Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison

"Throw Them All Out" is an exceptional book considering author Peter Schweizer's political views lean toward the right. Most of this book vehemently attacks members of the Democratic Party, but he manages to throw in some juice tidbits about the Republicans as well. And one of those tidbits just happens to be about Speaker of the House John Boehner who happens to not only display ignominious behavior, but he is indubitably a complete fraud. Just before The Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) was signed into law, Boehner knew exactly which companies stocks were going to rise because of this bill, and with alacrity he purchased stock in them. According to Schweizer, "Boehner purchased shares in Big Pharma companies (such as) Amgen, Johnson & Johnson, Forest Labs, Covidien, and Pfizer. He also bought shares in CareFusion." Furthermore, "Boehner bought numerous health insurance company stocks, including tens of thousands of dollars in Cardinal Health, Cigna and WellPoint." And get this; according to Schweizer, he made every last purchase all on the same day. The overall point is if Boehner and the Republican Party really believed that Obama Care would be disastrous for the nation then why purchase stock in companies that were going to benefit from it? This is unethical to say the least.These Congressmen are nothing more than hypocrites.The bottom line is Boehner was grandstanding to appease his Tea Party constituents, while trying not to lose his Speaker of the House position, but get this, it gets better. During the financial crisis of 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act (The Stimulus Bill) was instituted when Congress voted to bailout a number of companies such as Berkshire, and Goldman Sachs, plus Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp were also failing, all the while Billionaire Warren Buffet was there to reap the spoils.This is insider trading at its most paramount considering many House Members and Senators jumped on the bandwagon and followed Buffett's play. As for capitalist such as George Soros, Buffett and the Koch Brothers this is to be expected, but when congress engages in these transactions it's not only indecorous, it unmitigated avarice.Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) purchased a half a million dollars' worth of stock in Berkshire and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) purchased stock as well. Moreover, John Boehner along with Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico) and Congressman Vern Buchanan (R- Florida) purchased Goldman Sachs stock with the foreknowledge that their stocks would dramatically increase.The overall point of this book is that Washington is nothing more than a smorgasbord of insider trading and crony capitalism. Congress is lobbied by corporations to legislate laws that will benefit them and then Congress uses those laws as insider trading stock tips to get rich very quickly. No wonder why they fight so desperately, while spending millions of dollars at a drop of a hat to try and keep their jobs that only pays $175,000 a year. "Crony capitalism unites these politicians with a certain class of businessmen who act as political entrepreneurs. They make their money from government subsidies, guaranteed loans, grants and set-asides," In laymen's terms, earmarks and pork belly spending initiatives.Schweizer also said, "A study in `the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis' found that U.S. Senators may have missed their calling: they should all be running hedge funds." He then elaborates on the "results on 4,000 stock trades by senators." The average senator beats the market by a whopping 12% a year. Moreover, House members beat it on average 6% a year. MIT and Yale have also conducted studies demonstrating that members of Congress beat the market by at least 5% a year. "Members of Congress seem to benefit as investors from knowledge of companies to which they are politically connected (and particularly those headquartered in their districts), and they appear to take advantage of this knowledge by investing disproportionately in those companies."Schweizer wags his finger at Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Secretary of State John Kerry, accusing them of this unethical conduct. I suggest reading the book for details.The overall point, Congressmen are "accumulating wealth about 50% faster than expected compared to other Americans." "According to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, members saw their net worth soar, on average, an astonishing 84% between 2004 and 2006." What gets me is that if we were to engage in this we would face prison time. These shenanigans allowed Congress the foreknowledge to dump their stocks holdings, which enabled them to circumvent the fallout of the 2008 financial meltdown, while most Americans got burned.This book has a lot of meat and potatoes stuff in it that indicts Washington, exposing its pernicious practices, from insider investments in energy companies due to climate change initiatives, also Congress getting their hands on initial public offering (IPO's) before they're actually offered to the public, which allows them to purchase stock early, taking full advantage of the market. This is known as insider trading and is illegal. Of course, you can recall that Martha Stewart served prison time for a lot less? And Schweizer points out that Nancy Pelosi was accused of insider trading in chapter three of this book. Read the book for details.For a book that is slightly over 200 pages, there is a plethora of information that should make you livid and inspire you to react and do something about this travesty in our country. A Washington paradigm shift needs to transpire if we're going to salvage what this country is supposed to stand for. These land deals, stock tips, corporate and banking deals are poisoning our republic. The question is; do we the people of the United States of America have a say in what really goes on anymore? It seems that politics today is nothing more than a spectators sport for people who are glued to their televisions, watching FOX News, MSNBC, CNN, and other news outlets.The many members of the U.S. Government have become rogue agents of corporate avarice ideology and they have become recalcitrant to the will of the American people. Peter Schweizer's book is a must read no matter what political ideology you lean toward. This is a cri de coeur to end the egregious abuse of this nation and to bring salubrity to Washington for once in this country's history.

"Follow the money" said Deep Throat in regards to the Watergate scandal. In author Peter Schweizer's book "Throw Them All Out" he follows the money trail of members of Congress. This book should make your blood boil. You think corruption is some under the table payout or bribe? Man, that's peanuts compared to the money making schemes that members of congress are allowed to pursue that would put the rest of us behind bars. These machinations are perfectly legal for Congress because, well, they're the ones writing the laws. "Honest graft" as Schweizer calls it. A sweet deal if you can get it, and boy, business is booming in today's federal government. The book is divided into three sections. "Congressional Cronies" focuses on the way members of Congress use their positions to benefit themselves directly. Part two, "Capitalist Cronies" concentrates on those in the business world who get some of the highest ROIs of their careers with campaign contributions that pay back billions in government largess. Part three, "Breaking the Back of Crony Capitalism" addresses proposals to curb or eliminate these clear cut conflicts of interest.Section one deals with the primary ways in which a member of Congress can enrich themselves. Insider trading, land deals and earmarks are the three major avenues for this. If a member of Congress sits on an important committee that makes a decision he knows will affect an industry or a particular company, they can buy up some stock or options before the general public knows. He gives examples of well-heeled congressmen such as John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi moving hundreds of thousands in and out of trades with impeccable timing. If any of us did this, it would insider trading. Max Bachus, ranking member of the House Financial Services committee shorted the market shortly after hush-hush meetings with Paulson and Bernanke over the '08 financial crisis. Gobbling up real estate you know the government is going to turn around and buy is a time-honored classic case of this "honest graft". Earmarks are another way to steer cash into your coffers. If you own some commercial real estate and can earmark a nice light rail to run a couple blocks away, you can greatly enhance the value of your property now that it's "public transportation accessible". He offers example after example of these kinds of deals.The second section show just how profitable contributing to campaigns really can be. Here he focuses on Obama and the shady deals for "green jobs" via the Dept of Energy. Most by now have heard of Solyndra, but the author shows this is just the tip of the iceberg. In mind-numbing detail he shows how company after company got some 8 or 9 figure loan guarantee and it just so happens the principals in the company contributed to his campaign. This then attracts other investors and the original owners can then flip it for a profit while the company may not be viable or job creating at all. Being politically connected is all that matters. The ROI on campaign contributions can be absolutely staggering and it's no wonder more and more companies engage themselves in this "crony capitalism".Part three addresses ways to combat the problem. The contents of this book were featured in a piece on 60 Minutes that is said to have led to enough outrage to force Congress to pass the STOCK act. This is a start. Unfortunately, this will ultimately be enforced by the SEC, who gets it funding from...Congress. Think they'll bite the hand that feeds them? Some of the suggestions he offers is that members should recuse themselves from votes that they may have a personal interest in as a judge might do in a case he has some personal connection to. Much clearer conflict of interest rules would also be useful instead of just pretending to take these things seriously. Right now a member of Congress can vote on legislation that benefits themselves personally as long as at least ONE other person also benefits. Hardly a serious restriction.My major criticism of the book is that this author, who is a member of the conservative Hoover Institute and who has written other books critical of liberals, mostly focuses on members of the Democratic party for his more intense scrutiny. This is a shame since the author's clear message is that they're all doing it and have been for years. But his lopsided choice of people from the other side of the aisle to investigate will undoubtedly cause many on Team Blue to dismiss this as a partisan hack job.He writes "Crony capitalism favors the politically active, and the manipulative. It does not favor one party over the other. It does not care about policy. It just knows how to make money off any policy--your tax dollars, leveraged to the rich". Absolutely true, I just wish he would've shown more examples of this behavior from the GOP. We get some token references to John Boehner and others, but not much of the deep investigation as the Dems receive. I suppose it can be partly explained by the fact that it's concentrating on a legislative and executive branch heavy in Democratic leadership in the period of 2008 to present day, but he's not going to escape the inevitable "Red Team vs Blue Team" partisan squabbles over this book's contents. He should have balanced this with more dirt on the Republicans that is certainly out there.But in spite of this oversight the actual investigative journalism that went into this is really superb. The book is well documented with footnotes for all sources. He appears to have done some tireless work exposing the sometimes difficult to track transactions that members of Congress really would rather you didn't know while they pretend to be fighting for the taxpayer.I got this in the Kindle edition and had no problems with the electronic version.

Describing the ever worsening corruption amongst the political persons in Power anywhere in the USA... The scary truth of how they become millionaires misusing the trust built into their positions in any possible way.

Came quickly, good value, as described.

EXCELLENT

very good factual book

Have not read it yet but delivery and quality were good. I liked the other books that I bought from same author for their authenticity and I like knowing a few facts behind government functions. We can't get anything worthwhile in the news anymore and not much serious investigative journalism so need to keep buying books in order to stay informed of what's going on behind the scenes.