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      The Ten Year War review: Obamacare, Trump and Biden's battles yet to come

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      Once upon a time, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was unpopular, viewed by many as welfare redux. Barack Obama’s promise that “If you like your healthcare plan, you’ll be able to keep your healthcare plan”, didn’t exactly work out. By the middle of the 2010s, so-called Obamacare had cost the Democrats both houses of Congress.
      Yet one great recession and one raging pandemic later, the ACA is liked, if not necessarily loved, by a majority of Americans.
      The political process “doesn’t stop just because a bill becomes a law”, according to Jonathan Cohn.
      As if to prove Cohn’s point, the US awaits a ruling by the supreme court on another challenge to Obamacare, this one brought by the Trump administration and Republican state attorneys general. If they prevail, more than 20 million Americans may lose health coverage. Nearly a half-million have died from Covid. Markets don’t always deliver what is needed.
      The Ten Year War is a look back at the “crusade” for universal healthcare coverage, and a sequel to Cohen’s earlier book, Sick: The Untold Story of America’s Healthcare Crisis. Cohn is a senior correspondent at the Huffington Post. His take remains informed and nuanced, not breathless. The Ten Year War also captures acrid and tectonic shifts in US politics.
      Cohn persuasively argues that the combatants in the healthcare fight operated with less than perfect knowledge, and that preconceived convictions too often clouded their judgment. Cohn aims at both policy wonks and political junkies. Laced with interviews and quotes from both sides of the aisle, his book is definitely newsworthy.
      Obama and Tom Price, Donald Trump’s short-tenured health secretary, speak on the record. David Axelrod, Obama’s counselor, and Michael Carvin, a veteran conservative litigator who unsuccessfully argued against Obamacare’s constitutionality, also talk to the author. Years earlier, in the 2000 election, Carvin was on brief in George W Bush’s winning supreme court gambit.
      Obama admits his surprise over Republicans not moving on after the ACA passed, unlike Medicare in 1965 under Lyndon Johnson. “We got no take-up on any of that stuff,” he says. Left unsaid is that blue and red are more than just colors – they are tribes.
      By the same measure, Obama acknowledges “that there were those … who suggested that we shouldn’t do anything other than the economy”. That is an understatement.
      One of those “outsiders” was Chuck Schumer, now the Senate majority leader. Even then, Cohn writes, the New Yorker grasped the political consequences of going all-in on healthcare amid a meltdown in the jobs and housing markets.
      Indeed, after the Democrats lost the Senate in 2014, New York’s senior senator unloaded on Obama before the National Press Club: “After passing the stimulus, Democrats should have continued to propose middle-class-oriented programs.” Said differently, the ACA highlighted the inherent instability of the Democrats’ upstairs-downstairs coalition.
      Instead, in Schumer’s telling, “we took their mandate and put all of our focus on the wrong problem – healthcare reform.” Apparently, there are few things more gratifying in politics than telling a sitting president: “I told you so.”
      Of course, political myopia is not the sole province of any one party. Price admits that Republicans too operated in their own universe.
      “I think there was a lack of appreciation on the part of all of us in the administration about how difficult” repealing Obamacare would be, he says. Price is a physician as well as a former Georgia congressman.
      Price criticizes Trump for fashioning policy to comport with the last voice to whisper into his ear, and for a fundamental lack of understanding of healthcare and insurance.
      “We would make concrete decisions about what we were going to do,” he says, “get presidential sign-off, and then within 24 hours the decision would change.”
      For Price’s boss, pulling the rug out from under others was standard operating procedure. More

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      GameStop hearing live: Robinhood CEO and others in trading saga testify before Congress

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      Key events

      Show

      3.59pm EST15:59
      Tenev admits Robinhood did not have the collateral to back the huge increase in trade

      3.31pm EST15:31
      Are Robinhood users better off than the average investor?

      2.44pm EST14:44
      Tenev addresses the suicide of a former customer

      1.42pm EST13:42
      ​Tenev defends decision to freeze buying of GameStop

      1.04pm EST13:04
      Reddit CEO and Reddit user involved in r/WallStreetBets forum testify

      12.12pm EST12:12
      House committee hears testimony from those involved in trading controversy

      Live feed

      Show

      4.19pm EST16:19

      Representative questions whether it is reckless to gamify investment
      Cindy Axne of Iowa targeted Tenev with questions about the Robinhood app’s design and the consequences of gamifying trade. She asked who truly stands to benefit from the rise of Robinhood, which Tenev has repeatedly asserted aims to “democratize” investment.
      “Your clients are not your customer – the users are the product, your customer is sitting next to you – it’s companies like Citadel securities that stand to make a fortune on retail order flow,” Axne said.
      Axne noted that Robinhood incentivizes inviting friends to the app and gamification of trading, “adding gaming elements that look like gambling.”

      Updated
      at 4.45pm EST

      4.08pm EST16:08

      Robinhood took from its customers to boost its own business model, lawmaker alleges
      Michael San Nicolas of Guam, a Democrat, congratulated the small investors who orchestrated the short squeeze: “Robinhood made that possible,” he said.
      But he also questioned Tenev about the $3bn shortage, and where the money borrowed to cover it came from. Tenev said he got $3bn from venture capitalists, which San Nicolas argued means Robinhood materially benefited from the shareholders.
      San Nicolas said Robinhood’s Silicon Valley ethos of “move fast and break things” led it to value scale over anything else.
      “That’s where I have a serious concern,” he said. “Your business model causes you to take extraordinary risks, and you took from customers to protect your position. That is very, very troubling.”

      Updated
      at 4.20pm EST

      3.59pm EST15:59

      Tenev admits Robinhood did not have the collateral to back the huge increase in trade

      Vlad Tenev admitted during questioning on Thursday that Robinhood halted buying on the platform because it did not have the funds to back the huge influx of trading in the Reddit frenzy.
      Robinhood is required to place a deposit using its own funds at a clearinghouse to cover risks until trades are settled between a buyer and seller. On 28 January, the company was informed by its clearing house, NSCC, that it had a deposit deficit of approximately $3bn – up from $124m just days before.
      Anthony Gonzalez, a Republican from Ohio, asked if Robinhood indeed had that $3bn of collateral at the time.
      “At that moment, we would not have been able to post the $3bn of collateral,” Tenev said.
      Gonzalez said that proves Robinhood was “unprepared to protect his constituents and customers from non-consensual liquidation” and “barely avoided disaster”.
      “In a sense, I love your company,” Gonzalez said. “At the same time, I believe a vulnerability was clearly exposed.”

      Updated
      at 4.23pm EST

      3.36pm EST15:36

      Reddit CEO is asked if financial advice on the forum can be trusted
      Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, conceded in questioning on Thursday that users on the forum responsible for the GameStop buy-up are an “eccentric” bunch but that they did not breach any of the platform’s terms of service.
      He said financial advice on Reddit, in fact, is better than what is seen on TV because each post has been vetted by its voting process, which requires endorsement by hundreds and even thousands of users before it is widely visible. Huffman:

      On Reddit you’re seeing retail investors who are giving authentic advice based on their knowledge, and you would not call into question positions they may hold before they talk about it on television.

      3.31pm EST15:31

      Are Robinhood users better off than the average investor?

      One issue that has come up repeatedly in today’s hearing is what Robinhood has to offer consumers, besides ease of entry into the investment space.
      Lawmakers’ questioning has offered a rare look into the profit model of Robinhood and just how much customers have made and lost on the app.
      Jim Himes, a Democratic representative of Connecticut, asked Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev whether customers would make more if they had bought a low-cost S&P 500 index fund rather than individual stocks on Robinhood’s app.
      Tenev said that Robinhood customers have made $35bn in profits, but is unwilling to say what rate of return that represents. Himes said that number means little without more context.

      Updated
      at 3.46pm EST

      2.53pm EST14:53

      Did Reddit’s coordinated buying represent market manipulation? Expert says no
      The meteoric rise of GameStop stocks was fueled largely by a frenzy on Reddit community r/WallStreetBets. Arkansas Republican Representative French Hill asked Thursday whether that constituted “market manipulation” – artificially impacting the price of a security or otherwise influencing the market for personal gain.
      Keith Gill, who is also speaking on Thursday’s panel, has been sued in a class action lawsuit accusing him of exaggerated claims and misrepresented posts as part of his role on Reddit in kicking off the GameStop market frenzy, which personally netted him more than $30m.
      “I think there’s little evidence at this time that there’s any false or deceptive conduct taking place,” said Jennifer Schulp, director of financial regulations studies at the Cato Institute speaking on the forum.
      She did say due to the anonymous nature of Reddit it is possible there is some “deceptive behavior” that could not readily be determined. Other have argued that Robinhood’s freezing of GameStop stocks in response to the buy-up itself represented market manipulation.

      Updated
      at 3.32pm EST

      2.44pm EST14:44

      Tenev addresses the suicide of a former customer

      Robinhood chief executive officer Vlad Tenev addressed in the hearing on Thursday the suicide of a 20-year-old man that was tied to the trading platform.
      The family of Alex Kearns is currently suing Robinhood in a California court after the newbie trader took his own life believing he owed $730,000 due to a glitch on the app, a year before the Reddit investing frenzy that caused many to gain or lose huge sums of money in a very short time.
      His death led to former SEC chair Jay Clayton and current lawmakers calling for better legislation to prevent such losses from happening in the future.
      In Thursday’s hearing, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri asked Tenev to explain how someone with no experience could invest such a potentially devastating amount of money in such a short time. Tenev again cited Robinhood’s mission of “democratizing finance for all”. His full response below:

      The passing of Mr. Kearns was deeply troubling to me, and to the entire company. We have taken a series of very aggressive steps to make our products safer for our customers, including adding additional education, as well as strengthening and tightening the requirements for getting options and bettering our customer support line. It was a tragedy and we went into immediate action to make sure that we are not just the most accessible option for trading for our customers but the safest as well.

      Updated
      at 3.33pm EST

      1.57pm EST13:57

      Everyone is shouting
      Representative Brad Sherman, Democrat from California, had some pointed questioning for Citadel owner Ken Griffin regarding how the average trader on Robinhood is treated compared to more wealthy Wall Street traders and larger firms.
      He asked about payment for order flow – a controversial practice in which stock brokers get a kickback for essentially selling the ability to execute trades. This allows some larger customers to avoid paying higher transaction fees. Sherman said it is a means for hiding the true costs of trading.
      Griffin kept attempting to skirt the question: “Congressman, I believe that’s an excellent question – the execution quality that we can provide as measured by terms of price improvement is heavily related or correlated to the size of the order we receive.”
      “Everybody I’ve talked to in this industry says when you’re a broker being paid for order flow, you get a worse execution,” Sherman replied, referencing the dealing in which Robinhood is paid for its customers’ trades by market-makers like Citadel.
      Finra fined Robinhood $1.25 million in December 2019 for this practice, saying it sent customer trading orders to broker-dealers without guaranteeing the best price.
      Griffin defended the payment for order flow practice, saying “it has allowed the American retail investor to have the lowest execution cost they’ve ever had in the history of US financial markets”.
      Sherman also repeatedly asked if the average Robinhood customer gets the same deals and prices as larger firms like Fidelity.
      “Is the Robinhood customer getting the same price as the Fidelity customer?” Sherman asked Griffin.
      Griffin wouldn’t say, talking around the answer and explaining that it can’t be determined “because the Robinhood community tends to be smaller in quantity” before getting cut off again.
      “You’re evading questions by making up other questions,” Sherman shouted. “You are doing a great job of wasting my time. If you want to filibuster you should run for the Senate.”

      Updated
      at 2.28pm EST

      1.42pm EST13:42

      ​Tenev defends decision to freeze buying of GameStop

      Tenev, Robinhood’s CEO, said customers would have been very angry if it had prevented them from selling off GameStop shares.
      During the Reddit-fueled meltdown, Robinhood banned the purchase of GameStop buying, but not selling. Many have speculated this was done at the behest of hedge funds who stood to lose millions from the buy-up, which Tenev disputed.
      “Preventing customers from selling is a very difficult and painful experience where customers are unable to access their money,” Tenev said. “We don’t want to impose that type of experience on our customers unless we have no other choice.”

      Updated
      at 3.24pm EST

      1.34pm EST13:34

      Lawmakers roast Robinhood CEO
      In addition to comments from Waters, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev faced intense criticism from other lawmakers.
      Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, accused Tenev of recklessly handling customers’ money.
      “You reserve the right to make up the rules as you go along,” she said.
      “I’m sorry for what happened,” Tenev replied. “I’m not going to say that Robinhood did everything perfect.”

      Updated
      at 1.47pm EST

      1.10pm EST13:10

      Chairwoman Maxine Waters is reclaiming her time
      Maxine Waters, the chairwoman of the House committee on financial services, took a stern tone with executives involved in the hearing on Thursday.

      manny
      (@mannyfidel)
      Maxine Waters: yes or noRobinhood CEO: pic.twitter.com/3oDUwsdD7P

      February 18, 2021

      She frequently interrupted Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, demanding he actually answer the questions she was posing as he meandered around the point. Waters stated “yes or no, answer the question” a minimum of ten times in the first hour of the hearing.

      Emily Stewart
      (@EmilyStewartM)
      Maxine Waters to the Robinhood CEO: “I don’t have time, I just need a yes or no answer.” Tattoo it on my arm.

      February 18, 2021

      Updated
      at 1.16pm EST

      1.04pm EST13:04

      Reddit CEO and Reddit user involved in r/WallStreetBets forum testify

      Reddit CEO Steve Huffman explained in his opening statement how Reddit moderation works, what the r/WallStreetsBets community is, and how Reddit dealt with the January stock buy-up.
      He said WallStreetBets is a “real community” with real users.
      He added that Reddit’s content policy prohibits “hate, harassment, bullying and illegal activity” and that threats or harassment of Plotkin and others were removed.
      “A few weeks ago, we saw the power of community in general and of this community in particular when the traders of WallStreetBets banded together at first to seize an investment opportunity not usually accessible to retail investors, but later more broadly to defend all retail investors against the criticism of the financial establishment,” Huffman said.
      Later, a member of that community testified. Reddit user “Roaring Kitty”, real name Keith Gill, started his opening statement by telling lawmakers “I am not a cat”.
      He stressed that he is simply an individual talking about this investment choices, not making suggestions for investments in any official or professional capacity. The goal of his posts, and of the Reddit community, was to make trading more understandable and accessible to the average person.
      “It’s alarming how little we know about the inner workings of the market,” Gill said.

      Updated
      at 3.25pm EST

      12.48pm EST12:48

      Melvin Capital CEO Gabriel Plotkin claims the company was not looking for a bailout
      Gabriel Plotkin, CEO of one of the hedge funds hit by the coordinated Reddit trades, claims Melvin did not coordinate or ask for Robinhood’s ban on trading.
      The GameStop frenzy targeted hedge funds like Melvin with huge short positions in GameStop, which had bet the share price would fall and stood to cash in when it did so. After the Reddit-fueled surge, the fund lost 53% in January. It reportedly received a $2bn+ capital infusion from Citadel as its losses grew.
      “To be sure, Melvin was managing through a difficult time, but we always had margin excess and we were not seeking a cash infusion,” Plotkin said.
      He says he was the subject of antisemitic and threatening posts on Reddit surrounding the markets incident.
      “I want to make clear at the outset that Melvin Capital played absolutely no role in those trading platforms’ decisions,” said Plotkin. “In fact, Melvin closed out all of its positions in GameStop days before platforms put those limitations in place.”

      Updated
      at 1.16pm EST

      12.38pm EST12:38

      Citadel owner Ken Griffin: we had ‘no role’ in Robinhood’s decision to restrict certain stocks
      Ken Griffin is the billionaire owner of hedge fund Citadel and high-speed trading firm Citadel Securities, which works with Robinhood.
      He said in testimony on Thursday that the firm provided securities to meet investors’ needs during the unprecedented surge of trading of GameStop stocks, but had “no role” in the decision made by Robinhood to restrict trading of those stocks.
      The incident “reflects the competence of our firm’s ability to deliver in all market conditions”, he said.

      12.33pm EST12:33

      Opening statements: Robinhood, Citadel, and Melvin Capital CEOs
      We are off running with some opening statements from the biggest players in the Reddit-fueled stock market meltdown.
      First, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev spoke about how he came to found Robinhood, talking of his childhood in Bulgaria, where the financial system was “on the verge of collapse”. Tenev said he wanted to give more people access to financial systems.
      “We created Robin Hood to economically empower all Americans by opening mutual markets to them,” he said.
      He referenced just how much money has been created by Robinhood investments, saying “the total value of our customers’ assets on Robinhood exceeds the net amount of money they have deposited with us, over $35bn”.
      Next, Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin and Melvin Capital CEO Gabriel Plotkin will speak.

      Updated
      at 1.13pm EST

      12.12pm EST12:12

      House committee hears testimony from those involved in trading controversy

      Executives from the investing site Robinhood, the social media site Reddit, and other tech companies are testifying on Thursday in the first public hearing in an investigation into a recent public trading meltdown orchestrated on social media.
      The House financial services committee will hear testimony from parties involved in the recent trading in GameStop, AMC cinemas and other companies whose share values soared to astronomical levels as small investors piled into the stocks.
      We’ll follow the hearing live throughout the day – stay tuned.

      Updated
      at 12.19pm EST More

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      GameStop hearing: Robinhood founder defends halt to trading

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      Robinhood’s chief executive defended the app’s decision to halt trading in GameStop shares at a congressional hearing on Thursday, calling allegations that the company acted to help hedge funds that were hemorrhaging money “absolutely false”. The comments triggered accusations the company is creating a “smokescreen” to deflect blame.Vlad Tenev and other players in the GameStop saga appeared before the House financial services committee in the first public hearing in a wide-ranging investigation into trading in GameStop, AMC and other companies whose share values soared as small investors piled into the stocks.“The buying surge that occurred during the last week of January in stocks like GameStop was unprecedented, and it highlighted a number of issues that are worthy of deep analysis and discussion,” Tenev said.Tenev once again apologized for the trading ban. “Despite the unprecedented market conditions in January, at the end of the day, what happened is unacceptable to us,” Tenev said.The sometimes fractious hearing was largely divided along party lines, with Democrats calling for more oversight and Republicans arguing against more regulation.“Don’t you see something has gone terribly wrong here?” said Democrat congressman David Scott. He called social media-led stock market bubbles “a threat to the future of our financial system”.Republican Bill Huizenga called the hearing “political theater”, a comment that drew admonition from the committee chair, Maxine Waters.GameStop’s shares surged 1,600% in January as small investors worldwide – many coalescing on the Reddit forum WallStreetBets – piled into the troubled retailer’s shares betting against Wall Street hedge funds that had bet the share price would collapse – a practice known as short-selling. At one point, short-sellers had borrowed far more of GameStop’s shares (140%) to sell short than were available on the market.According to Tenev, Robinhood and other brokers had no choice but to suspend trading in GameStop and other hot investments during this period of “historic volatility”.Robinhood is required to place a deposit using its own funds at a clearinghouse to cover risks until trades are settled between a buyer and seller. On 28 January, the company was informed by its clearing house, NSCC, that it had a deposit deficit of approximately $3bn – up from $124m just days before.With trading in hot stocks suspended, Robinhood moved to raise $3.4bn from investors and trading was resumed.But the suspension triggered a firestorm of criticism among small investors and in Washington, with Republicans and Democrats attacking Robinhood and accusing it of backing the losing hedge funds over small investors.Christopher Iacovella, the chief executive of the brokerage-industry group American Securities Association, dismissed Tenev’s explanation and said the system had worked as it should to defend the US’s financial system.“As the GME [GameStop] short squeeze unfolded, the clearinghouse recognized that an inadequately capitalized broker-dealer could pose a risk to our markets and it took the action necessary to protect the system,” Iacovella said in a letter to the House committee. “Attempts to blame the clearinghouse or the timing of the settlement cycle for what happened during the short squeeze are a smokescreen.”Thursday’s hearing, titled Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide, is the first of a series and addressed a number of issues including the “gamification” of investing, the role of social media and potential conflicts of interest.The representatives questioned the role of Citadel, an investment firm that executes Robinhood clients’ trades and also invested in Melvin Capital Management after the hedge fund’s bets against GameStop collapsed.Both Citadel’s founder, Ken Griffin, and Melvin’s founder, Gabe Plotkin, testified at the hearing. In his testimony, Plotkin denied that Citadel “bailed out” Melvin. “It was an opportunity for Citadel to ‘buy low’ and earn returns for its investors if and when our fund’s value went up,” he said.Plotkin said January’s frenzied trading in GameStop was “untethered to fundamentals” and quoted racist messages aimed at him and others, including antisemitic statements such as “it’s very clear we need a second Holocaust, the Jews can’t keep getting away with this.”“The unfortunate part of this episode is that ordinary investors who were convinced by a misleading frenzy to buy GameStop at $100, $200, or even $483 have now lost significant amounts,” said Plotkin.GameStop’s share price has now collapsed from a high of $483 on 28 January to just over $44. But one of the small investors who helped drive the stock to dizzy heights is still a believer.In his testimony Keith Gill, a trader variously known online as Roaring Kitty and DeepFuckingValue, said his investments had made him a millionaire.“GameStop’s stock price may have gotten a bit ahead of itself last month, but I’m as bullish as I’ve ever been on a potential turnaround. In short, I like the stock,” he said. More

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      GameStop: US lawmakers to quiz key players from Robinhood, Reddit and finance

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      Frenzied trading in the shares of GameStop and other companies will be the subject of what is expected to be a fiery hearing in Congress on Thursday, when US politicians get their first chance to quiz executives from the trading app Robinhood, Reddit and other players in the saga.The House financial services committee will hold a hearing at noon in a first step to untangling the furore surrounding trading in GameStop, AMC cinemas and other companies whose share values soared to astronomical levels as small investors piled into the stocks.The hearing, titled Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide, is expected to be fractious.Shares in GameStop, a troubled video games chain store, soared 1,600% in January, as an army of small investors, many using the trading app Robinhood, appeared to have bet that Wall Street hedge funds had overplayed their hand when betting the stock price would collapse – a practice known as short-selling.Spurred on by meme-toting members of the Reddit forum WallStreetBets, investors kept buying the shares, driving up the price and triggering huge losses for some hedge funds.Robinhood briefly suspended trading in GameStop and other hot stocks at the end of January and sparked allegations that the hedge funds and others may have pushed Robinhood and other trading platforms to stop the rout.The news managed to – briefly – unite Washington’s deeply divided political elite. Both the rightwing senator Ted Cruz and the progressive representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacked Robinhood’s decision to halt trading in GameStop by small investors.Ocasio-Cortez sits on the bipartisan financial services committee.Among those testifying are:Robinhood’s CEO, Vlad Tenev.
      Reddit’s CEO, Steve Huffman.
      Gabe Plotkin, founder of the Melvin Capital Management hedge fund, which was forced into a rescue after retail traders crushed its bets against GameStop.
      Ken Griffin, billionaire CEO of Citadel, an investment firm that executes Robinhood clients’ trades and also helped to bail out Melvin.
      Keith Gill, a trader variously known online as Roaring Kitty and DeepFuckingValue and a longtime GameStop booster.
      The hearing marks the first time the major players in the GameStop controversy have all been forced to publicly reckon with the anger the episode provoked among small investors and across the political spectrum.Gregg Gelzinis, associate director for economic policy at the Center for American Progress, said: “The GameStop drama raised quite a few public policy questions but first it’s important for members of Congress to understand how events played out.”Gelzinis said there were still questions about the timeline of events. More broadly, he said, GameStop had highlighted many crucial issues for regulators, including the role and regulation of hedge funds, whether or how Wall Street is using social media to drive investment strategy, the “gamification” of investing by trading apps and the economic incentives at play for the trading platforms.“What would have happened if Robinhood had failed? What would have been the knock-on effects for financial markets?” he asked. “These are huge investor protection questions.“I saw someone on Twitter describe it as a Rorschach test for financial regulators,” he added.The hearing will not be the last inquiry that the executives at the center of the controversy will face. Federal prosecutors have begun an investigation, according to the Wall Street Journal, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US’s top financial watchdog, is reportedly combing through social media posts for signs of potential fraud.In the meantime, evidence has emerged that small investors were not the largest buyers of GameStop and other hot companies. According to an analysis by JP Morgan, institutional investors may have been behind much of the dramatic rise in the share price.“Although retail buying was portrayed as the main driver of the extreme price rally experienced by some stocks, the actual picture may be much more nuanced,” Peng Cheng, a JP Morgan analyst, told clients in a note.Gelzinis said Thursday’s hearing was likely to raise as many new questions as it answered but was a necessary first step to understanding the seismic changes in investing that GameStop highlighted.“This is only the start of the story,” he said. “It’s clear this is not just a clearcut small investor versus Wall Street story. It’s a fairly messy picture but hopefully by the end we can paint a clearer picture and draw up some public policy conclusions from it.” More

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      Pelosi announces plans for 9/11-style commission to examine Capitol riot

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      House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday that the US Congress will establish an outside, independent commission to review the “facts and causes” related to the deadly 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump in the waning days of his presidency.Pelosi said in a letter to members of Congress that the commission would be modeled on a similar one convened after the 11 September 2001, terrorist attack on Washington and New York.Democratic and Republican lawmakers had issued calls for a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate why government officials and law enforcement failed to stop the attack on the Capitol in January, while both chambers of Congress were engaged in the process of certifying Joe Biden’s election victory.The calls followed Trump’s acquittal in his second impeachment trial, in which he was accused of inciting the insurrection after months of stoking his supporters with exhortations to try to overturn the election result and an inflammatory rally on the day itself, outside the White House, when he urged angry supporters to march on the Capitol.Pelosi said on Monday that the panel will also look at the “facts and causes” behind the catastrophe, in which five people died on 6 January, including a police officer, many were injured, and two police officers died by suicide in the days that followed.There were renewed calls from both parties on Sunday for such a commission.“We need a 9/11 commission to find out what happened and make sure it never happens again, and I want to make sure that the Capitol footprint can be better defended next time,” said Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator of South Carolina and close Trump ally who voted to acquit the former president on Saturday. “His behavior after the election was over the top,” Graham said of the former president on Fox News Sunday.Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware agreed. Speaking on ABC’s This Week, he said that a bipartisan commission would “make sure we secure the Capitol going forward and that we lay bare the record of just how responsible and how abjectly violating of his constitutional oath Trump really was”.Pelosi’s statement on Monday referred to a review that has been underway, led by retired US army general Russel Honoré.Pelosi said: “For the past few weeks, General Honoré has been assessing our security needs by reviewing what happened on January 6 and how we must ensure that it does not happen again … It is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened.”She continued: “Our next step will be to establish an outside, independent 9/11-type commission to “investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex … and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, including facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement in the National Capitol Region.” More

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      Jamie Raskin derides 'explosive and deranged' tactics of Trump lawyers

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      The architect of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial has blamed “explosive and deranged” tactics by the former president’s lawyers for obscuring the strength of the case presented by House Democrats.But the lead impeachment manager, Jamie Raskin, said the Democrats’ case appeared nevertheless to convince even Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Trump’s guilt in inciting the Capitol riot.Two days after Trump escaped conviction, and as his supporters reveled in the prospect of his return to frontline politics, Raskin also told the Washington Post it was both “good and terrible to watch” McConnell’s post-verdict speech in which he excoriated Trump – but said he had voted to acquit because the trial was unconstitutional.It was telling, Raskin said, that many of the 43 Republicans who voted to acquit “felt the need to hang their hats” on that argument, which was rejected by constitutional scholars and twice by the Senate itself.Not even Trump’s lawyers attempted to defend what Democrats characterized as Trump’s “big lie”: that he won an election he actually lost by more than 7m popular votes and 74 electoral votes.They couldn’t get a summer internship with My Cousin VinnyNor did Trump’s legal team, led by a personal injury lawyer and a former county prosecutor who declined to pursue charges against Bill Cosby, succeed in freeing Trump from blame for the attack on the Capitol, judging by Republican senators’ speeches.Instead, Trump’s lawyers denied a copious and unambiguous record of what the former president said and did, while drawing false parallels between routine political speech and Trump’s coup attempt.In the final vote of the impeachment trial, seven Republicans voted with Democrats to convict Trump – a 53-vote tally 10 short of the total required.In an indication of how the Republican party has diverged from the popular will, almost six in 10 Americans – 58% – believe Trump should have been convicted, according to a new ABC News-Ipsos poll.Raskin and his fellow House managers were widely praised for their work. Their case featured extensive use of video of events at the Capitol on 6 January, when supporters told by Trump to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat broke in, some hunting lawmakers to kidnap or kill. Five people died as a direct result of the riot.Raskin took on the lead role despite his son having killed himself in December. He told the Post he “told managers we were going to make a lawyerly case but would not censor the emotion”.There has been criticism among Democrats, after the managers persuaded the Senate to vote to call witnesses but then agreed to avoid that step, which could have lengthened the trial. On Sunday, Raskin said witnesses would not have changed any minds.“These Republicans voted to acquit in the face of this mountain of un-refuted evidence,” he told NBC. “There’s no reasoning with people who basically are acting like members of a religious cult.”The Virgin Islands delegate Stacey Plaskett, also widely praised for her role in the trial, told CNN: “We didn’t need more witnesses, we needed more senators with spines.”[embedded content]More evidence of Trump’s alleged wrongdoing may yet be unearthed. Members of Congress from both parties have called for a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate why government officials and law enforcement failed to stop the attack on the Capitol.Trump lawyers Michael van der Veen, Bruce Castor and David Schoen celebrated their client’s acquittal but faced widespread ridicule for a case built on flimsy arguments about freedom of speech and scattershot whataboutism concerning Democratic attitudes to protests against racism and police brutality.“They couldn’t get a summer internship with My Cousin Vinny,” Raskin told the Post, perhaps a deliberate reference to a bizarre and famously sweaty press conference given in November by another Trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, amid the former president’s failed attempts to prove mass fraud in his election defeat by Joe Biden.My Cousin Vinny is an Oscar-winning 1992 comedy about a hapless lawyer played by Joe Pesci. Giuliani said it was his “one of my favorite law movies, because he comes from Brooklyn”.Trump, who comes from Queens, refused to testify in his own defence. Raskin called him “a profile in absolute cowardice” and said: “He betrayed the constitution, the country and his people.“Trump’s followers need to understand he has no loyalty to them … Donald Trump is the past. We need to deal with the future.” More

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      Trump’s acquittal marks a dark day for US democracy | Letters

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      The deepest problem affecting the progress and development of democracy is the crippling dominance of party-first politics (Senate Republicans stand by their man and Trump wins his second acquittal, 13 February). It restricts the power of politicians to act in the best interests of their countries and their people.
      The clear illustration of the power of party politics has been the trial of Donald Trump. Before the trial began, and ahead of any formal evidence being heard, the base of the Republican party had already decided the outcome. Thus, the verdict of one of the most politically important trials in history was given based on party dogma and not on the evidence, nor in the interests of the country.
      Countries around the world with similarly blinkered party systems will also be rejuvenated. This will be embraced by the Victorian-era-entrenched Conservative party in the UK, which will be enabled to continue and extend its oligarchic rule which is swiftly becoming a kakistocracy.
      Party politics should reflect the will of an ever-changing society. It has, however, become the greatest barrier to progress and fairness. Until politicians are selected solely on ability, rather than party loyalty and populism, democracy will exist only in name and civilised evolution will stagnate and devolve. Matt Minshall Batz-sur-Mer, Brittany, France
      • The second acquittal of Donald Trump by the US Senate represents a profoundly dark and dangerous moment for American democracy. The message is clear. No conduct, be it inviting foreign powers to interfere in an election or fomenting violence to overthrow its result, is sufficiently abhorrent to permanently bar a candidate from holding public office. It now falls to the justice department and state prosecutors to succeed where Congress has failed and hold Trump truly accountable. If they do not, the US need only wait for the next attempt to subvert its democracy. Daniel Peacock New Moston, Manchester
      • Most Republican senators did not honour their oath to “do impartial justice”, but voted politically instead. If the US’s system of governance is unable to hold Trump to account for his attempt to overthrow the result of a fair and free election, its much-vaunted constitution is simply not fit for purpose. Pete Stockwell London
      • Jonathan Freedland is (almost) completely right (Acquitting Trump would spell grave danger for US democracy, 12 February). However, he errs in his report of Donald Trump’s relationship with violence and the rule of law. Trump had not been “whipping up his supporters for nearly a year”. His incitement to violence and failure to accept election results began before he stood as president in 2016, and continued throughout his term.
      At rallies as long ago as 2015, Trump was encouraging violence against his opponents. His tolerance of violence and recognition of its attraction to a section of his base was confirmed when he said, in January 2016, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters”. Even before the 2016 election he refused to confirm that he would accept the result, raising rigged elections.
      The events of 6 January were entirely foreseeable and consistent with the Trump we saw from 2015. The Republican party knew exactly who Trump was when they nominated him for president and then enabled him throughout his term and beyond.Magi Young Exeter More