$1.4bn accounting irregularity at Tesla. Does it surprise you? Its history is littered with irregularities. Remember when Musk was sanctioned by the SEC for saying that he had mobilized the capital to take the company private? It was announced on Twitter but proved to be baseless. It was all designed to inflate the share price. As Munger used to say, "show me the incentives and I'll tell you the outcome". Must structured his $50bn pay around having an elevated share price - which was the very thing that caused dumb investors to buy the stock and inflate the price. They were convinced that Tesla would be worth more than every other auto-manufacturer combined because Musk said it would. The whole thing has been smoke and mirrors. It had to crash at some point. I didn't think Musk would crash it himself!
Musk’s brother Kimbal came to Memphis to open a Restaurant at Shelby Farms to “change” the face of American eateries. He dashed out of town leaving workers without jobs a few years later. Now Elon is here putting his AI business in an approximately 11 year old building built for and left by Electrolux. He wants our water. He is supposedly using gray water. Now he has put in 15 gas turbines to help run it, without permission and he has announced that this AI facility will be 10x bigger than previously agreed upon and he has bought more land. EPA was working with MLGW, the publicly owned Memphis Light, Gas, and Water, a publicly owned utility company. Musk does what he wants and announces what he has done. Now with EPA effectively dismantled, the people in that mainly poor area are doomed to live with more pollution. TVA was part of this. We watched in horror as our MAGA state officials came bowing and scraping to their favorite billionaire.
It is clear that Musk thought that gaining political influence would benefit his commercial ventures. Nothing he does is altruistic. Yet the evidence suggests that it is backfiring, because he is irreparably damaging his reputation to the extent that he is destroying the businesses he so dearly covets. The great Sam Walton (Walmart) once said that the customer is the boss and can fire everyone in the business from the Chairman down simply by shopping elsewhere. This is a lesson that Musk may learn the hard way. Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index has revealed Musk lost $132 billion since the beginning of 2025. This means Musk has been losing over a million dollars every minute.
I am not an investment advisor. I am a fund manager. I interact with the investment community in an effort to share views.
Whether you like Musk or loathe him, the fact of the matter is that he is in business to sell goods and services. Mixing business with politics is a dumb move because politics is so polarizing. Around half of the US is Republican and the other half Democrat, explaining the flip-flop in administrations from term to term. By aligning himself with one group, he is alienating himself from half of the US - people he needs as customers. That can't be smart.
He has alienated Taiwan by being pro-China, so lost a SpaceX contract.
The EU is looking for alternatives to SpaceX because of the Ukranian fiasco, so there's another major contract lost.
Tesla sales in Germany have collapsed, despite him building a giga factory there, because he vocally sided with the right wing AFD, who subsequently lost the election anyway.
The UK has a right wing extremist called Tommy Robinson who has been in and out of jail 5 times for his extremist activity and disregard for the law. Musk has been all over social media supporting this criminal. That doesn't win him friends in Britain.
Americans are giving back Teslas and vandalizing them because of Musk's DOGE efforts.
Is this the kind of CEO that you want running a company that you are invested in? It looks to me like commercial suicide.
I can't answer that. But hopefully I have given readers something to consider.
Stan Smith (@FLOWERPOWW) seems to be a Musk fan boy. No idea if he is invested in a Musk business or is just politically aligned with him. Either way, the odd thing is that Stan Smith seems to object to open debate - despite Musk, his hero, advocating freedom of speech. Ironic really!
I really don’t understand your point then. If you pay yourself a salary you pay tax. If you don’t pay yourself a salary you don’t pay tax. If he has zero income in a year why should he pay tax??
If you have no income you pay no tax. As per every country in the world. Have a look at what he paid in 2022 or 2023 it was the single highest tax amount paid by an individual in American history.
You are WRONG. Musk pays almost no taxes. His income tax is only on that first $160,000 he earns, which means Musk paid ZERO income tax on the rest of his estimated $399,840,000,000 that he earned in 2924. Period.
I think that this discussion has gone a little off-piste.
Whether or not Musk paid tax and how much he paid misses the point of my article.
The issue that I attempted to highlight, which is captured in the wisdom of Warren Buffett, is that a reputation takes decades to build but can be destroyed in a matter of minutes.
So the real question is whether this man, who was instrumental in simplifying payments (PayPal), turbo-charged the adoption of electric vehicles (Tesla), significantly reduced the cost of space travel (SpaceX) and so much more, has now destroyed a lifetime of achievement by adopting an evil Bond villain persona.
Has past success made him feel invincible, almost immortal, and will that very success be the thing that ultimately destroys him and all that he has achieved?
Sir, I am no hack. I have never worked in journalism. I am also not invested in anything related to Elon Musk - nor do I have any short positions. As such, I have no bias. I am just saying what I see. You may have a contrary view. I have no problem with that. I am not saying I am right and you are wrong, or vice versa. I am simply opening up a debate. If you have anything substantive to say on this matter, please feel free to post it in these comments to fuel the debate.
You really think those captions you put on those images are not biased? You throw terms like fascist around just like the mainstream journalists, whether you are or arent one.
Even if you set aside the impact of Musk's unpopular political views, he has repeatedly overstated the capability of the technology that his companies are producing, and so much of this technology has been "just around the corner" for such a long time that nobody should take his leadership seriously anymore.
At the same time, his promises account for such a a large portion of the value of his companies that it's hard to separate the real value from the hype. But at some point you have to deliver what you promise (I'm still waiting on the affordable Tesla that Chinese companies are already outcompeting).
My assumption is that Musk is making decisions that are designed to increase his political influence more than his wealth in the hopes that it will lead to a bigger payoff (or, more likely, bigger risk reduction, considering the investigations that he has successfully halted).
You aren’t taking into account that Tesla said a while ago that January/February sales would be low as factory production lines were repurposed to start production of the new model Y
The post isn't really about Tesla. It is about the negative sentiment surrounding Musk and the damage he is doing to his brands. It's a risk for investors that needs to be considered.
Put it another way - if the market had taken Tesla at its word about repurposing its factory in anticipation of the new model Y, which would be a good thing, why the big sell off in the stock?
For a long time, Musk nurtured a cult following where people worshipped him. During the post pandemic era, despite producing less than 2% of cars on the road, Tesla had a market cap which valued it at more than the other 98+% combined. It was madness, but Musk used social media to his advantage and created a bubble in his stock. He even ran into issues with the SEC for bending the truth several times.
Now this process has now gone into reverse. There are more people that despise him than like him it would seem. Just look at the pictures included in my post. He has become toxic.
They say that no publicity is bad publicity - I think Musk has proven them wrong!
Unfortunately behind a paywall, but in short: There are indications of inconsistencies in the Tesla reports. The source is allegedly the same person who also pointed to Wirecard. https://www.ft.com/content/62df8d8d-31f2-445e-bfa2-c171ac43db6e
$1.4bn accounting irregularity at Tesla. Does it surprise you? Its history is littered with irregularities. Remember when Musk was sanctioned by the SEC for saying that he had mobilized the capital to take the company private? It was announced on Twitter but proved to be baseless. It was all designed to inflate the share price. As Munger used to say, "show me the incentives and I'll tell you the outcome". Must structured his $50bn pay around having an elevated share price - which was the very thing that caused dumb investors to buy the stock and inflate the price. They were convinced that Tesla would be worth more than every other auto-manufacturer combined because Musk said it would. The whole thing has been smoke and mirrors. It had to crash at some point. I didn't think Musk would crash it himself!
No, nothing about that surprises me at all. :-D I was just waiting for the prestigious press to highlight it.
Ross Gerber, one of Tesla's earliest and most prominent investors, wants Musk gone. He said in a news interview that Musk should step aside as the carmaker's CEO: https://news.sky.com/story/tesla-investor-calls-for-elon-musk-to-step-down-as-boss-13331499
Musk’s brother Kimbal came to Memphis to open a Restaurant at Shelby Farms to “change” the face of American eateries. He dashed out of town leaving workers without jobs a few years later. Now Elon is here putting his AI business in an approximately 11 year old building built for and left by Electrolux. He wants our water. He is supposedly using gray water. Now he has put in 15 gas turbines to help run it, without permission and he has announced that this AI facility will be 10x bigger than previously agreed upon and he has bought more land. EPA was working with MLGW, the publicly owned Memphis Light, Gas, and Water, a publicly owned utility company. Musk does what he wants and announces what he has done. Now with EPA effectively dismantled, the people in that mainly poor area are doomed to live with more pollution. TVA was part of this. We watched in horror as our MAGA state officials came bowing and scraping to their favorite billionaire.
It is clear that Musk thought that gaining political influence would benefit his commercial ventures. Nothing he does is altruistic. Yet the evidence suggests that it is backfiring, because he is irreparably damaging his reputation to the extent that he is destroying the businesses he so dearly covets. The great Sam Walton (Walmart) once said that the customer is the boss and can fire everyone in the business from the Chairman down simply by shopping elsewhere. This is a lesson that Musk may learn the hard way. Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index has revealed Musk lost $132 billion since the beginning of 2025. This means Musk has been losing over a million dollars every minute.
“Nothing he does is altruistic”. Oh so unbiased!
I just see an investment advisor giving his investment views. Why are you so vocally against this?
I am not an investment advisor. I am a fund manager. I interact with the investment community in an effort to share views.
Whether you like Musk or loathe him, the fact of the matter is that he is in business to sell goods and services. Mixing business with politics is a dumb move because politics is so polarizing. Around half of the US is Republican and the other half Democrat, explaining the flip-flop in administrations from term to term. By aligning himself with one group, he is alienating himself from half of the US - people he needs as customers. That can't be smart.
He has alienated Taiwan by being pro-China, so lost a SpaceX contract.
The EU is looking for alternatives to SpaceX because of the Ukranian fiasco, so there's another major contract lost.
Tesla sales in Germany have collapsed, despite him building a giga factory there, because he vocally sided with the right wing AFD, who subsequently lost the election anyway.
The UK has a right wing extremist called Tommy Robinson who has been in and out of jail 5 times for his extremist activity and disregard for the law. Musk has been all over social media supporting this criminal. That doesn't win him friends in Britain.
Americans are giving back Teslas and vandalizing them because of Musk's DOGE efforts.
Is this the kind of CEO that you want running a company that you are invested in? It looks to me like commercial suicide.
I can't answer that. But hopefully I have given readers something to consider.
Stan Smith (@FLOWERPOWW) seems to be a Musk fan boy. No idea if he is invested in a Musk business or is just politically aligned with him. Either way, the odd thing is that Stan Smith seems to object to open debate - despite Musk, his hero, advocating freedom of speech. Ironic really!
Maybe if Musk paid taxes like the rest of us he’d realize Social Security & Medicare are OUR OWN MONEY, so your GD right WE ARE ENTITLED TO IT.
FAFO Trump, Musk & Congress what happens if you go there!!!
I really don’t understand your point then. If you pay yourself a salary you pay tax. If you don’t pay yourself a salary you don’t pay tax. If he has zero income in a year why should he pay tax??
It’s the wrong type of tax he paid 😂
Your willful ignoring of the facts and point being made neither makes your right nor funny.
Not in personal income tax
Ok. The fact that he paid $11 billion in tax in 1 year means nothing.
If you have no income you pay no tax. As per every country in the world. Have a look at what he paid in 2022 or 2023 it was the single highest tax amount paid by an individual in American history.
Nice straw man. Next
Musk is the highest tax payer in the history of the US!
You are WRONG. Musk pays almost no taxes. His income tax is only on that first $160,000 he earns, which means Musk paid ZERO income tax on the rest of his estimated $399,840,000,000 that he earned in 2924. Period.
I think that this discussion has gone a little off-piste.
Whether or not Musk paid tax and how much he paid misses the point of my article.
The issue that I attempted to highlight, which is captured in the wisdom of Warren Buffett, is that a reputation takes decades to build but can be destroyed in a matter of minutes.
So the real question is whether this man, who was instrumental in simplifying payments (PayPal), turbo-charged the adoption of electric vehicles (Tesla), significantly reduced the cost of space travel (SpaceX) and so much more, has now destroyed a lifetime of achievement by adopting an evil Bond villain persona.
Has past success made him feel invincible, almost immortal, and will that very success be the thing that ultimately destroys him and all that he has achieved?
Hi James. Thank you for your comment. I should have stayed on your point.
Written like a good little establishment hack. You may be smart enough to fool some into seeming unbiased. But you don’t fool us all.
Sir, I am no hack. I have never worked in journalism. I am also not invested in anything related to Elon Musk - nor do I have any short positions. As such, I have no bias. I am just saying what I see. You may have a contrary view. I have no problem with that. I am not saying I am right and you are wrong, or vice versa. I am simply opening up a debate. If you have anything substantive to say on this matter, please feel free to post it in these comments to fuel the debate.
You really think those captions you put on those images are not biased? You throw terms like fascist around just like the mainstream journalists, whether you are or arent one.
Even if you set aside the impact of Musk's unpopular political views, he has repeatedly overstated the capability of the technology that his companies are producing, and so much of this technology has been "just around the corner" for such a long time that nobody should take his leadership seriously anymore.
At the same time, his promises account for such a a large portion of the value of his companies that it's hard to separate the real value from the hype. But at some point you have to deliver what you promise (I'm still waiting on the affordable Tesla that Chinese companies are already outcompeting).
My assumption is that Musk is making decisions that are designed to increase his political influence more than his wealth in the hopes that it will lead to a bigger payoff (or, more likely, bigger risk reduction, considering the investigations that he has successfully halted).
You aren’t taking into account that Tesla said a while ago that January/February sales would be low as factory production lines were repurposed to start production of the new model Y
The post isn't really about Tesla. It is about the negative sentiment surrounding Musk and the damage he is doing to his brands. It's a risk for investors that needs to be considered.
Put it another way - if the market had taken Tesla at its word about repurposing its factory in anticipation of the new model Y, which would be a good thing, why the big sell off in the stock?
For a long time, Musk nurtured a cult following where people worshipped him. During the post pandemic era, despite producing less than 2% of cars on the road, Tesla had a market cap which valued it at more than the other 98+% combined. It was madness, but Musk used social media to his advantage and created a bubble in his stock. He even ran into issues with the SEC for bending the truth several times.
Now this process has now gone into reverse. There are more people that despise him than like him it would seem. Just look at the pictures included in my post. He has become toxic.
They say that no publicity is bad publicity - I think Musk has proven them wrong!