Public Office, Private Wealth

by Alvin Blackshear  |  Historian & Researcher

Trust in government depends on a belief that officials serve the public rather than themselves. Any serious discussion starts by separating three things: proven corruption, which is illegal and prosecutable; legal conflicts of interest, which are permitted or manageable but risky; and appearances of impropriety, which may involve no wrongdoing yet still corrode confidence. Policy should answer each differently.

The Framers anticipated the problem. Jill Lepore's constitutional history shows their safeguards: the Emoluments Clauses, qualification rules and impeachment. But those tools were written for a smaller government and an earlier economy. Michael Lewis, from The Fifth Risk to Blockers, supplies the other half of the story: rules matter only if career officials can apply them, and ethics offices and inspectors depend on administrative independence.

These five proposals merit serious consideration.

Limiting individual stock trading. The STOCK Act of 2012 requires disclosure but does not bar trading. On July 22, 2026, the House passed the Stop Insider Trading Act, 232–198, with all Republicans and 13 Democrats in favor, according to news reports. The bill would bar new stock purchases by members and their families and require advance notice of sales. Critics say it is not a true ban because members can still sell. Democrats also objected to unrelated election provisions attached to it, including a voter ID requirement, and introduced a broader ban covering the president, vice president and cabinet. The Senate's response remains uncertain.

Mandatory Retirement at 75. The Constitution sets qualifications for members of Congress, and the Supreme Court has held that states cannot add to them. Federal judges have lifetime tenure. An age cap would almost certainly require a constitutional amendment.

Blind trusts above $1 million. Current law already allows qualified blind trusts, but critics doubt they are truly blind. A statute could set net-worth thresholds and independence standards.

Prediction-market limits. Event contracts raise insider-information concerns when officials can foresee or influence outcomes. Senators have unanimously approved restrictions on senators and their staff, and a bipartisan bill from Kirsten Gillibrand and David McCormick would extend similar limits to the president, vice president and senior executive officials. A House Republican proposal would cover members, spouses and dependent children but not White House officials. Meanwhile the CFTC claims exclusive jurisdiction over these markets, so legislation and regulation are still being sorted out.

Restrictions on foreign investments. Congress can legislate here, but the definitions of "foreign" and of covered assets are contested.

These reforms should cover all members of government, Congress, the executive branch, the judiciary, and state and local officials. Congress can reach federal officials; state and local coverage raises federalism problems. The constitutional sorting is straightforward in principle. Age and term limits likely require amendment; trading, trust, prediction-market and foreign-investment rules can proceed by ordinary legislation.

That leaves one remaining issue. A rule is only as strong as whoever enforces it, and an ethics office that answers to the officials it polices is little more than a disclosure form with a letterhead. Who would enforce these new rules?

Sources:

Jill Lepore, These Truths (W.W. Norton, 2018) and We the People (Liveright,2025).
Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again (Crown, 2020) and America: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries (Crown, 2026).
Henry Louis Gates Jr., Stony the Road (Penguin, 2019).
Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett, The Upswing (Simon & Schuster, 2020).
Heather Cox Richardson, How the South Won the Civil War (Oxford, 2020).
Michael Lewis, The Fifth Risk (W.W. Norton, 2018) and Blockers (W.W. Norton, 2026).
Ray Madoff, The Second Estate (University of Chicago Press, 2025).