Anti-Smoking Senators Invest in Tobacco Cessation Drug Manufacturers

Johnson & Johnson make many, many, many products other than tobacco cessation drugs. The problem is that there will almost ALWAYS be conflicts because you are dealing with wealthy individuals that invest money in many different industries and markets.

Look at both Obama and Romney. Both had investments in negatively viewed markets/products. I believe that both were not even aware of their investments or they certainly would have cleaned them up prior to running for office. The same thing happened to Al Gore and GW Bush.

I personally have an issue with unlimited lobbying and the current structure of future "benefits".

 

there are relatively easy fixes to all this type of stuff, but since its america, we'll make it super complicated and highly politician and corporation friendly, so that'll be that.

 

Is anybody really surprised by this? Their vice seems to be greed. I think cigarettes are a lot less dangerous than their vice.

 

There are plenty of industries and situations where there are conflicts of interest and laws or policies in place to monitor them.

Make their investment decisions non-discretionary, so they have no control over them. If that's not far enough for you make them go all cash or only ETFs. If that is too draconian for them, they don't have to serve. Add absolute $ amount or % qualifiers if necessary. Eliminate corporate lobbying.

I'm not saying easy as in woila, done. I'm saying "relatively" easy, as in obvious solutions to try or paths to take that should meaningfully reduce these conflicts and/or weed out those politicians who are in in more for the money then otherwise.

 

The concept the OP is talking about is important, but this is a terrible example for this reason. J&J makes a whole slew of products, including many things that Reid and Harkin have negative relationships with (medical device tax, for example). And the full article that the OP didn't bother to post even indicates that Reid's investment is simply part of a mutual fund. For all we know, Reid simply owns an S&P 500 fund:


But according to Senate financial-disclosure records, Mr. Reid has invested between $50,001 to $100,000 in mutual funds whose portfolios include Johnson & Johnson and the drugmaker Pfizer, which also produces smoking-cessation products.

 

Simplest solution would be as someone suggested earlier: make them invest in market ETFs, so they benefit from when the economy as a whole benefits. The point is that this may actually already be the case here. If he has $50,001 invested in an S&P 500 fund, he might have approximately $0.01 invested related to smoking cessation for all we know. Smoking cessation would be a tiny portion of 1 of 500 companies in his portfolio.

Besides which, iIf he has a money in an S&P 500 fund, then he has investments both in smoking-cessation products and smoking products.

 

I don't see the conflict of interest.

 

I never believe in political corruption before, but now that I know Harry Reid has a mutual fund with Johnson&Johnson included in the lineup, I'm sold.

 

You don't see the conflict of interest between legislators pushing for increased funding to stop smoking and the same legislators investing in products that are intended to get people to quit?

This would be like missing the conflict of interest between Dick Cheney and Halliburton back in 2001 through 2003.

 

it's a mutual fund

J&J is the definition of a conglomerate model, and as others have pointed out, they have a LARGE medical devices department that would be harmed by the medical devices tax---among other things. hell, they manufacture basically everything under the sun in terms of medical applications.

 

I didn't realize investing in a mutual fund gave people the same connection as as being former CEO of a company.

 

So like when the Secretry of Defense becomes CEO of a company like Halliburton and then becomes Vice President while launching wars that benefit Halliburton? Probably a bigger deal than a $100,000 mutual fund investment.

That said, this a drop in the bucket of what goes on in Congress. 60 Minutes did a great piece on this a while back. Congressmen are constantly using confidential knowledge gained in hearings to make investments.

 

That isn't what occurred. P&G is one of the largest companies in the world with an extremely diverse product line and is a common staple in a diversified portfolio.

If Nicorette was its own company, and they had substantial investments in it, there would be a conflict of interest. Instead one invests in a company where the product accounts for about 0.2% of the company's sales, and the other invests in a mutual fund that contains that company and thus represents even less.

Combined, they have an indirect investment of Nicorette that amounts to maybe a $100 investment.

 

To be honest, there always will be. Most of these guys are wealthy, well connected, and dependent on corporations.

This instance, however is not concerning.