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- White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the Treasury and others are “monitoring the situation” with GameStop.
- The company’s shares have soared more than 1,200% recently after Redditors collectively decided to buy.
- “It’s a good reminder though that the stock market isn’t the only measure of the health of our economy,” Psaki said.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is “monitoring the situation” around the GameStop-related changes in the stock market.
“Our team, our economic team, including Secretary Yellen and others, are monitoring the situation,” Psaki said at a press conference. “It’s a good reminder though that the stock market isn’t the only measure of the health of our economy. It doesn’t reflect how middle and working-class families are doing.”
Yellen said the new Treasury team, helmed by Yellen, the first female Treasury secretary, is typically the unit tasked with fielding questions pertaining to the US stock market.
You can watch the video, posted by Bloomberg, below.
—Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) January 27, 2021
The White House declined to comment further in response to Insider’s request.
The comment was made in response to a reporter's question regarding concerns about the stock market, which has been reeling from a frenzy caused by a group of Redditors. As Insider's Ben Gilbert explains, a 2 million-member Reddit forum named Wall Street Bets is behind the skyrocketing of Gamestop's stock, which has soared 1,200% in recent weeks.
The Redditors collectively decided to buy more of Gamestop's stock after experts have been predicting the company, which had been struggling hard in 2019, was doomed. GameStop, whose business model revolves around the dying physical video game industry, has been somewhat saved during the pandemic as people have sought entertainment in their homes.
Amid the hullabaloo, the r/WallStreetBets Reddit forum appeared to be down for a brief period of time Wednesday morning. Vanguard, TD Ameritrade, and Charles Schwab's online trading platforms also experienced interruptions, with thousands of users reporting issues on DownDetector. TD Ameritrade told Insider that the issues were "due to heavy volume."