[beefield]

I think there are two internally consistent approaches here.

Either you go full on Eugene Fama and claim that you do not even understand what market manipulation means as long as there is no hidden information, as markets are efficient and it is just market reflecting unidentified changes in the fundamentals or random fluctuation around the correct value or whatnot.

Or, you can say that yes, this is just exhibit N about how prices can be manipulated, which means that prices are not always correct. Which means that we can't trust blindly on markets to allocate resources efficiently, but we need to have careful discussion about in which circumstances it is prudent to restrict the market operations (including price, supply and demand).

What is weird, is how rare it is to find either of these approaches in public discussion. (For the record, I am in the latter camp. And no, I do not propose fullo on communism and regulated markets, but "to have careful discussion about in which circumstances it is prudent to restrict the market operations")