Spice And Wolf detailed this EXACT SITUATION nigh a decade ago. Pyrite, fool's gold, a worthless metal, was being artificially inflated in the market when someone short-sold it, leading other merchants to purposefully hike the price, and yet more randoms simply joining in to watch the bubble grow, leading to crisis for the credit merchant (the short-seller).

Like seriously, a public-accessible, easy-to-understand ANIME detailed nearly this EXACT SITUATION and how is hows wrong.