Congress’ wealthiest third mostly shielded from effects of recession

If you could peer deeply into how the 535 members of Congress handle their money, what do you suppose you’d find? The Washington Post has been doing just that for a series of stories on legislators’ finances and how they’re affected by their work in Washington, D.C. They’re discovering that the legislators range from the super-rich to the deep-in-debt, from inherited wealth to married wealth to no wealth at all. They are entrepreneurs and farmers, oilmen and ranchers, lawyers and real estate developers. They use a wide range of investment strategies and get varied results. Most lawmakers, but not all, have fared better than the average American during the recent recession. Contrary to many popular perceptions, lawmakers don’t get rich by merely being in Congress. Rich people who go to Congress, though, keep getting richer while they’re there, the newspaper analysis says. The wealthiest one-third of lawmakers were largely immune from the recession, taking the fewest financial hits and watching their investments quickly recover and rise to new heights. But more than 20% of the members of the current Congress—121 lawmakers—appeared to be worse off in 2010 than they had been six years earlier, and 24 saw their reported wealth slide into negative territory. Check out the entire series of articles here; and see a comprehensive listing of lawmakers’ assets here.