Summary
Elon Musk’s fortunes have plummeted by $148 billion amid Tesla stock plunging nearly 50%, government protests, and setbacks at SpaceX and Starlink.
A White House event with Trump, meant to boost Tesla, instead highlighted Musk’s growing desperation.
Musk’s other ventures are also struggling—SpaceX rockets have exploded during tests and Starlink lost a Canadian contract.
His role leading DOGE is generating backlash, with Musk appearing increasingly defeated in public appearances.
His reputation, which previously weathered controversies, now faces unprecedented challenges due to his political alliance with Trump.
“Whether Elon understands this or not is irrelevant. The stock market’s mechanics don’t change based on his emotional reactions”
You may recognize those as your own words from the comment that I was responding to. I’m not moving goalposts or making strawman arguments, you are either choosing not to or failing to follow the thread of your own statements.
I’ll explain the link then. Investor sentiment often turns sour when there are scandals with the c-suite of companies. It’s also affected by the public statements and confidence of said c-suite. Currently elon is embroiled on one of the largest and most brand image damaging scandals in recent memory. Further, in his recent appearances he’s both looked and sounded like a slowly deflating basketball. This has both visibly affected investor confidence in his companies, and is evidence supporting my claim that he can’t handle seeing number go down. This is why your claim that “the stock markets don’t change based on his emotional reaction” is equivalent to saying that markets don’t respond to investor sentiment
I don’t know why you keep talking about investor sentiment when that has nothing to do with what I’ve been talking about here. I’ve been narrowly speaking of Elon himself. How he feels doesn’t matter. What matters is what he does. Stocks fluctuate; that’s called volatility, and every investor knows this. A portfolio is just a stack of paper until you convert it back into cash. How you feel about that stack of paper is entirely irrelevant.
Because investor sentiment is the reason your claims are wrong. Of course you haven’t been talking about it; it dismantles your argument, and you’re here to win a debate rather than to have a conversation. I wouldn’t talk about either if I were in your position and trying to feel right on the internet.
“How he feels doesn’t matter. What matters is what he does” is flatly incorrect; how people feel plays a significant role in determining how they act and how they present themselves/their brand in public. These things go on to affect things like investor confidence, which goes on to effect stock market prices. These variables are all far too coupled to claim that any one matters but any other does not.
“A portfolio is just a stack of paper until you convert it back into cash”. Yeah, that’s kinda how all currency works. It’s just a stack of paper until you convert it into goods. Given the propensity of the rich to borrow against their net worth whenever they need liquid cash to acquire goods, losing net worth on the stock market is a very real financial loss in his case.
Let’s take a look at my original message again:
Now what does any of what you been talking about have to do with this? What am I wrong about there? You’ve just been rambling about completely irrelevant stuff since your very first response to me. I literally don’t even know what you disagree about.