Althouse: The London Times stresses the Texan in Elon Musk as it reports the news/"news" that he's not a trillionaire at this precise moment.

June 24, 2026

The London Times stresses the Texan in Elon Musk as it reports the news/"news" that he's not a trillionaire at this precise moment.

Link.

42 comments:

Jamie said...: Oh, for heaven's sake. How is this news? Did he lose it in a poker game? Is he no longer the richest man in the world?; 6/24/26, 5:13 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Lost in this… Musk’s belief that we are already in the Singularity and that within a few years “people can have whatever stuff they want, whatever services they need…” Musk is a proponent of “high basic income” to offset the disruption of the Singularity. As Andreessen says, instead of fighting over scarcity we can “bake more pies.”; 6/24/26, 5:21 AM
Dave Begley said...: AI, “ The financial gap between the two is so extreme that when a global market sell-off caused Elon Musk to lose a staggering $150 billion in a single day, his single-day paper loss alone exceeded Warren Buffett's entire lifetime net worth.”; 6/24/26, 5:41 AM
Fritz said...: I guess they should have hurried to impose their new "trillionaire tax."; 6/24/26, 5:42 AM
Leland said...: Wow. $150b, to put that in perspective; it would buy you a bridge in central California meant to carry high speed rail, but not actually buy the rail or the train, just the bridge. Rail and train requires steel and that means energy and California can’t afford energy.; 6/24/26, 5:48 AM
Marcus Bressler said...: He, like Trump, lives rent-free in their heads; 6/24/26, 5:51 AM
rehajm said...: Yah they are really really mad at him for exposing their fraud…; 6/24/26, 6:12 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Easy come, easy go, apparently.; 6/24/26, 6:12 AM
narciso said...: Oh noee; 6/24/26, 6:13 AM
rehajm said...: …my family runs a multi-family office but I can’t figure out how the media could possibly have such accurate snapshots of Musk’s net worth. I’m sure they’re just looking at the closing price of his companies and backing out the public disclosures of his ownership, but he does what all the wealthy families do and borrow against his assets for investment and consumption. Once that happens that money disappears into his foundation and he must have trusts and other entities that are less transparent…; 6/24/26, 6:18 AM
boatbuilder said...: Wow. If they confiscate his entire wealth, they could run the federal government for...20 days. A lot less, actually, because by confiscating the speculative value of the stock of his various companies, they destroy that "wealth." so nobody benefits. Which would make the progs happy.; 6/24/26, 6:20 AM
Rocco said...: The old saying more or less goes “If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.”

Thanks to @Leland’s comment, we know exactly where that bridge is.; 6/24/26, 6:22 AM
Big Mike said...: Wealth on paper may excite Democrats, non-STEM professors, and other useless individuals who can’t grasp economics or the entire concept of wealth. The rest of us are more sophisticated.; 6/24/26, 6:23 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Read Andreessen’s “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto.” The Age of Scarcity has ended. We are already living in the Age of Abundance.

https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/; 6/24/26, 6:26 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Envy never rests. Euro’s have oodles of envy on tap.; 6/24/26, 6:44 AM
tim maguire said...: The Democrats should have taxed his wealth while they had the chance. Imagine how much money they are losing with each point drop in SpaceX.; 6/24/26, 6:58 AM
Howard said...: This means that they priced the stock opening accurately now that it's coming back down to approximately $150 per share. If it tanks below 100 then that's news.; 6/24/26, 7:04 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: Elon just needs to play a Texas country song backwards, then he'll get his dog, his girlfriends, and his trillions back.; 6/24/26, 7:06 AM
Zavier Onasses said...: But think of the tax rebate he gets because of the unrealized capital loss.; 6/24/26, 7:18 AM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: The world’s first former trillionaire.; 6/24/26, 7:18 AM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: In 5 years or so, he’ll be worth $2 trillion.; 6/24/26, 7:20 AM
Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...: We haven’t even seen the insider lock-up unlocks yet.

It doesn’t look good to complete one of the largest IPOs in history and then tap the debt markets the following week. Who would buy a 30-year SpaceX bond yielding only about 1% more than Treasuries? This issuance isn’t even for growth or reinvestment—it’s primarily to refinance existing debt.

Any company with zero profitability having just IPO’d and then immediately turns to the bond market to raise capital at less than 200bps over USTs, which presumably has preferential treatment over equity investors (or has Musk also upended the norms of the cap structure?) should be causing alarm bells to ring among shareholders and hardly provides any safety cushion for the bond holders.

That anyone is willing to take this level of risk for not much above money market rates shows how truly bonkers the markets are. You can get 4% in a money market if you shop around. Taking this for 6% is just foolish.

SpaceX is set to boom, but possibly not in the way its fan base expects.; 6/24/26, 7:23 AM
Temujin said...: Leland at 5:48.; 6/24/26, 8:17 AM
Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...: Using SpaceX overvalued shares to buy TSLA is a no brainer.

Musk bailed out Solar city with Tesla, twitter with xAI and xAI with SpaceX. He's absolutely going to try and absorb Tesla into SpaceX. When the edifice collapses, all the rubble will be in one place. Your 401K.; 6/24/26, 8:44 AM
FullMoon said...: I agree with IEE. They has been right about everything so far.; 6/24/26, 9:59 AM
Dude1394 said...: Hmmmm. So the trillionaires tax is enacted. They take some ungodly amount of money based on unrealized gains. Then market falls and now that same person is worth 150 billion less. Do they get a huge tax write off? They should. So the government gets to write the a 50 billion or so check. Democrats are stupid.; 6/24/26, 10:11 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: “The entrepreneur has seen his net worth fall to $957 billion”

That’s so sad. But I’m sure someone has started a GoFundMe for him.; 6/24/26, 10:18 AM
Curious George said...: No longer a trillionaire? Does this mean Senator Pow Wow Chow will shut her fucking pie hole?; 6/24/26, 10:19 AM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: I always find people talking about Elon Musk, but probably live by themselves or with their moms or kids, relying on Social Security and Medicare, working side work just to make it through time between checks, and think they know anything about that fella is pretty comical. The serfs will always wish they were the King, but they'll fade into oblivion ,just dreaming. According to the charts, the fella uses Too much K and really doesn't give a flying frog about the subservients.(DOGE) Show me Jimmy Carter building housing for unfortunates and doing God's work in his 90's and turn the page on a Trillionaire,who doesn't seem to ever have enough, for the LOVE of money is the root......False Idols have always been around, boring..; 6/24/26, 10:45 AM
Big Mike said...: “Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...

Using SpaceX overvalued shares to buy TSLA is a no brainer.”

Lucky for you, as that’s a body organ you appear to lack.; 6/24/26, 11:11 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: When SPCX hits $100/share - and it will - and the gatekeeping assholes on Wall Street and their institutional preferred status is unlocked I shall dive into it like a whale filter feeding upon krill.; 6/24/26, 11:22 AM
Rustygrommet said...: FullMoon said...
"I agree with IEE. They has been right about everything so far."

I don't know, Moon. We haven't heard from Mark and the professional lawyer LONE JUISTICE! Who I'm sure have some deep investment insights on this. I'm not making a finacial move til I hear from them.; 6/24/26, 11:34 AM
Ambrose said...: Given that his wealth is tied up in public stock, he is likely to gain and lose his trillionaire status multiple times in the near future. Will we have to have a news cycle each time?; 6/24/26, 12:21 PM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: Yeah, the value of Elon’s technological achievements will never compare to the photo opps of old Jimmy Carter hammering a few nails.; 6/24/26, 12:21 PM
Martin said...: The funny thing is Elon cares less about this than each of the envious little trolls that have criticized him.; 6/24/26, 12:40 PM
boatbuilder said...: "I agree with IEE. They has been right about everything so far."

Golf clap.; 6/24/26, 2:31 PM
boatbuilder said...: "Show me Jimmy Carter building housing for unfortunates and doing God's work in his 90's and turn the page on a Trillionaire,who doesn't seem to ever have enough, for the LOVE of money is the root......False Idols have always been around, boring.."

Now it all makes sense, Dinky. You are a fool who values saccharine schmaltz over substance. Elon Musk has done literally billions of times more good for you and me and all of those "unfortunates" than Jimmy Carter ever did.; 6/24/26, 2:37 PM
Rustygrommet said...: Big Mike said...
"Wealth on paper may excite Democrats, non-STEM professors, and other useless individuals who can’t grasp economics or the entire concept of wealth. The rest of us are more sophisticated."

That's it ain't it. It's all, "nobody should be a billionaire!" and "Seize the means of production!". Dude. You can't even change a tire. No way you're gonna build a car.; 6/24/26, 3:00 PM
Iman said...: London’s sucking
But don’t look to Musk
Brave Sir Keir Schtarmer
Has bitten the dust

h/t the Clash; 6/24/26, 3:34 PM
Mason G said...: "No way you're gonna build a car."

They don't want to build cars. They want to take the profits earned by those that do and spend them for their own benefit.; 6/24/26, 5:59 PM
gadfly said...: Ken White posts from Posthat:

Elon Musk is the world’s richest man — a trillionaire, briefly, until a market correction. He and his ideology are also supported by the administration of the most powerful nation on Earth. He is immune to normal social, economic, political, or legal limits. He can use his hugely influential platform to encourage pogroms without social, economic, political, or legal consequences.

It’s simply factual to say, as I did, that the only thing that will stop him is dying. Because my medium was a short Bluesky post, I mentioned him being killed. I suppose it would also stop him if he overdosed on Ketamine or choked on a piece of steak or got ass cancer or crashed one of his vehicles or something. But that would make a long post. Though the post has drawn plenty of criticism, nobody has explained to me how I am wrong about the limited circumstances that will stop him from encouraging racial violence.

No, mostly people are upset at the more pungent coda — “If only.” I said that because I think the world will be a better place when Elon Musk — sociopathic trillionaire who wants to watch a race war — is dead. I suppose it would be better if he dies from the ketamine thing. Political violence tends to lead to more political violence, political violence tends to hurt the powerless disproportionately, and political violence is destabilizing — though not, I think, as destabilizing as a politically connected trillionaire using his powerful social media platform to urge genocide. Elon Musk is autistic trillionaire Radio Rwanda.

I find the pearl-clutching over this sentiment profoundly unpersuasive. The United States kills people who “need killing” all the time. We’re on a campaign of killing unidentified guys in boats in the Gulf of Dementia because the government claims they’re drug dealers. We execute lots of people, many of whom did what they were accused of, many of whom have IQs above 70. We shoot protesters. We shoot people on the very thin pretense that they were “threatening” police officers. We kill Iranians — military and civilians — and boast about how we’re going to kill more. We killed Yamamoto and it’s a good thing we did. We didn’t kill Hitler but we helped arrange the circumstances where he killed himself, and nobody shook a scolding little finger at anyone for wishing him dead. Our most popular Founding Father’s most popular quote is “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Now, I think people of good faith can disagree about the morality or utility of wishing other human beings dead. I’ve read a few comments that suggest reasoned opposition. But not many. The loudest cries of outrage are from people who will diagnose you with Trump Derangement Syndrome if you object to the ocean of blood I just described. The reaction is largely contrived, mostly in bad faith, and rarely to be taken seriously. The people landing hardest on the fainting couches are in two groups: pro-Trump people who are thrilled that we are extrajudicially executing fishermen in the Gulf, and professional grifters who don’t necessary like the extrajudicial killings but whose entire gimmick is “aren’t those leftists silly and outrageous.” Look, they need to make a living, and they have to base a personality on something.

Pro-Trump people want you to think this oceans of blood and paeans to genocide are all good and praiseworthy, because those are their values. The anti-anti-Trump crowd wants to mock objections to Trumpism, because their dearest value is grift, and they think cringe is worse than fascism. They both demand to be taken seriously, to be respected. I decline. I said what I said.

Bluesky had the right to suspend me for that. I just think they were petty and dumb to do it.; 6/25/26, 5:09 AM
JAORE said...: Musk is a different billionaire than most. He does not seem to want a trillion for a 5th mega-mansion. Nor to acquire a plastic coated show pony of a girl friend. He want the paralyzed to walk. He wants to take the human race to Mars. He wants to preserve free speech.; 6/25/26, 6:44 AM