Awkward Moments: The White House Avoids The Question About Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Getting $810K From The Hedge Fund That Bailed Out One Of The GameStop Losers.
The official title is “market volatility,” but reading between the lines, it’s specifically about the GameStop stock price controversy, and it was a topic deftly dodged by President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Friday.
Adding to the awkwardness is the fact that Yellen received just south of $1 million in speaking fees from the hedge fund that bailed out one of the biggest losers in the frenzy surrounding GameStop.
Reporters asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki about the “market volatility” Friday, but she tossed the question aside and said it’s a problem for the SEC, and not the White House’s concern yet. “They are closely monitoring this situation but it is under their purview at this point of time,” is all reporters got from her.
Reporters tried hard to get Psaki to provide a little more detail on what the White House plans to do about the situation, and one member of the media asked her if Yellen should recuse herself from advising Biden on GameStop, since she did receive a small fortune from the hedge fund Citadel. It was Citadel and Point72 that put almost $3 billion into Melvin Capital to bail them out from the pummeling they took shorting GameStop.
As for the GameStop stock price, it had wild swings on Friday, going from a low of $112 all the way back up to $483 before it closed at $197.44, which was down 43.2%.
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