But as with other politicians who have built fortunes in the stock market, even if Pelosi and her husband did intend to illegally trade on hot tips from Wall Street connections, proving foul play remains an arduous task. Before more recent regulations came into force, Congress, following an insider trading scandal in the 2008 financial crisis, enacted the Stock Act to prevent people in power from committing foul play in financial markets. 

Yet, after Business Insider published a damning record of 63 Stock Act violations by members of Congress, this also failed to create widespread support for banning insider hijinks.

That, however, could be about to change. In mid-December last year, feeling the heat from the public and fellow Congress members, Pelosi changed her stance from rejecting a ban on stock trading — at one point saying, “we are a free-market economy. [Politicians] should be able to participate” — to enabling lawmakers to craft bills and conduct public hearings around the subject. These are now stalling, but underway.

The increasingly popular idea among Americans to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks could be the starting moment in a revival of public trust in institutions, which remains at historic lows. 

Whether or not Pelosi and other people in power are just getting lucky or have devised an insider trading ring similar to the bucket shops of the early 1900s, the damage has already been done. Until democracies figure out how to stop the powerful from profiting from their positions in both regards, growing mistrust of public institutions and those who lead them will not only continue but heighten. An outright stock trading ban, at this shaky stage, may be the only path to recuperation.

Greg Barker is an independent journalist and quant, who also writes under the name Concoda. You can find him on Substack and Twitter at @concodanomics.