04.09.2024

British tabloid needles woke Boston | Mass. congressman’s Wall Street trades draw scrutiny | Our slumping local construction market | Glimmers of a NE nuclear revival | Contrarian Boston draws praise | Ed reform in deep trouble |

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Fortuitous timing: Cape Cod congressman dumps Boeing shares just before nose dive in embattled jet maker’s value

U.S. Rep. Bill Keating oversees the nation’s military affairs and spending from his perch on the powerful Armed Services committee.

So what in the world is Keating doing buying and selling shares of Boeing, which, along with making commercial airliners, is a major defense contractor?

A spokesperson for the long-time Democratic congressman, whose district extends from Provincetown to New Bedford, told Contrarian Boston in an email that the trades were made on Keating’s behalf by the manager of his retirement account, which he declined to name.

However, the timing of the Boeing stock trades in Keating’s account were golden.

Massachusetts Congressman Bill Keating

The manager of Keating’s retirement account snapped up between $15,000-$50,000 in Boeing shares in mid-September, Raw Story reported, citing required congressional stock trading disclosures.

Keating’s mystery account manager then sold a similar amount of stock - the exact amount is not listed - on Feb. 8, followed by another sale of between $1,000-15,000 in Boeing shares on Feb. 28, according to Capitol Trades, which tracks congressional stock sales.

Since that first sale on Feb. 8, Boeing’s stock price has plunged nearly 13 percent to $181.56 as of the close of markets earlier this week.

The head of Boeing’s 737 Max program was given the ax on Feb. 21. Then the FAA, on Feb. 28, gave the aerospace giant 90 days to address "systemic quality-control issues.”

Still, you wouldn’t have to be a Wall Street wizard - or have any special insider knowledge - to realize that by early February that Boeing was in trouble and that it might be a good idea to bail.

In a terrifying midair accident on Jan. 5, a door plug blew off a Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft on an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland.

Keating’s spokesperson said the congressman “does support a ban on member trading” and is a co-sponsor of Rep. Spanberger’s TRUST in Congress Act.

That proposal would require members of Congress and the family members who live with them to put their investments in a qualified blind trust, effectively preventing them from buying or selling individual stocks.

Sounds strong, but then again, concerns have been raised that Congress might later redefine what it means by a “blind trust” and weaken the restrictions.

Who knows when or if that will pass.

In the meantime, the good congressman could put his money where his mouth is and instruct the manager of his retirement account to refrain from buying individual stocks, especially in the defense sector that he helps oversee.

The public strongly supports banning members of Congress from trading in individual stocks, Evan Charles Lewitus, a research analyst at the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation's Research Analyst, tells Contrarian Boston.

Strong majorities of both parties favor requiring members of Congress to either swap their individual stocks for mutual and index funds, or put all their investments in a blind trust, Lewitus said, citing polling conducted by the UMD program.

“The public feels that having an incentive to possibly engage in some type of making our own finances better at the expense of the public is not a risk worth taking,” Lewitus said.

A new spin on local news: Spunky British tabloid takes aim at Boston city councilor for eyebrow-raising remarks on slavery reparations

That would be Julia Mejia, whose comments at a recent Harvard panel discussion caught the eye of the Daily Mail.

The “Massachusetts council woman,” as the conservative British tabloid somewhat confusingly dubbed her, “slammed Boston as the 'most racist city in the country.’”

Sounds like just another day at the Boston City Council.

And Mejia’s proposal for “a $300,000 maternity clinic for 'birthing people’” also proved irresistible to the tabloid, as well as the $15 billion reparations price tag that has been bandied about by activists.