David Trone, the Democrat representative from Maryland, sold somewhere between $450k to $1 million worth of multiple banks' corporate bonds on 16th February 2023. The move is especially interesting since it comes against the backdrop of the recent turmoil in the banking industry, with the Dow Jones U.S. Banks Index down over 18% this month alone.

In a prudent financial move, the Democrat representative sold shares of Citigroup Inc (C:US), Goldman Sachs (GS:US), JPMorgan Chase (JPM:US), Morgan Stanley (MS:US), and Wells Fargo (WFC:US).

The US banking system has been under a lot of pressure recently since the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley bank, the second largest bank-failure in US history. It has reminded people of the Lehmann Brothers bankruptcy 15 years ago, with some claiming the failure of multiple banks poses a huge systemic risk to the US economy.

Having said that, Janet Yellen, the US Treasury Secretary, had some words of assurance for the banks. “The situation is stabilizing, and the US banking system remains sound”, she said. While the US is not officially in a recession yet, the slowdown in the economy is apparent to everyone and it seems only a matter of time before the country enters into a recession.