I don't claim to know if or who broke the law in the #GameStop debacle, but the ethical defenses are obviously flawed. And the implications for efficient functioning of capital markets make it clearly unsustainable. Thus this kind of thing must be and will be dealt with.

The two main ethical defenses border on grade-school level and can be reduced to the following: 1) the victims are "bad guys" so there is no crime and 2) Wall Street is filled with crime so this crime doesn't matter.

You may not like hedge funds. You may not approve of hedge-fund managers. But that doesn't give you ethical license to commit crimes against them and other investors. A hitman is guilty of murder even if his victim is a crime boss.

Similarly, the existence of crime or abuse in a venue doesn't mean everyone should have equal opportunity to commit crime. I can't mug my neighbor with impunity because the guy down the street is also mugging people in the neighborhood.

The other populist screeds from the likes of @JuddLegum (whom I otherwise agree with on many things) border on silly. Capital markets are highly regulated. They are not "free markets." Regulation exists to make them efficient, fair and sustainable.

We want capital markets to be efficient, fair and sustainable so that they fund good businesses that grow our economy, create jobs, and reward smart investors. Market manipulation, and all other market crimes, undermine trust and work against the public interest.

Hedge funds, shorts and others play a crucial role keeping markets honest and efficient. You may not like (or understand) the idea of someone making money on a stock going down, but it's a good market mechanism to express disagreement with management or investor exuberance.

Regardless of all of the above, it's impossible to look at the #GameStop debacle and imagine an ongoing system in which a small group of people hype stocks on social media without disclosing their interests and where the intent seems to be primarily to move the price.

The real victims will be clear soon enough. The original hypesters will move on, leaving the late-joiners holding the bag on an almost dead retail business that likely should have been dissolved some time ago. There is nothing good about this game.