Former White House Press Secretary Anthony Scaramucci claimed on social media that the coordinated effort to inflate the price of GameStop stocks is the start of the “French Revolution” in the business world.
As was previously covered by The Inquisitr , Wall Street was stunned on Wednesday after a large number of members from Reddit group r/WallStreetBets decided to launch a campaign to send GameStop’s stock price soaring. One of the main reasons behind the rally was that popular hedge fund Melvin Capital had shorted the stock — in other words, they would make millions should the stocks drop in value and lose millions if the stocks made gains.
Due to a mixture of both nostalgic love for the video game company and desire to hit back at the Wall Street tycoons who have made billions during the pandemic while the rest of the United States has seen the sharpest increase in poverty rates since the Great Depression, the market aficionados decided to buy en masse so that shares of the company gained more than 1000 percent of its original price.
Though it is not entirely clear why Melvin Capital was targeted — apart from the fact that it is more transparent about its shorting positions — it does appear that GameStop-gate might be the newest form of populist rebellion, Scaramucci warned.
“We are witnessing the French Revolution of Finance,” he wrote in a tweet .
The SkyBridge Capital founder pointed to both discontent with Wall Street elites as well as the easy access to the stock market as dueling catalysts for the movement. Apps such as Robinhood have not only paved the way for fee-free purchasing, but also have made investing open to all with just the click of a button.
“It’s the age of the micro investor and you better take it seriously, otherwise you’ll get taken to the cleaners,” Scaramucci added, per Bloomberg .
Other pundits also noted the novel coronavirus pandemic has created a perfect storm for such investments, as many individuals try to stave off boredom at home.
“What’s new is that an entire generation of investors is locked at home with little to do and a set of services on their phone designed to funnel them into the most extreme, most dopamine-driving financial ideas,” explained Dave Nadig of ETF Trends .
Meanwhile, the former White House press secretary — who held his job for just 11 days before stepping down — added he believed the backlash against hedge funds meant that unregulated currencies such as Bitcoin would see huge boons.
“The activity in GameStop is more proof of concept that Bitcoin is going to work,” he said. “How are you going to beat that decentralized crowd? That to me is more affirmation about decentralized finance,” he concluded.