Elon Musk welcomes global recession: ‘it’s been raining money on fools for too long’
With the invasion of Ukraine and lockdowns in China putting added pressure on a supply chain that has yet to recover from the ongoing pandemic, many are predicting a global recession. Elon Musk says bring it on.
“This is actually a good thing,” Musk said in response to a question from a Twitter user. “It has been raining money on fools for too long. Some bankruptcies need to happen.
“Also,” he continued, “all the Covid stay-at-home stuff has tricked people into thinking that you don’t actually need to work hard. Rude awakening inbound!”
It’s tough talk from a man said to be worth north of $218bn, more than anyone in the world. And it conveniently overlooks the considerable handouts Musk himself took in the process of growing his net worth after plunking down $6.5m for a majority stake in Tesla in 2004. How did Musk weather the economic storms and rude awakenings thereafter?
In 2008, the company rolled out its only product – a Lotus Elise knockoff called the Roadster. At a starting price of around $80,000, the coupe wasn’t exactly priced to move; 2,450 global sales made Musk’s vision of mass-producing electric cars look like a pipe dream. But a year later, Tesla received a $465m loan as part of a federal stimulus package – money that essentially paid for the development and manufacture of the groundbreaking Model S.
Musk, who’s quick to note that Tesla paid that loan back early, moves those cars with help from considerable tax breaks for electric vehicles. And he further takes advantage of his cars’ absence of tailpipe emissionsby reselling his cache of carbon credits to high-carbon emitting rivals under pressure to clean up – at least $517m since 2015. There’s a reason why Bill Ackerman and other short-sellers bet big on
Read more on theguardian.com
