I just have to do it. Tomorrow begins my writing marathon and I don’t imagine I’ll have the time or the energy to write about some of the other things that matter to me so though I’ve already posted a piece today, I need to get this off my chest.

I’m making a prediction about a particular phrase that we’re going to be hearing a lot in the future — many people are going to do things that the Press will report as not-illegal. Maybe the first instance of the usage will occur in descriptions of the new President’s financial dealings.

You see, given the fact that it’s illegal to trade with insider information it seems to me that Trump’s Twitter habit positions him to make a clever end run around the Stock Act.

Don’t underestimate the man; ignorant yes, dull as well. And brutish but he can understand how to carry out instructions. And he’s just smart enough to saddle up with some evil clever ones who can help him with the finer points of things that might be too complex for him to see clearly and manage on his own. So he has nominated Vincent Viola to be his Secretary of the Army. Viola is currently the Executive Chairman of Virtu Financial, the private corporation he founded and where he made most of his billions.

Virtu Financial is one of those new High Frequency Trading (HFT)companies that inhabit a zone between legality and illegality. HFT was made possible by modern computer systems and the laws need some serious updating to catch up with their methods. Legal authorities and scholars are trying to figure out which of the existing regulations – insider trading is one possibility – can be updated and amended to control HFT. Some say the real danger is the inherent propensity of this kind of trading to cause markets to crash. It’s irresponsible to trade that way they say. We all know what the new Pres will say to that –

“Losers!”

And with Viola to help his dealings, he will be able to use his Twitter account to enrich himself and his new winner cronies in ways that are one or two steps ahead of the law and consequently untouchable. Think about it. He tweets some shit about say, Boeing. Now that’s public info that he could simultaneously share with his trading partner who then uses his HFT organization to make money off the effect of the Presidential Tweet on the market. That would be completely not-illegal. You can’t be charged with insider trading for information that’s been made public. But you can still make money on it. Trump is going to love it; makes sense, his insisting that he’s going to be  the Twitter President.

Finally he sees a way to become as rich as he already boasts! And it’s … you got it …

Not-illegal!

That phrase is going to become one of the catch phrases of the next four years … at least.