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GameStop


On crowdfunding website Kickstarter, 57,502 gaming projects have raised $1.37 billion dollars as of January, 2021. In fact, the most successful crowdfunding project raised $300 million (and counting) for Star Citizen, a computer game.

GameStop is a crowdfunding project.

Along with the recent increase in the value of bitcoin, from $3,000 to $42,000 (low to peak in 2020), this points to the main problem with economics and finance: these "fields" serve the needs of a small, non-minority group of people. They are also, at core, racist and dishonest.

We pointed this out some time ago in comments to the US Securities and Exchange Commission: December 22, 2003 "Envy, hatred, and greed have flourished in certain capital market institutions, propelling ethical standards of behavior downward. Without meaningful reform, there is a small (but significant and growing) risk that our economic system will simply cease functioning." http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s71903/wmccir122203.pdf

Regulators, including the SEC, failed to protect the public interest, having been prohibited from doing so by Congressional and Senate republican legislators. As we noted in 2006, "Individuals and market institutions with the power to safeguard the economic system, including investment analysts and rating agencies, have been compromised. Few efficient, effective and just safeguards are in place. Statistical models created by the firm show the probability of system-wide market failure has increased over the past eight years. Investors and the public are at risk." http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s71005/wcunningham5867.pdf February 6, 2006.

Less than two years later, this decline in regulatory ethics led to the 2008 financial crisis and an economy-wide $19 trillion dollar loss.

The financial crisis of 2008 also led to the development of crowdfunding, bitcoin and cryptocurrency, all a direct result of the failure of financial institution regulators. Cryptocurrency and it's underlying technology, blockchain, highlight the hidden, fourth function of money. The three widely recognized main functions of money are as: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value. There is a fourth function of money that is hidden and rarely discussed: as a means of social control.

GameStop and cryptocurrency force this function into the open.

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