Elon Musk is now worth $230 billion—as much as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett combined, and he has even surpassed Jeff Bezos. But, hey, a billion here, a billion there, why quibble? What was not mentioned in the CNBC piece is Elon Musk’s secret? Taxpayer money. His two companies that helped him to achieve that status – Tesla and SpaceX – “together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support (subsidies),” according to the LA Times.

 

Considering that it’s lawmakers who decide who gets what, many of them have coincidentally done quite well picking stocks, even though we know that insider trading is illegal – at least for the rest of us. Still, congress is required to disclose their stock transactions. According to NPR, the “STOCK Act is a law that was passed and signed in 2012, (that) requires more disclosures by federal lawmakers when they trade, they purchase, they sell stocks. It also criminalizes trading on inside information.”

Did we mention that many, many members of Congress are coincidentally great stock pickers?

 

Enter TikTok and note: TikTokers Are Trading Stocks By Copying What Members Of Congress Do. As NPR reported, “Among a certain community of individual investors on TikTok, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stock trading disclosures are a treasure trove. “Shouts out to Nancy Pelosi, the stock market’s biggest whale,” said user ‘ceowatchlist.’

“NPR reported how Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr privately warned a small group of well-connected constituents in February 2020 about the dire effects of the coming pandemic. He sold up to $1.72 million worth of personal stocks on a single day that same month…Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois, is part of a bipartisan group of House and Senate members who have introduced legislation banning lawmakers from owning individual stocks. He has run up against a lot of opposition to the idea.”

Can’t imagine why.

It’s Pelosi’s husband’s portfolio, but she’s required to disclose nonetheless and nothing to see here and, yes, same Nancy Pelosi who visited a hair salon for indoor service – sans mask – at a time when it was not available to the general public.  We always suspected that she had information that the rest of us didn’t and considering her family’s stock portfolio, we don’t believe that we’re wrong.

 

The TikTok audience tends to skew younger, so it’s many first-time investors who are cashing in by following some of posters. It’s always nice when one can report some good coming out of social media – even if oversight committees/watchdog agencies aren’t necessarily always connecting the dots, or perhaps are simply turning their usual blind eye.

 

More importantly, gotta love the gumption of GenZ who, in case you were unaware, are the most entrepreneurial group ever to walk the planet. And nothing wrong with taking a page from the playbook of the Elon Musks et als of the world and giving it their own informed tech spin rather than devolving to the usual pure unbridled greed: they’re cashing in on government handouts. Onward and forward.