How Washington regulations have made Wall Street inside trading easier

Over the last decade, Washington has become one of the financial world’s new hubs. Increased regulations and oversight like Dodd-Frank, Obamacare, Sarbanes-Oxley, the EPA’s aggressive emission controls and the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now give Washington lawmakers significant sway over the financial world.

One unintended consequence of all of this is that it has made insider trading easier. With so many new rules — and those rules so often changing — Capitol Hill has created a market for information on what the latest changes are going to be. DC firms that specialize in this — called “political intelligence” — have multiplied.