Jeffrey A. Miron

 February 12, 2012 -- One side effect of the 2008 financial crisis has been renewed attention to the ban on insider trading. This ban dates to 1934, when it was adopted in response to the Great Depression and the stock market crash of 1929; Congress and various Supreme Court decisions have strengthened the ban since.  In recent years the Securities and Exchange Commission has pursued several high-profile insider cases, such as that of Raj Rajaratnam, and Congress appears likely to ban “insider” trading by its own members.