Public trust in government is low . No wonder.

Corruption is commonplace among the nation’s elites. It starts right at the top, with President Joe Biden and his family. The president's son Hunter earned large sums of money from foreign entities just because of his name. Hunter Biden , an acknowledged cocaine addict — possession of cocaine is a crime — traded for years off his father’s name. During that time, good old Joe was silent about his son’s activities. The necessary question: Did Hunter transfer money to his father?

The appearance of corruption is strong.

Then we have former President Donald Trump . Whether or not Trump should have been charged with a felony over paying hush money to a porn star is an open question . It is clear, however, that paying hush money is dishonest behavior reflective of corruption. Perhaps most egregiously on the matter of Trump’s corruption, as a gambling entrepreneur, he brought his gambling companies public when the companies were excessively leveraged. Four Trump casinos went bankrupt. Trump walked away smiling. He made millions. Investors in his companies lost their investments . Such activities are the epitome of public corruption.

Corruption is also rampant among members of Congress. In a 2021 report, Business Insider found that 78 members of Congress failed to comply with the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, which is known as the STOCK Act. The STOCK Act requires prompt disclosure of trades in equities by members of Congress or close family members. Members of Congress break the law. They are not penalized, but they are corrupt.

More egregiously, when members of Congress were briefed in secret on the virulence of COVID-19, some members of Congress sold stock . They traded on inside information. Those members engaged in corrupt activity. They escaped penalty. The problem extends. Board governors of the Federal Reserve System and the presidents of the regional banks of the Federal Reserve System possess proprietary knowledge about the state of the economy. Recently, two regional presidents had to resign because of impropriety regarding trading in their personal financial assets. Trading on that nonpublic information was a clear violation of their fiduciary duty to the nation.

Top line: Public corruption is embedded in American politics. It is no wonder that trust in government is so low. America’s political elites behave as if the assets of the nation are ripe for picking.

James Rogan is a former U.S. foreign service officer who later worked in finance and law for 30 years. He writes  a daily note  on finance and the economy, politics, sociology, and criminal justice.