that thousands of officials across the U.S. government’s executive branch disclosed owning or trading stocks that stood to rise or fall with decisions their agencies made.