U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is considering cracking the whip after the GameStop stock market rollercoaster ride.
In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, Yellen said she would meet with financial regulators on Thursday to consider steps to make sure ordinary investors aren’t burned by getting locked out of trades while hedge funds profit.
“We really need to make sure that our financial markets are functioning properly…and that investors are protected.”
The video game retailer’s stock shot up an eye-popping 1,600% in January following a social-media led campaign to boost the price at the expense of big Wall Street funds who were betting on a decline.
House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) scheduled a hearing for Feb. 18 to examine the role hedge funds played in the GameStop stock trading frenzy, joining Sen. Elizabeth Warren in seeking to determine whether U.S. capital markets are being manipulated.
Yellen says there are “tough months ahead” for the country with COVID-19 continuing to flare, making it critical that Congress pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package.
The first woman to serve as Treasury secretary, Yellen, who also became the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve, said that the legacy she seeks is passage of a coronavirus relief measure.
America faces “an economic crisis that is as serious as I have seen in my lifetime,” Yellen said. The goal, she said, is to ensure that “Americans don’t suffer needlessly.”
