Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will brief President Joe Biden on the economy Friday after a populist trading group on Reddit shocked the major Wall Street hedge funds.
Yellen will meet the president on Friday morning, according to the president’s schedule.
The trading app Robinhood infuriated users on Thursday for blocking purchases of stocks popularized by Reddit such as GameStop.
The hedge fund Citadel helped bail out Melvin Capital after the hedge fund lost billions by betting against GameStop before Reddit traders rallied to boost the stock price to unprecedented heights.
Reddit traders, however, remain skeptical of Yellen’s monitoring of the situation, after receiving more than $800,000 in speaking fees from Citadel before she was appointed by Biden as treasury secretary.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki dodged questions about whether Yellen would recuse herself from the issue.
“I don’t think I have anything more for you on it, other than to say, separate from the GameStop issue, the Secretary of Treasury is one of the world-renowned experts on markets, on the economy,” she said. “It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone she was paid to give her perspective and advice before she came into office.”
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