The Wall Street game

Can an obscure, loss-making company with a broken business model trigger a global crisis? Price moves in GameStop (listed as GME on the NYSE) have caused over $5 billion in hedge fund losses and pushed one fund to near-bankruptcy. GME’s swings have also led to desperate manoeuvres by discount brokerage Robinhood, which is struggling to handle conflicts of interest.

GME has 53,000 employees. It retails video games in 5,000 physical stores across the US. It lost $275 million in 2020 on $5 billion revenues since gamers prefer to buy online. In an initiative driven by new board member, Ryan Cohen, GME