House Financial Services Committee chair Maxine Waters has set her sights on the Reddit community WallStreetBets amid the Gamestop stock fiasco. Waters headed up a full-on hearing in the House, in which several key players from the Gamestop situation were pressed in an interrogation fashion. Ultimately, Waters’ efforts may do nothing other than harm the “retail investor,” which means the proverbial “little guy” — regular everyday Americans.
“Roaring Kitty” also known as “Deep F___ Value” on YouTube (Keith Gill in his everyday walking life) was the primary target of Waters and the rest of the committee panel. They were trying to paint him as a dastardly mastermind behind the GameStop fiasco. A separate lawsuit against Gill says that his persona on YouTube as an amateur investor who struck gold with GameStop stock is false and that he is actually a financial professional with over 10 years of experience and several credentials. The key argument against Gill is that he gave out bad financial advice that caused people to lose money and that he intentionally pumped the stock up for personal gain. The question is, did he actually do that. And if he did, was it illegal?
When the so-called “meme” stocks like GameStop took off, the financial establishment was hit with a ton of bricks. They did not know how to contain it or what laws were broken, if any. A lot of people made tons of money and plenty of other people lost tons of money. Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports says he lost over $700,000 dollars in the fiasco. This has put pressure on the government to investigate the matter aside from the government wanting to place the genie back in the bottle themselves.
The stock market, on a high level, was not truly meant for small, retail investors buying free stocks on their phones. Major players like hedge funds and the uber-wealthy were meant to be the true movers and shakers. However, technology has evened the playing field and changed the environment around stocks into the foreseeable future. The government cannot do much at the moment aside from the dog-and-pony show of attacking people like “Roaring Kitty” in a Zoom-call House committee hearing.
SOURCES:
Maxine Waters attacks the little people on Reddit, says Congress will investigate WallStreetBets | The Post Millennial
Keith Gill, aka ‘Roaring Kitty,’ testified to Congress on the GameStop saga | Boston.com
“I like the stock:” Keith Gill AKA “Roaring Kitty” defends GameStop posts before Congress – YouTube
GameStop hearing: CEOs of Robinhood, Citadel, Reddit, Melvin Capital testify before House Financial Services Committee – The Washington Post
WATCH: Robinhood CEO Testifies Before Congress in GameStop Probe
