50 Cent and the S.E.C.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41041141/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/

Apparently over the weekend 50 Cent used his twitter to urge people to buy stocks of a company, H & H Imports, causing it to rise in price by 290%.  Now that the stock price has gone down, I heard on CNN this morning that the S.E.C. may be investigating Mr. Jackson for some kind of insider trading maneuver.  What I don't get is why the S.E.C. wastes their time and our money following cases like this.  Robert Wenzel of Economic Policy Journal lays it out pretty well why insider trading should not be a crime.  What 50 Cent did was basically offer free publicity, he wasn't forcing anyone to purchase stocks of H & H, just recommending it.  Doesn't Jim Cramer do that on his show every night?  Isn't the point of celebrity endorsements to spur sales?   So why doesn't Troy Polamalu get investigated for endorsing Head and Shoulders in idiotic commercials?  The only reason I can fathom is that Polamalu encourages the purchase of a product while 50 Cent encouraged the purchase of stocks, both of which still correlate into a company's success.

To put it bluntly, the S.E.C.'s cat-and-mouse game with insider trading is both wasteful with our tax money and creates a more complicated business environment where more resources are dedicated to avoiding criminal charges rather than improving the company for both the shareholders and consumers.

On a more humorous note, my car finally passed the 200,000 mile mark about a month ago, so I figured now is the time to load its rear end with bumper stickers before its too late.  Keep it mind, its also about 23 years old.  I just put these two bumper stickers on yesterday:

I am still trying to figure out the whole formatting thing with pictures and posts so please bear with me.

*Update*- Charles Krauthammer's op-ed today ends with a great line in reference to Paul Krugman's reaction to Tuscon, Arizona:

"The origins of Loughner's delusions are clear: mental illness. What are the origins of Krugman's?"

John Stossel also has a good take on the call to increase security for Congressmen and women.