Home › Topics › Government › Government ethics › Public office and private gain › Public office should not be usable for priv… › Barring members of Congress and the preside… › Linkage: If it were true that: “Trading on a closed briefing is almo…
Linkage
If it were true that: “Trading on a closed briefing is almost impossible to prosecute, so the only rule that can actually be enforced is one that does not require proving what an official knew”, it would significantly strengthen the conclusion that: “Barring members of Congress and the president from owning or trading individual stocks would reduce the use of public office for private gain” 0.50
Linkage ArgumentsLinkage scores →
Reasons to agree that X bears on Y
| # | Reason (pattern) | Truth | Conf | Link | Imp | Uniq | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NecessityIf intent cannot be proven, no intent-based rule can bind, and only a status rule is left. | 0.50 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.50 | 1.00 | +0.00 |
| 2 | MechanismThe row explains why the alternative remedy is unavailable rather than merely unattractive. | 0.50 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.50 | 1.00 | +0.00 |
Reasons to disagree that X bears on Y
| # | Reason (pattern) | Truth | Conf | Link | Imp | Uniq | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | True but irrelevantUnprovability is consistent with innocence, so the row may be describing an absence of wrongdoing rather than an absence of enforcement. | 0.50 | 0.00 | 1.00 | 0.50 | 1.00 | -0.00 |
Total agree 0.00 · total disagree 0.00 · linkage score 0.50
Every reason here is about whether X bears on Y, never about whether X or Y is true (each has its own page for that). The Pattern column names the shape of the reason; the four per side are starters, not fixed content.
Check table
| 1 | Exact wording of Y, read from its page | Barring members of Congress and the president from owning or trading individual stocks would reduce the use of public office for private gain. |
| 2 | Exact wording of X, read from its page | Trading on a closed briefing is almost impossible to prosecute, so the only rule that can actually be enforced is one that does not require proving what an official knew. |
| 3 | How X bears on Y, in one sentence | If the conduct cannot be prosecuted even when it occurs, the choice is between a status rule and nothing. |
| 4 | Computed linkage score | 0.50 from 2 reason(s) to agree and 1 to disagree |
| 5 | Flag if below 0.7 (a working rule of thumb) | Flagged: the action is to find better evidence for Y, not to reach with X. |
| 6 | Bottom line, typed by the author after the tables above | Strong linkage, and the rebuttal is the most important sentence on this page. |
The five steps, answered from the pages above. Only the one-sentence bridge and the bottom line are typed.
DefinitionsThe full explanation →
- Linkage score: this page's truth score, the agree share of the scored weight here. Y's page reads it as the Link multiplier on X's row. The wiki's (A - D) / (A + D) form is 2 x this score - 1.
- The Type field changes the question. Prediction asks "if it were observed" (diagnosticity: a result both sides expect scores low). Interest makes this a bearing page: whether the row really speaks to an interest listed on its importance page. Media asks whether a work supports the conclusion at all.
- A relevance fallacy (straw man, whataboutism, ad hominem) is a reason to disagree on this page, scored like any other row. An accusation with no support changes nothing.
Where This Page Is Used
| Page | Table | As | Its truth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barring members of Congress and the president from owning or trading individual stocks would reduce the use of public office for private gain. | reasons | the linkage of a row | 0.50 |
Every page that reads this one. One claim, one home, every use visible.
Scoring EngineTruth scores →
| Quantity | Value | How |
|---|---|---|
| Reasons to agree, total | 0.00 | sum of the agree side |
| Reasons to disagree, total | 0.00 | sum of the disagree side |
| Linkage score | 0.50 | (agree + weight x starting point) / (agree + disagree + weight), starting point 0.50, weight 1.00 |
| ReasonRank | 0.0000 | how much of the site depends on this page: rank 1911 of 2173. The share of a walk that starts at the 162 beliefs and steps to the pages they read, with a 0.85 chance of stepping on each time |
| Work value | 0.0000 | ReasonRank x (1 - confidence): how much settling this page would be worth to everything above it |
| Completeness | yes | at least one scored reason on each side (an importance page: at least one interest; an interest page: both readings filled) |
Cite this page If it were true that: “Trading on a closed briefing is almost impossible to prosecute, so the only rule that can actually be enforced is one that does not require proving what an official knew”, it would significantly strengthen the conclusion that: “Barring members of Congress and the president from owning or trading individual stocks would reduce the use of public office for private gain”. Idea Stock Exchange, linkage page argu-trading-closed-briefing-barring-members, truth 0.50, confidence 28%, revision 42c8344 of 2026-10-04. The revision is what makes this quotable: these numbers move as the argument is worked on, and rebuilding that revision reproduces them exactly.
Every number on this page as data: argu-trading-closed-briefing-barring-members.json. Constants: K = 1 · UNARG = 0.5 · DEFLINK = 1 · DEFIMP = 0.5 · DEFUNIQ = 1. A reason placed under a conclusion is presumed relevant until a linkage page says otherwise; the burden is on the challenger. The neutral start for importance, the wiki's own rule.
Every value here is computed from the tables above at build time. Nothing is typed.