Also cargo bribery, AT1 fallout, Bitcoin anonymity, blockchain initiatives and the FDIC watches ‘The Wire.’
Matt Levine
Programming note: Money Stuff will be off tomorrow, back on Monday.
At the height of meme stock mania in early 2021, the WallStreetBets forum on Reddit was adding a million users a day as people flocked to Reddit to discuss their plans to trade GameStop Corp. and other meme stocks. Imagine if Reddit put a button next to each GameStop post saying “buy GME,” and if you clicked the button you could buy shares directly through Reddit? (I guess maybe add another button like “YOLO GME options” so you could buy the call options too?) That just seems like it would be good business, and good customer service, each in a loose approximate way. Probably some compliance issues with that button. Probably some customers would be sad if they bought GameStop for $400 with one click after reading an enthusiastic but inaccurate Reddit post. Probably some lawsuits. Still the basic business idea — “the place where people go to enthusiastically discuss stocks should also let them buy those stocks directly” — has an appeal.
