Expert Available: GameStop Stocks and Financial Regulation
Last week, GameStop made headlines when a group of small time investors drove up the price of its stock as hedge funds who shorted it lost billions. These developments have led many to ask about what regulations exist around the stock market and what additional regulations should be put in place. To provide analysis and perspective on these regulations, Professor Terri Friedline is available for comments.
Dr. Friedline is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan, Research Fellow at New America, and Faculty Director of Financial Inclusion at the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion. She is author of the book Banking on a Revolution: Why Financial Technology Won't Save a Broken System (Oxford University Press, 2021). Friedline's research focuses on financial system reform and consumer protections to ensure that households and communities have access to safe and affordable financial products and services. Her research has examined safety and affordability of basic banking products, racial disparities in access to financial services, predatory alternative financial services and the rise in financial technology.
"The conditions we're seeing today are a result of deregulation and speculation—letting banks, Wall Street, and wealthy elites make risky decisions at the expense of everyone else. And the risks are even greater as banks and Wall Street rely on technology to disguise their activities and expand surveillance. With enough creativity and persistence, people can build collective power to change these systems. We can build new systems that are designed to benefit the public good."