Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito reportedly sold thousands of dollars worth of beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev last summer as the company was embroiled in a culture war controversy. stock.
That’s a stupid decision.
No, not because the timing of the sale suggested Alito was engaging in a politically motivated campaign against Bud Light, trying to show he was opposed to transgender rights, or any of the other artificially constructed narratives that inform media coverage of Alito Core sales of shares, first reported by Substack legal nerd. And, no, not because Alito’s (or anyone’s) decision to buy or sell a company’s stock has any moral or ethical implications. No.
The only thing we know for sure about Alito’s decision to sell AB InBev stock last summer for $15,000 is that it cost him money. Here’s why it’s a bad decision. Alito reportedly sold the stock at market close on August 14, with BUD trading at $56.35. Today, the stock is worth more than $66 per share.
I hope Alito got excited by sending this implicit message to InBev’s bosses (if that was his intention), because the opportunity cost could be a few hundred dollars.
Of course, voting with your wallet is a legal and valuable thing to do. However, I’m skeptical of the idea of voting with a stock portfolio because selling shares means giving up your rights as a shareholder and your ability to influence the direction of the company. Resisting the sale appears to be more effective than trying to drive down the stock price, which only creates opportunities for others to acquire quality shares at lower than usual prices. The market is much more powerful than keyboard warriors left and right would like you to believe.
Case in point: When conservatives started boycotting Bud Light and InBev’s stock price dropped, I bought it. I’m not doing this because I care about Bud Light (which is a bad beer that I generally avoid buying and drinking) or Malvaney, or because I want to make some contrived political point.
I do it because I want to make money. Anheuser-Busch InBev is a large, successful company. The boycott appears to be a temporary setback that will pass once conservative culture warriors—who typically have short attention spans—get angry about something else. As the saying goes, buy the dip, and that’s what I did.
Sure enough, Bud Light hasn’t disappeared from American culture—although the Mexican import Modelo recently surpassed it as America’s most popular beer, which is an interesting cultural story. (Modelo has more taste, which definitely helps.)
So does the parent company of Bud Light, which remains one of the largest and most successful producers of alcoholic beverages in the world. When I own a small piece of Anheuser-Busch InBev stock, the company’s success is mine—even if I never buy a case of Bud Light. Capitalism is so great.
(Full disclosure: I sold these shares of BUD in December, when the stock hit $65 a share, equivalent to where the stock was trading in the days before overly online conservatives got upset over the Mulvaney ad. )
Maybe Alito sold his BUD stock to complain about the company’s marketing tactics. Perhaps the trade was automated because Alito set a “stop-loss” order to sell BUD stock if the price fell below a certain level.Anyway, as national review Judging from the details, the sale does not appear to violate any judicial ethics rules.
As some have argued, does this fact tell us anything about Alito’s character or abilities as a judge? of course not. But I recommend not letting him manage your 401(k), seeing as how he sold BUD stock at the worst possible time – the stock traded well above 56 for most of the last decade Dollar.
That’s what matters most in this case. The stock market exists so that we can all benefit from the wealth created by successful businesses. Letting culture wars get in the way of this goal would be a shame and potentially costly. Let’s not do that.
