Speculation? Don't you mean MANIPULATION? The richer people get, the more they can manipulate the markets.
In the big (macro) picture, it's speculation.
What's keeping the stock market so plump during the first pandemic of our time? How is it that our economy is suffering so much, yet the various indexes still keep doing so well? The simple reason based on economics is that the value of assets is the reciprocal of the value of money and credit. The cheaper money and credit are (which is the current case right now), the more expensive asset (stock) prices are. So this is just a game based on market speculation. So as long as we can speculate that the price of the dollar & credit will continue to get cheaper, the longer we can keep gambling in the market indexes, knowing very well that we can keep riding this winning streak. The moment the Federal Reserve starts to give hints of possible deflationary practices, we can all pull out before blowing our wads.
At the micro sense, you're absolutely right. Those with all the gold make all the rules. The rich manipulate the market with pump and dump schemes to win on the up and shorting to win on the way down. The rich always win by many respects. This GAMESTOP example (amongst the various other smaller stocks that experienced the same scheme) just shows that if you really wanted to stick it to the rich, you can if you have the numbers to do so.
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