Courtesy of Pam Martens
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Chair of House Financial Services Committee
The House Financial Services Committee is showing a decidedly gutsy streak under the Chairmanship of Congresswoman Maxine Waters. No less than four hearings this month will take a deep dive into the underpinnings of an out of control Wall Street.
The kickoff begins this Thursday with the Committee’s third hearing on the wild trading action in shares of GameStop and other meme stocks. GameStop trades on the New York Stock Exchange but its trading pattern has looked more like that of a penny stock operated out of a boiler room – raising serious questions about the integrity of U.S. markets.
On January 28, 2021 GameStop hit an intraday peak of $483, bringing its run from a share price of $18.84 on December 31, 2020 — a gain of 2,465 percent for a struggling brick and mortar retail outlet that sells video games. GameStop then took a bungee plunge back to earth, leaving thousands of late-in-the-game retail buyers licking their wounds with heavy losses. Wild price action was occurring at the same time in other so-called meme stocks.
Waters has called the following people and entities to testify at Thursday’s hearing: Gary Gensler, the new Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Michael Bodson, President and CEO of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC); and Robert Cook, President and CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Here’s the short take on each of these groups, in reverse order…
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