GameStop: A very modern fable
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The inside story of how the WallStreetBets forum on Reddit took on Wall Street, sending shares in the struggling retailer GameStop skyrocketing… until they crashed back to earth.
Content warning: strong language and mentions of suicide.
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Guests:
- Caitlin McCabe, financial markets and retail trading reporter for the Wall Street Journal.
- Richard Fletcher, business editor, The Times.
- Simon Dixon, co-founder of Banktothefuture.com and an investment banker.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips used: WSJ, CNBC, CBS, Sky News, CNN, Bloomberg, Twitter, YouTube, Hollywood Life.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It started with a few posts in an online chatroom. Within weeks, it was a global movement |
| 0:13.0 | shaking the stock market. |
| 0:16.0 | Anyone on Wall Street really knows Wall Street is like, I can't believe this was possible. |
| 0:20.0 | It seemed to defy logic. |
| 0:23.0 | How did a chain of video game stalls become the centre of frenzied speculation around the world? |
| 0:31.0 | Video game retailer GameStop has set to continue their head spinning ascent today. |
| 0:36.0 | Is this a new front in the culture war? |
| 0:40.0 | What made thousands of ordinary people take on the might of the hedge funds, |
| 0:45.0 | inflicting billions of dollars of losses along the way? |
| 0:50.0 | It's a David versus Goliath short term, but David can get wrecked in this as well |
| 0:55.0 | and end up losing a lot of their funds. |
| 0:57.0 | As the share price of GameStop came tumbling back down again, |
| 1:01.0 | was this just a blip? |
| 1:03.0 | Or has it changed Wall Street for good? |
| 1:06.0 | We are taking down these Wall Street fuck, greedy, bank, pig, |
| 1:10.0 | I don't give a fuck if I lose it all. |
| 1:12.0 | I just want this hedge fund manager piece of shit. I just want him to lose. |
| 1:17.0 | Just a warning, today's episode is about the markets |
| 1:21.0 | and it will contain some financial terminology which will try to explain as we go along |
| 1:27.0 | and some profanity which we won't. |
| 1:31.0 | You're listening to stories of our times from the times and the Sunday times. |
| 1:35.0 | I'm Manvina Rana, today GameStop, a very modern fable. |
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