A Ruppersberger spokeswoman did not respond to my queries.
But I doubt that the congressman regrets selling, even though Opportunity Trust was among the top U.S. stock funds in the second quarter, gaining 46 percent, and the other funds have bounced back, too. Opportunity Trust is still down almost 40 percent from when Ruppersberger got out on Sept. 8. Value Trust is down almost 30 percent, as is Special Investment Trust.
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski also avoided pain by jettisoning Baltimore-managed funds. She sold shares in three T. Rowe Price stock or real estate funds in January 2008, putting the proceeds into safer money-market funds and missing most of the worst year for stocks since the Depression.
She sold more stock funds in late September, just before the bottom fell out. But then she dumped even more shares in mid-October at levels below today's prices.
Still, Mikulski, who frequently tries to time the market, is probably better off than if she had stood pat like Hoyer or Rep. John Sarbanes.
Sarbanes owned a chunk of the AllianceBernstein Value Fund worth $50,001 to $100,000, which lost 42 percent last year. In his favor, he owned a similar amount in the much more conservative PIMCO Total Return bond fund, which gained 5 percent.
A few years ago, only Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett of Western Maryland owned precious metals among Maryland representatives. Bartlett has been a gold bug for years, and it paid off as gold rose from less than $500 an ounce a few years ago to nearly $1,000 now. At the end of the year, his precious metals were worth $250,001 to $500,000.
But now others are joining the club.
In September, as things began to melt down, Mikulski bought stakes in two gold funds worth $2,002 to $30,000. Ruppersberger bought interest in a gold fund worth $1,001 to $15,000, as well as Treasury inflation bonds, which pay off if inflation rises.
Soaring and continuing federal deficits tend to erode the dollar's value against gold and could set the stage for severe inflation. Congress has more than a little to do with the deficits.
Let's hope Mikulski, Bartlett and Ruppersberger don't know something we don't.
