Politics

Will Trump Bail Out Musk Or Will He Say Bankruptcy Ain’t All Bad?

Tesla’s stock is slipping… The extent to which this is a problem for Elon Mask is yet to be determined because, well, isn’t he the richest man in the world?

Ok, now let me go back aways and tell you all about this thing in the early part of the century called the Global Financial Crisis. It was caused by a collapse in the subprime housing market…

Now, it’s a bit hard to explain this and not have many of you fall asleep… In the film, “The Big Short” they explained one of the boring bits by filming Margot Robbie in a bubble bath drinking champagne while she explained it. Unfortunately, I don’t have any bubbles either for the bath or the champagne and I’m not sure that I have the same drawing power… Besides, I don’t remember what she said so it wasn’t really effective.

Whatever, the problem with the collapse of the subprime housing market wasn’t the fact that it collapsed. The entire value of the subprime market wasn’t enough to really cause a major problem… the problem was the leveraging.

Put simply, if you lend me a million dollars and I put up my unpublished writing as collateral, that seems like a pretty good deal if you believe me when I tell you that somewhere in my unpublished writing is a novel that will be a bestseller and the film rights will earn you more money than the novel on which it’s based, so you feel quite ok borrowing a few million on the basis of the film deal and then eventually someone else uses the collateral to borrow enough to buy Twitter and change its name to…

Ok, I think you get the idea. At this point, when somebody realises that, not only is my novel unlikely to be made into a movie, it’s unlikely to be made into a novel and now that everyone has to pay back everything, I feel really bad that I didn’t write something much better because now that everyone has to find actual money…

All right, they don’t actually have to find “actual money”!

There’s no such thing as actual money because money is basically a concept. It’s a way of measuring things. You might as well say now that the property market has collapsed, I need an actual square metre… No, not a square metre of land… An actual square metre!!

What they need to find is someone who’ll lend them the money… Alternatively, they could sell what they bought and pay back the loan that way… which is a fine thing if you bought bottles of Grange as an investment and not as something to piss up against wall… which is what I would have done if I’d drunk a million dollars worth of Grange…

Elon, on the other hand, may simply have to sell his Tesla shares in order to pay for the loans he took out to buy Twitter – as X, as it’s now known. This would be no problem if the shares were going up, but in a buyer’s market, it’d be a fire sale… And not just because of the Teslas that were lit up by “terrorists”…

However, the shares are going down. At this point, we have no idea whether this is because people are concerned that:

  1. Tesla is a risky investment because Musk abused woke people and a large percentage of Tesla buyers would have taken this personally.
  2. Tesla is a risky investment because people are protesting outside Tesla showrooms.
  3. Tesla is a risky investment because BYD have just developed a fast charger that can charge EVs about as quickly as it takes to fill up a large car with petrol.
  4. Elon has already started selling his shares and this has caused them to tank.
  5. The Tesla vehicle that looks like a tank and was meant to be impenetrable has had a problem when hostile people throw things at it and the windows break if they’re hit with things as heavy as a large shoe…

Whatever…

Will Donald bail out Tesla by insisting that everyone has to buy one, or will he say, “Sucks to be you, Elon, I only like winners!”

 

Dear reader, we need your support

Independent sites such as The AIMN provide a platform for public interest journalists. From its humble beginning in January 2013, The AIMN has grown into one of the most trusted and popular independent media organisations.

One of the reasons we have succeeded has been due to the support we receive from our readers through their financial contributions.

With increasing costs to maintain The AIMN, we need this continued support.

Your donation – large or small – to help with the running costs of this site will be greatly appreciated.

You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969

 

Rossleigh

Rossleigh is a writer, director and education futurist. As a writer, his plays include “The Charles Manson Variety Hour”, “Pastiche”, “Snap!”, “That’s Me In The Distance”, “48 Hours (without Eddie Murphy)”, and “A King of Infinite Space”. His acting credits include “Pinor Noir Noir” for “Short and Sweet” and carrying the coffin in “The Slap”. His ten minute play, “Y” won the 2013 Crash Test Drama Final.

Recent Posts

The “Great Era of Nuclear Decommissioning” begins – well, sort of, even in Australia

Nuclear is big news for Australia. For the coming election, the federal Opposition party –…

16 hours ago

How the RBA’s Neoliberal Policies Hurt Australians

By Denis Hay How the Reserve Bank of Australia Upholds Neoliberal Economics - and Why…

17 hours ago

Monash expert: Peter Dutton’s call for a referendum on deportation

Monash University Media Release Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is considering holding a referendum to allow dual…

17 hours ago

Climate, conflict, chaos: our worries multiply

The world is definitely chaotic right now and we have much to be concerned about.…

19 hours ago

Will Australia’s 2025-26 Budget deliver fiscal relief?

UNSW Sydney: Media Release Australia must focus on fiscal space in the 2025-26 Budget to…

22 hours ago

Anthem for Tomorrow’s Child

Dear child of mine, a seed of wonder’s womb, In verses dressed, I pen for…

23 hours ago