GameStop Hearing Exposes a Sick Business Model Destined to Exacerbate Wealth Inequality in America

Photograph Source: Jim.henderson – CC BY-SA 4.0. Article by Pam Martens – Russ Martens. CounterPunch – February 24, 2021.

GameStop Hearing Exposes a Sick Business Model Destined to Exacerbate Wealth Inequality in America

The most striking revelations in yesterday’s House Financial Services Committee hearing on the wild trading action in New York Stock Exchange-listed shares of GameStop came when Congresswoman Cindy Axne of Iowa questioned Vlad Tenev, the CEO of Robinhood, the trading app being increasingly used by young people to trade stocks and options on their mobile phones.

GameStop is the brick-and-mortar video game retailer whose stock soared from $18.84 on December 31 of last year to an intraday high of $483 on January 28 – an unprecedented run of 2,465 percent in four weeks by a struggling retail outlet. Following the spectacular run, GameStop’s share price then quickly plunged back to earth, making its stock chart look like something you would see from a boiler room operation rather than a New York Stock Exchange-listed stock. GameStop’s closing price yesterday was $40.69. […]

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