The practical reality is that banning stock trades doesn't eliminate conflicts of interest, it just drives them underground. If an official can't buy or sell individual stocks, they'll park their money in blind trusts, let a spouse trade, or shift to crypto, real estate, and private funds. That leaves us with less transparency, not more, because the holdings become impossible to track. I get the impulse here, but insider trading laws already exist. The real fix is rigorous disclosure, aggressive recusal rules, and real enforcement when someone crosses the line. We don't need to treat every public servant like a felon waiting to happen. And honestly, the ban would scare off good candidates. Plenty of qualified people have built their careers in investing or business, and making them liquidate everything at a huge tax and market cost just to serve a term in government is a massive deterrent. We should want smart, financially literate people in public office, not just the ones who are too broke or too old to care.

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