Nancy Pelosi Plays the Market—And the System

Nancy Pelosi’s Trading Skills Would Make Wall Street Blush

Nancy Pelosi and her husband raked in millions from the stock market last year—again. According to a New York Post article, the Pelosi household netted somewhere between $7.8 million and $42.5 million in 2024, with a return of 54%.

To put that in perspective, the S&P 500 gained around 24%. Hedge funds? Most couldn’t keep up. But Nancy? She’s out here turning congressional briefings into Wall Street cheat codes.

Nothing suspicious about that, right?

A large chunk of the couple’s fortune has come from a sizable stock portfolio and timely trades, all done in Paul Pelosi’s name.

The former House Speaker, who’s so infamous for trading Missouri Rep. Josh Hawley named a bill after her, and her husband dumped 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock worth an estimated $2.2 million in July — one of their largest sales in three years — a few short months before the FTC announced an antitrust investigation into the tech giant.

They also sold 2,000 shares — worth an estimated $525,000 — of Visa stock, less than three months before the credit card company was hit with a DOJ monopoly lawsuit. – New York Post

Legal? Sure. But Let’s Talk About Legal-Adjacent

Technically, Pelosi and pals are following the STOCK Act, which, for the record, is the most toothless piece of legislation since Congress congratulated itself for fixing inflation by printing more money. It states that members of Congress can’t use non-public information to trade. But the penalties? A couple of hundred bucks if you file late. Oh no! Not her lunch money!

Pelosi’s trades? All filed on time. But here’s the kicker: many of them just happen to be perfectly timed. Her husband bought Nvidia right before the AI boom. Sold Visa right before the DOJ opened an antitrust investigation. These aren’t just lucky guesses. This is either supernatural foresight or well-informed intuition from someone who’s been in the room where it happens for decades.

But they’re all doing it, so it must be okay, right? Turns out conflict of interest is just another bipartisan investment strategy.

BREAKING :

Marjorie Taylor Greene just bought more stocks

~ $15K of Netflix $NFLX
~ $15K of Service Now $NOW
~ $15K Snowflake $SNOW
~ $15K of Applied Materials $AMAT
and more

She’s now filed ~$3.15M of trades YTD pic.twitter.com/Ck0zbSuHGf

— Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker (@PelosiTracker_) June 19, 2025

The Pelosi Act: You Know It’s Bad When They Name It After You

Yes, there’s a bill literally called the PELOSI Act—because her stock picks are that infamous. It would ban individual stock trading by members of Congress and their spouses. You know, to keep lawmakers from acting like they’re running E-Trade out of their Senate offices.

Even Pelosi, who once dismissed these calls with a wave of her perfectly manicured hand, has now mumbled something about transparency. Sure, Nancy. We believe you. Right after we believe the DOJ is apolitical, and Hunter’s laptop was Russian fan fiction.

Trust Is the Real Loss Here

Is this legal? Apparently.
Is it ethical? Absolutely not.

Does it make the average American feel like the whole system is a rigged Monopoly board where we’re all stuck on Baltic Avenue while Nancy builds hotels on Park Place? You bet.

Most Americans support banning lawmakers from trading individual stocks—because, frankly, the whole thing stinks worse than a two-week-old Pelosi press conference.

Pelosi’s net worth didn’t balloon from her salary. It grew because the rules don’t apply to the ruling class the way they apply to you. Whether it’s “legal” isn’t the right question. The real question is: How long are we going to pretend this isn’t corruption in pearls and a pantsuit?

And by the way—where are all the “No Kings” protestors on this? Or does the monarchy only matter when it’s red-hatted?

If this is what public service looks like, sign me up for the grift. But for the rest of us stuck outside the Capitol cloakroom, maybe it’s time to stop shrugging and start demanding actual reform. Because if Congress won’t stop cashing in on their own corruption, the least we can do is stop pretending they serve us.

Feature Image: Nancy Pelosi/Gage Skidmore/Flickr/License CC BY-SA 2.0/edited in Canva Pro

The post Nancy Pelosi Plays the Market—And the System appeared first on An Americanist.