Musk was not facing overregulation by not having to commit fraud and misleading consumers.
I personally think Tesla would be a better company today without Elon Musk. The reality is they’re not executing on the one thing that makes them money. They’re nearly 2 years late on their pickup truck which is a license to print money in the United States. We’re JUST seeing the first deliveries of the Cybertruck but who the fuck knows When that thing scales. The kind of risks he’s taking (removing radar from cars, losing billions of dollars while putting up Tesla stock as collateral to buy twitter, cryptocurrency nonsense) is just not the type of thing you do when you’re the size Tesla is today.
Tesla is just insanely distracted right now shareholders are eventually going to be punished. If I only knew when, because I believe there’s money to be made.
The second something that's not autopilot was marketed as autopilot should have been an instant barrage from the FTC.
The second Musk committed securities fraud for "funding secured" he should have been banned from ever being an officer or director in a publicly listed company.
The second it became clear that Tesla was ignoring the requirement to have a Twitter Nanny on Musk's Twitter, the SEC should have obliterated the Tesla board.
But this is the post-Obama US, where insider trading is fine as long as it's the Right People doing it. Where bankers and investors can take obscene and reckless risk knowing the tax payer will cover their loses. Where a President's son can openly try to sell influence - who knows with what degree of success - and the intelligence agencies won't move a finger. So the Musk saga makes perfect sense.