Hold onto your laser-shooting doge memes, folks. The New York Times just exposed a bureaucratic farce so absurd, even Elon Musk’s Twitter feed couldn’t make it up. David Lebryk, a top U.S. Treasury official, has quit in disgrace—not because of crypto bros, inflation, or even a real doge… but because of the Department of Governmental Expenditures (DOGE), a federal agency now drowning in chaos. Yes, you read that right: DOGE (x profile).
In an insightful essay by Linette Lopez for Business Insider, the financial saga of Elon Musk, one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, is dissected, emphasizing a crucial hypothesis: Musk's fortune, and by extension his business empire, owes much to Tesla's success in China, which may now be a double-edged sword. FinTelegram even thinks it is possible that Musk's empire might crash due to high-interest payments and poor cash.
Elon Musk experienced a substantial reduction in his net worth this week, plummeting to $193 billion, as reported by Bloomberg's Billionaire Index. This marks the first time since June that the CEO of Tesla has seen his net worth dip below the $200 billion threshold, primarily due to the disappointing quarterly earnings report from Tesla and the loss of value of X (formerly known as Twitter).
On Wednesday, Elon Musk's EV manufacturer Tesla announced a net income of $2.7 billion for Q2 2023, representing a 20% increase compared to the same period last year. However, the company's profits were affected as it once again slashed the prices of its electric vehicle (EV) models, resulting in reduced automotive margins. The Strong sales culminated in a record-breaking Q2 delivery of 466,140 vehicles. Tesla also announced an 84-month auto loan to boost car sales.
Elon Musk engaged in a brief affair last fall with the wife of Sergey Brin, Nicole Shanahan. Consequently, the Google co-founder filed for divorce earlier this year, ending the tech billionaires’ long friendship. Brin filed for divorce from Nicole Shanahan in January 2022, citing “irreconcilable differences.” Several weeks after Brin learned of the brief affair, the divorce filing was made.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Elon Musk is expected to confirm his desire to own Twitter when he speaks to the social-media company’s employees today, according to a person familiar with the matter. The billionaire Tesla CEO will answer pre-submitted employee questions for roughly an hour at a virtual Twitter all-hands meeting Thursday morning West Coast time.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the S&P 500’s information-technology sector has dropped 20% in 2022, its worst start to a year since 2002. Its gap with the broader S&P 500, down 14%, is the largest since 2004. Some investors, haunted by the 2000 dot-com bust, are bracing for bigger losses ahead. The declines have prompted investors to pull a record $7.6 billion out of technology-focused mutual funds and exchange-traded funds this year through April.
The controversial US investment celebrity Cathie Wood and her ARK funds have had great success with the Tesla shares. ARK investors had a great time in 2020, but things haven't been so great in 2021 and 2022. Woods is described by the Financial Times as a "boom or bust investor" who invests in shares of disruptive companies that produce a lot of hope but no profits, such as Tesla. Her ARK funds have certainly benefited from the easy money policy of the last Covid-19 pandemic years. Just like cryptocurrencies, of which Cathie Wood is also a big fan.
Bitcoin used the most energy of any cryptocurrency in 2020, producing as much as 59.9 million tons of CO2. 299.6 million trees would've needed to be planted to offset this volume. Bitcoin is an incredibly unsustainable cryptocurrency. Studies suggest that the cryptocurrency's carbon footprint is as large as some of the world's biggest cities. This needs to be changed if Bitcoin wants a future in the dawning law-carbon cybersocie