The 10 top stocks owned by Congress
Lawmakers have millions of dollars invested in these big names.
Remember all the outrage about whether General Electric (GE) paid federal taxes last year? There weren't too many complaints from Congress about that, even though the country probably could have used that money.Maybe this explains the silence: GE is the No. 1 stock investment for members of Congress, with 75 of them holding shares, according to CNBC.
The top GE investors were Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, who was in for at least $1 million, and Democratic Sen. John Kerry, who was holding anywhere from $600,000 to $1.3 million in stock.
Our elected representatives tend to favor well-known blue chip names in their portfolios, choosing tried-and-true stocks over riskier ones. Here's the rest of CNBC's list:
2. Procter & Gamble (PG)
Members invested: 62
Top investor: Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, with anywhere from $7 million to $35 million in shares held.
3. Bank of America (BAC)
Members invested: 57
Top investor: Frelinghuysen again, with around $1 million invested.
4. Microsoft (MSFT)
Members invested: 56
Top investor: Kerry, with $1.8 million to $2.55 million invested.
Microsoft owns and publishes Top Stocks, an MSN Money site.
5. Cisco Systems (CSCO)
Members invested: 56
Top investor: Kerry, with $600,000 to $1.3 million invested.
6. Pfizer (PFE)
Members invested: 51
Top investor: Kerry again, with $752,000 to $1.5 million invested.
7. Intel (INTC)
Members invested: 47
Top investor: I'll give you one guess. Kerry, with $600,000 to $1.3 million invested.
8. Wells Fargo (WFC)
Members invested: 45
Top investor: This is getting ridiculous. Kerry, with $350,000 to $765,000 invested.
9. AT&T (T)
Members invested: 44
Top investor: Kerry with $1.5 million to $2 million invested.
10. Exxon Mobil (XOM)
Members invested: 42
Top investor: Republican Rep. John Carter of Texas, with $1 million to $5 million invested.
"Why aren’t congressional members required to put all of their stock holdings into a blind trust?" asked investing researcher Barry Ritholtz after seeing the list. "Why can’t insider trading by Congressional members be banned? How can elected officials do 'the people’s business' when they are too busy running around trading on the votes they are about to cast?"
Govt. leaders prosper on their votes, should be the title to this story. This country has gone to hell. These crooks are the ones that vote on all sorts of bills, that affect businesses & corporations. Of course, their "above the law" when it comes to insider trading. I used to think latin american countries, as well as asian countries were corrupt. Hugo Chavez is no worse than these crooks we have in Washington. Face it people, most of us don't have a clue or the wherewithal to fight any of this, & they know it. They are fed inside information, they vote on bills before the general public knows the info, & they make millions on that information. Flat out thieves, of course they are "above the law", so that's the way it is.
it's time for OCCUPY WASHINGTON, to start change in this country.
As bad as tea pot dome or watergate. Any wonder why they don't want to raise taxes on rich.
With 14 million jobs lost forever, housing prices falling till 2015, and $708 trillion in worthless paper money call derivatives. If the Justice Department doesn't get a Special Investigator on this within the week, we also know who gets bribes. You decide what metal is worth more gold or lead.
then people justify the prices going up from the corporations named here.
think about this article the next time you buy something,
it doesn't even have to be from just any of these corporations listed here,
there are plenty more that have investments from our "HONEST" (so called elected officials).
MORE ON MSN MONEY
DATA PROVIDERS
Copyright © 2013 Microsoft. All rights reserved.
Quotes are real-time for NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX. See delay times for other exchanges.
Fundamental company data and historical chart data provided by Thomson Reuters (click for restrictions). Real-time quotes provided by BATS Exchange. Real-time index quotes and delayed quotes supplied by Interactive Data Real-Time Services. Fund summary, fund performance and dividend data provided by Morningstar Inc. Analyst recommendations provided by Zacks Investment Research. StockScouter data provided by Verus Analytics. IPO data provided by Hoover's Inc. Index membership data provided by SIX Financial Information.
Japanese stock price data provided by Nomura Research Institute Ltd.; quotes delayed 20 minutes. Canadian fund data provided by CANNEX Financial Exchanges Ltd.
STOCK SCOUTER
StockScouter rates stocks from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, using a system of advanced mathematics to determine a stock's expected risk and return. Ratings are displayed on a bell curve, meaning there will be fewer ratings of 1 and 10 and far more of 4 through 7.
126 | 258 | 459 | 600 | 671 | 682 | 601 | 455 | 271 | 113 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
LATEST POSTS
Try as the bears might, they couldn't break U.S. stocks. But investors still face frothy prices and considerable headwinds.
FIDELITY VIEWPOINTS
- How to sell covered calls - Fidelity Investments
- Savvy year-end tax moves to consider now - Fidelity Investments
- Seven ways to prepare for tax changes
- Five reasons an annual review is crucial - Fidelity Investments
- Take a look at mid caps now - Fidelity Investments
- State of the sector: Health care - Fidelity Investments
VIDEO ON MSN MONEY
ABOUT
Top Stocks provides analysis about the most noteworthy stocks in the market each day, combining some of the best content from around the MSN Money site and the rest of the Web.
Contributors include professional investors and journalists affiliated with MSN Money.
Follow us on Twitter @topstocksmsn.