Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

Proven wrong!

Better?

 

I started to post something long (of course) the night the news broke, but the responses on this thread have worn me out and I figured, "Why bother?"

But I'll try, since you revived the thread.

Musk is proposing that one entity that is bleeding cash, but has run out of room to exist on a billions of dollars worth of subsidies and borrowed money, get bailed out by his other entity that bleeds cash and has run on subsidies and billions of dollars of ZIRP money, but still has people idiotically financing his bullshit, unlike the entity that is near bankruptcy. His only gambit left is the same one he went to a few months ago to raise yet more money for Tesla (as he bleeds cash) -- using the ridiculous stock price of Tesla (while it is still in bubble territory) as a currency to buy time for Solarcity (which has been going down hard), because he is out of money and his bullshit and hype ain't working on that one anymore.

I was afraid the BS would actually float as usual, when I first heard the conference call, but the reaction has been pretty strong -- finally! If you look at the stock prices at the end of the day yesterday, the initial reaction was that Solarcity is worth less than zero to the market, because the hit in market cap that Tesla took minus the muted boost in market cap that Solarcity saw created a "combined" company worth less than the two had been worth trading independently. Hopefully that kind of rational response continues -- although as long as central banks still have a modicum of ability to distort markets (they are losing control, though), who knows?

I'll give Musk this. He has balls the size of bowling balls. Only someone who has gotten away with endless con artistry would even try to bail himself out with that kind of move. He must think he is bulletproof. It may be legal somehow, but jesus is it slimy.

Here was CNBC, which got a statement from Jim Chanos about it:

Jim Chanos shreds 'shameful' Tesla-SolarCity deal

Solarcity is close to bankruptcy -- at the rate it is bleeding cash, its dogshit business (which is simply a financing scheme that got as far as it did because of artificially low manipulated interest rates that we will pay for for years and years and years) is belly up by the end of the year.

Tesla bleeds cash at a ridiculous rate, but because of the hype surrounding the company, it has been able to keep borrowing to finance its mess -- using its stock as a currency to keep raising money. And he has ridden it to the hilt. You need balls to dilute your stock float the way he did a few months ago to raise more than a billion dollars yet again for your business that is bleeding cash -- and get away with it because of distorted markets the Fed has created, by rewarding failure (which we will pay for for years and years and years) -- and then actually try to dilute your stock by billions of dollars more to bail your other entity out. I am hoping this is where the Musk bullshit finally ends -- with the curtain being lifted on the Wizard of Oz. People like him are destructive -- or as Zero Hedge said within minutes of the announcement the other day, "We wonder if 22nd Century investors will be warned of "Musk Schemes"?

I read this yesterday. No I didn't write it. It was pretty spot on, though.

Wake Up Musk Fanboyz: Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

 

I find that headline deceptive. Tesla doesn't sell those cars as self driving. They tell people that autopilot, as it exists, is an assistance technology -- and it tells people to keep their hands on the wheel and stay alert. It is more to straighten the car and keep you in lane, than to drive the car for you. They are working on an autodrive technology, as are a lot of others, but it isn't there yet.

I don't know what to believe about this guy who died. You never know whether to trust reports anymore. ... there have been some reports that he was watching a Harry Potter video when he crashed and died. I find that hard to believe, but if it's true, it isn't the cars' fault.

Eventually -- maybe sooner rather than later -- there are going to be people rolling out true self-driving cars. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some accidents and deaths. Just like in the early days of automobiles and airplanes there were accidents and deaths. It's kind of to be expected.