They can buy enough stock to shift the price, then use that as a lever to control their own investments prices (and thence profits). Like they've done with tariffs.

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bee_rider 6 days ago | parent [-]

That sounds more like an abuse of government powers for individual gain than any legitimate government interest. If that was the plan it would make just as much sense to short a company and then announce a plan to put them under greater regulatory scrutiny.

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janc_ 6 days ago | parent [-]

You think they haven't done that sort of things yet?

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bee_rider 6 days ago | parent [-]

Well, I wouldn’t be able to prove it if challenged. And anyway, it seems better overall to not start building the case that that’s just something we expect politicians to do.

A shocking surprise needs to be a surprise for it to work. Call it strategic naivety if you want.

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nolist_policy 6 days ago | parent [-]

Donald Trump's erratic tariff policies are surprising.

Donald anounces tariffs and the markets react. He postpones tariffs and the markets react again. Only Donald and his friends know what he will announce next.

	▲	bee_rider 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		> Donald Trump's erratic tariff policies are surprising. This feels like a misreading of what I wrote. The discovery that he is using tariffs to make a personal profit should be surprising. > Donald anounces tariffs and the markets react. He postpones tariffs and the markets react again. Only Donald and his friends know what he will announce next. That wouldn’t surprise me at all, I just don’t think a hypothesis about how he could abuse his power will be very compelling to anybody who doesn’t already think he’s prone to corruption. If anything, I think it starts inoculating people to the idea.