Last Updated on February 1, 2021
White House press secretary Jen Psaki taunted populist GameStop investors at her briefing Monday, stating that the Reddit-driven short squeeze propelling GameStop stock to new heights is “under the purview of the SEC.” Psaki also said that “congressional attention” should be paid to “market volatility,” and pledged the White House’s commitment to working with Congress on financial reforms.
The GameStop Revolution, powered by the Reddit community r/wallstreetbets, is costing Wall Street short sellers billions of dollars. The hedge fund Melvin Capital bet heavily against the beloved video-game retailer GameStop. Young men of all political persuasions were outraged, so they began investing in GameStop with record small-dollar purchases. By driving up the stock price of GameStop, the populists are hurting the hedge funders who were trying to drive the stock down. The maneuever is called a “short squeeze” and it has captured the American imagination.
Asked if the Biden White House is considering working with Congress on financial reforms including possibly increasing restrictions on short selling (something the financial class definitely does not want), Psaki looked frazzled. She made it clear that the White House is looking to the Securities and Exchange Commission to handle the matter.
“Obviously this is under the purview of the SEC in terms of their review and monitoring,” Psaki said.
The SEC has made it clear that it is looking to curtail what it calls potential “abusive activity” with regard to the GameStop revolution. Reviled hedge-fund loyalists are trying to make the case that outside investors on Reddit are somehow illegally manipulating the market. But r/wallstreetbets is not afraid of the SEC, telling the regulatory agency to “eat a d-ck.”
Psaki also cited the need for “congressional attention” to the “market volatility” issue, without endorsing any kind of progressive solutions. Elizabeth Warren, who has billed herself as some kind of anti-Wall Street champion, is now showing her true colors, scrambling to run cover for hedge funds by urging the SEC to stop “market manipulation” and foil the Reddit bros.
“We think congressional attention to these issues is appropriate,” @PressSec Jen Psaki said about market volatility surrounding GameStop and other stocks pic.twitter.com/Tkk2COU40U
— Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) February 1, 2021
Psaki previously told a Bloomberg reporter that the Biden White House was “monitoring” the GameStop surge.
Meanwhile, populists on the Right and Left are banding together in an unlikely confederacy of geniuses to support the GameStop surge and keep it going. Here is Young Republican Gavin Wax in New York City railing against the elites.
https://twitter.com/GavinWax/status/1355963687501254660?s=20
