#104 No More GameStop Puns

This newsletter is really a public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question:&#160;how do I think about a particular public policy problem/solution?<br/><br/>PS: If you enjoy listening instead of reading, we have this edition available as an audio narration on all podcasting platforms courtesy the good folks at&#160;<a href="https://www.ad-auris.com/">Ad-Auris</a>. If you have any feedback, please send it to us.<br/><br/>Global Policy Watch: Capital Markets (Enter, Stage Right) - Radically Networked Societies <br/><br/>- RSJ<br/><br/>It is difficult to write a newsletter this weekend and not talk about GameStop. Even for a public policy newsletter. But I like to believe if you hold your gaze long enough at any news going around, you will find a public policy problem. This becomes especially true if you run a twice-a-week public policy newsletter. Everything starts looking like a public policy issue soon enough.<br/><br/>Anyway, a lot of what&#8217;s happened with the GameStop stock over the last couple of weeks is part of the broader gusts of change that&#8217;s buffeting society and culture since the global financial crisis (GFC). In that sense, it is useful to try and look beyond the story to understand the GameStop phenomenon. But let&#8217;s not get ahead of ourselves. Let&#8217;s do a quick recap of the story.<br/><br/>GameStop is a brick-and-mortar video game seller. A fairly routine presence across large malls across America, GameStop was meandering its way into irrelevance over the last many years. After all, who goes to the mall to buy video games anymore? And then the pandemic arrived to compound its woes. Its days seem numbered. Soon it would join the likes of Blockbuster, JC Penney and scores of other businesses that couldn&#8217;t reinvent themse