Chipping in

Old Gatsby Wyden ("D"-"Oregon") has introduced a bill to lay a nice new 25 percent investment tax credit on U.S. companes that make semiconductors. It's called the "Facilitating American-Built Semiconductors (FABS) Act," and you can read all about it here.

Gatsby has introduced a million bills in the 107 years he's been in Congress, and usually, like most, they go nowhere. But he's the chair of the Senate Finance Committee again these days, and so his colleagues have to act interested.

A tax subsidy for chip manufacturers – such a patriotic idea! Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that in the past year and a quarter, Wyden's wife has purchased somewhere between $750,000 and $1,850,000 worth of stock in Nvidia, one of the chip companies that could potentially benefit from this new tax break?

Oh, it's just a coincidence, I'm sure. I think that at the moment, Nvidia has its chips made by contractors overseas. But it looks bad, doesn't it? This is why the spouses of members of Congress should not be playing individual stocks in the market. Folks like Elizabeth Warren would outlaw the practice. But the Wydens soldier on. The Hamptons are expensive.