The Surprising Thing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez And Ted Cruz Agree On

If you had Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz agreeing on something on your 2021 Bingo card, you're in luck! It all started with a tweet that read "More than half of all Robinhood users own at least some GameStop stock. They are now unable to freely trade it; the app is only allowing users to close out their positions."

Ocasio-Cortez responded, "This is unacceptable. We now need to know more about @RobinhoodApp's decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit. As a member of the Financial Services Cmte, I'd support a hearing if necessary." And then unexpectedly considering the two are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, Ted Cruz's reply to Ocasio-Cortez's tweet was "Fully agree."

Let's back up a bit to sort out what's going on. Robinhood is an investment app where anyone can buy and sell stocks. And at-home traders have used that app and others to cause prices for stocks, including GameStop and AMC, to skyrocket to the chagrin of some professional traders with some hedge funds losing a lot of cash as a result (via New York Times). Wall Street professional investors had bet in the past that GameStop stock would go down, and using social media, primarily Reddit, amateur traders decided to come together and push the stock price up (via Wired).

It worked. GameStop had at one point a 14,300% boost in price, and though it's fluctuated pretty wildly since the height, it's still valued at more than it was a week ago (via CNET). Robinhood and other platforms like it have responded to the market volatility by preventing users from buying the stocks that had been boosted by the actions of these home traders, though of course, professional traders don't have such restrictions on them, and according to CNBC, one Robinhood user has already filed suit against the company for the action.

As the debate continues over who should be able to do what with the stock market, sadly, the potential of a happy agreement on the matter between Ocasio-Cortez and Cruz doesn't seem like it will come to pass. Ocasio-Cortez's responded in part to the "Fully agree" tweet with a sharp rebuke in reference to the January 6 violence at the Capitol; "I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there's common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out. Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren't trying to get me killed. In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign."