Summary of Gamestonk

Here the best I've found. (Source.)

Hedge funds have been shorting GameStop for years slowing driving the price down. Shorting is selling stock you don't own so you can buy it back later for a lower price. Some people on reddit noticed that the stock was undervalued, and heavily shorted. Heavily as in people sold 140% of the all the stock that exists. They bought, and convinced others to buy. Now we hedge funds are in a squeeze. They shorted at $30, and the stock is now at $350. Further problem is that since they shorted more stock than actually exists, they cannot buy stock at a loss now to cut their losses. Also, if they buy stock to cut losses, then the hedge funds drive the price up even more. That means they owe billions on paper, and it just keeps getting worse. Normally, you ride something like this out, but when you owe more than you have in assets, margins get called. This means the hedge funds are required to buy back the stocks they sold at massive losses.

Now hedge funds are pulling out all the stops. Fake financial reports to scare people into selling. Media is doing the same. Bots are spamming the wallstreetbets subreddit and discord with hate speech which then gets reported. The discord got shut down and the subreddit went dark for a bit to deal with it. Markets are being manipulated with short sells to make it look like a selloff is starting and trading halts to slow the stock gains. All the redditors have to do right now is buy when they can and hold, and they stand to bankrupt billionaires. A lot of them are doing this on principle, and there is blood in the water.

If the hedge funds can ride out the squeeze, they win when price drops back to what it is really worth. If wallstreetbets can keep driving the price up and forcing margin calls, they will suck billions from the hedge funds.

Disclaimer, I have no stock, but find the situation funny as hell.

Edit: As of this morning, several brokers have suspended all buying of GameStop.

I concur; it is funny. But not because it "hurts" anyone. Just because the tables got turned on some big bois. Generally short sellers are seen as being clever—like that guy who wins the office football pool by betting against the home team. Well now some other people are feeling big and clever for the moment.

Walker, Iowa Ranger?

I hope Scott Walker — who is "my guy" at this point — can navigate this gambling issue effectively. Excerpt:

Another issue where Governor Walker will have to tread carefully in Iowa is the expansion of state-approved gambling. Walker will have to decide by February 19 whether to approve a proposed $800 million Menominee Indian tribal casino in Kenosha. “Influential social conservatives in Iowa are warning Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker that approving a proposed Kenosha casino next month could hurt his presidential bid” was the lead paragraph of a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article this month. Newly elected Iowa U.S. senator Joni Ernst joined 600 other Republicans in sending Walker a petition urging him adopt a “No Expanding Gaming” policy. Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent social conservative in Iowa who led the successful defeat in 2010 of three Supreme Court justices who had approved same-sex marriage, has also written a letter to Walker highlighting the “increased societal problems of divorce, bankruptcy, debt, depression, and suicide” that gambling can produce. In 2012, Vander Plaats’s last-minute endorsement of Rick Santorum helped propel the former Pennsylvania senator to a photo-finish victory over Mitt Romney in Iowa.

I dislike gambling because of its zero-sum nature as well as its negative societal effects, the two being closely related. But it wouldn't be a deal-killer for me if Walker came out on the wrong side of it. Sounds from this mention of this kingmaker, Plaats, like it might be a deal-killer for Walker, though.

Ohio Issue 3: Just Say 'No'

Norma put up this post concerning Ohio Issue 3 over 6 weeks ago and it is still generating comments and hits. She had a guest blogger, Buckeye RINO, write the meat of the post which definitely touched nerves, here's an excerpt:

Gamblers have no idea how much "entertainment" they will receive for a set price. Conceivably one gambler can be entertained all day for $20, while another will lose that same $20 within seconds. Casinos are thieves that try to seize all that they can. Casinos are not open, not transparent, which is why they are the preferred venue for money laundering.

Somali pirates create jobs. Nigerian scammers create jobs. Of course casinos create jobs, but the jobs that are created are not the product of newly created wealth. They are parasitic jobs that feed off the plundered wealth that others created. Similarly, taxes, which are confiscated wealth that others created, also fund jobs. But just as we cannot tax our society into prosperity, we cannot gamble our society into prosperity. Producers are the wealth creators, and casinos aren't producers.

I contributed a bit within the comments, which are worth reading. Not my comments, mind you, but some of the others. Although, in reviewing the post I did notice that I linked to a worthwhile fact-checking site regarding Ohio Issue 3.

I've heard the pro-gambling side from people: recreational casino users who know when to quit and assume everyone else does, business owners who want to add slot machines for extra bucks, etc. They all say the same thing: people should take responsibility for themselves, none of the government's business, etc. They sound sanctimoniously libertarian. But there is a social cost to gambling and it preys on the weakest and poorest. Huge corporations are running the show, and their coziness with the state governments should make even the libertarians wary.