John Authers, Columnist

Bonfire of the Shorts Is a Precedent-Busting Black Swan

GameStop was just the most public manifestation of a trend that is a radical departure from market norms.

February 12, 2021 at 5:34 AM UTC

John Authers is a senior editor for markets and Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A former chief markets commentator at the Financial Times, he is author of “The Fearful Rise of Markets.”

Nothing to see? Hardly.
Photographer: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images

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Now that the GameStop Corp. saga is showing signs of receding into history, narratives are beginning to become fixed in people’s minds. One of the most prevalent is: “’Twas ever thus. Such things happen in markets, and they always have. Nothing to see here, and certainly no justification for regulators to get involved.”