By Jasper Cox
29 Jan 2021
This week in Keeping Tabs: optimum bank capital ratios, and also that other story everyone s been talking about.
The financial industry has found itself in the rare position of being in the limelight without a major crash having occurred. It is quite a novelty.
Fixating on the trading of the so-called meme stocks, the most notable of which is US retailer GameStop, was a niche interest at the beginning of the week, but now everyone has joined in including politicians particularly after brokers including Robinhood restricted trading on Thursday.
Why has the episode fascinated so many people, and sparked conversions about purpose, fairness and manipulation in markets? A big reason is the political (with a small p) pose of many of those on the Reddit page r/wallstreetbets and elsewhere on social media celebrating the rise of the meme stocks. They portray this as a fight against not just short sellers and hedge funds, but Wall Street as a whole.