Yellen’s Concern About GameStop Trading Is Misplaced
If policy makers want to protect investors and markets, they should help unsophisticated investors get savvier rather than put gates around all retail investors.
Photographer: Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times/Bloomberg
Lawmakers and regulators are in danger of learning the wrong lessons from the GameStop Corp. saga, but it’s not too late to correct course.
The showdown between hedge funds and retail investors on Reddit is getting a lot of attention in Washington. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with the top U.S. financial regulators on Thursday, including heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which is the central bank’s eyes and ears on Wall Street. Two House and Senate committees have also promised to conduct hearings.