The GameStop Bubble and the Capitol Hill Show
On January 1, the stock price of the bricks-and-mortar video game retailer GameStop (stock symbol: GME) was idling at less than $19 a share. Then the stock swelled into a giant bubble, becoming for a time the most traded stock on the planet and reaching, on January 28, an interday high of $483, an increase of more than 2,500 percent. Then the stock fell back to earth again, closing at a mere $40 on February 19.
Along the way, the GameStop parabola received enormous attention, as accusations flew about market manipulation. And so it was inevitable that Congress would get involved.
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That involvement came big time on February 18, when the House Financial Services Committee, chaired by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), convened a hearing, given a showy title in advance: “Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide.”
