Letter writer: Ban ALL trading

Bruce Bennett's letter to the editor, and the two congressional candidates' response thereto, prompted me to write a story that explored Democratic Rep. Bill Owens' and his Republican challenger Matt Doheny's respective opinions on the matter, and the fact that the two men have a lot at stake in the market.

What'd Mr. Bennett think about the solutions that Mr. Owens (passing the STOCK Act) and Mr. Doheny (passing the RESTRICT Act) proffered?

Not good enough.

Mr. Bennett suggests banning all stock trades among members of Congress and their staff.

The solutions that Mr. Owens and Mr. Doheny have offered would essentially specify that insider trading is, in fact, illegal for members of Congress and it would, to varying degrees, up the ante on financial disclosures (RESTRICT more than STOCK). But neither would present an outright ban on trading stocks.

Food for thought.