Joe Doakes from Como park emails:

I’ve been thinking that donations to politicians were buying access. If some front company in Ukraine donates a million dollars to Hillary’s Haitian Relief Fund, she’ll return their calls so they can express their concerns about US foreign policy. But thinking about it more, that’s gotta be wrong. Everybody knows that system can’t work. She gets calls from all her donors, she makes no promises to any of them, just says pleasing platitudes and moves on. That’s not worth a million dollars.

They’re buying notice.

I donate a million dollars to Hillary’s fund, foundation or library, her staff notifies my staff of actions which could harm me. But not just notice, timely notice, notice given far enough in advance that I can move assets, sell stocks, transfer funds to avoid whatever new tax or regulatory scheme is coming down the pike, and far enough in advance so I can wipe my computers, like with a cloth, or at least ditch my laptop at some rural pawnshop to avoid ‘insider trading’ sanctions by regulators.

It won’t work for little guys like me. Even if I had known three years ago that St. Paul rent controls were coming, could I have positioned myself to take advantage of them (or at least, not be hurt by them)? No. Not enough cash on hand, not nimble enough in the market, not able to take advantage of the warning. But what about Blackrock or Zillow? Could they have used that knowledge to stop buying in St. Paul and concentrate on Roseville instead? Absolutely.

I wonder how long the safe harbor provision is?

Joe Doakes

Depends on what the meaning of the word “is” is.