The real problem isn't stock trading, it's insider information—and we already have laws against that. A blanket ban treats every public official like a criminal, which is both unfair and unnecessary. If someone has access to non-public info that affects a specific company, they should recuse themselves or put the stock in a blind trust. That's a targeted fix. But banning all individual stock trading punishes the honest majority for what a few bad actors might do. Plus, think about who we're recruiting. Do we want a government full of only the wealthy who can afford to park everything in index funds, or people who’ve built real careers and savings? Ordinary stock ownership is how many middle-class folks invest for retirement. Forcing them to dump everything into funds just to serve feels like a loyalty test, not ethics reform. Disclosure works. Enforce that, and the sunlight does the heavy lifting. A ban is just political theater.

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