INSIDER TRADING IN STUDENT LOAN INDUSTRY: As recently reported, President Bush's budget will cut wasteful subsidies to student loan corporations and redirect the funding to Pell Grants. Finally Bush has done something progressives can cheer, though experts think he could have gone farther. Meanwhile, Albert L. Lord, chairman of Sallie Mae, sold 400,000 shares of the company's stock the week before the budget was announced. What a lucky coincidence! Now that Democrats control Congress and can actually investigate these kinds of mysterious shenanigans, it may be harder to get away with suspicious trading. And sure enough, leaders in Congress are investigating whether Lord benefited from an illegal stock tip from somewhere inside the Bush White House. Sure, this may pale next to the myriad unethical and possibly illegal actions administration officials took in the run-up to the Iraq war, from misleading Congress and the public to allegedly disclosing the identity of an undercover CIA agent. But just as Nixon was undone by Watergate, which may not have been his biggest crime, it's worth pursuing every shady action the administration tries to take.
--Ben Adler
