In a case perfectly timed for the legislative zeitgeist (as Congress just passed two versions of a bill to block insider trading) the head of the House Financial Services Committee faces an ethics probe over allegations of... wait for it... insider trading!

The Office of Congressional Ethics' investigation into Alabama Republican Spencer Bachus's suspicious trading is the "first of its kind involving a member of Congress," The Washington Post reports. It opened last year, before President Barack Obama called for a bill banning congressional insider trading during the State of the Union Address. But from The Post's report, it sounds like Bachus is in a unique position to make some ethically conflicted trades: "Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who holds one of the most influential positions in the House, has been a frequent trader on Capitol Hill, buying stock options while overseeing the nation’s banking and financial services industries." In fact, Bachus's trades formed part of the impetus for the anti-insider-trading bill, The Post reports, in the form of "a 60 Minutes report and a book mentioning Bachus’s trades, Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer."

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Adam Martin