# Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - now the Pit edition (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** elon-musk\ **Created:** [August 13, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634 "2024-08-13T00:48:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1896
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/1896 "2025-03-11T23:12:51Z")
Regarding this: [![](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:kem5cevl5sjpizk4s27cbyig/bafkreib63w3uarvbwjau3sxkzopfmbmpuen4swrjm2p5nu4ijjehwoti4q@jpeg) ](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:kem5cevl5sjpizk4s27cbyig/bafkreib63w3uarvbwjau3sxkzopfmbmpuen4swrjm2p5nu4ijjehwoti4q@jpeg) > [@Surprises coming for voters for the Leopards-Eating-Faces Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2099): > > I feel it is an issue for Musk (and to some extant for Trump). They have built up their “brand” based on their personal reputation. Musk isn’t just selling cars or internet access or spaceships; he’s selling the idea that he’s a financial genius and people should buy shares in the companies he runs. So screwing up the economy and being revealed as a financial idiot is going to hurt his ability to sell products. Little Nemo nails it. Much of Musk’s fortune is based on investor relations more than company profitability. Now the fact that Tesla and SpaceX and are both _viable_ (unlike, say, Twitter) is itself an accomplishment. But viability doesn’t create that sort of fortune. I stand by my claims regarding Musk’s organizational genius. Here’s a dissenting view. Gifted: > **[Opinion | Musk’s Tweet-Fueled Bubble May Be About to Burst](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/opinion/musk-tesla-sales-stock-price.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3E4.IHV9.puHamrNnw1lv&smid=url-share)** > > His greatest achievement is building a financial cult that serves as the engine for his enormous wealth. > Over the past six weeks, the value of Tesla’s shares has plunged about 40 percent, wiping out virtually all they had gained after the 2024 election. This reversal reveals Mr. Musk’s soft underbelly: His fortune depends heavily on the inflated expectations of his rabid following. As those expectations deflate, so will his power, demonstrating that financial markets are an underappreciated guardrail against both Mr. Musk’s and President Trump’s agendas. > It is tempting to compare Mr. Musk to the true business titans of the past quarter-century such as Apple’s Steve Jobs, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin. But those individuals created genuinely huge businesses that eclipse anything Mr. Musk has built, by any possible metric. While Mr. Musk has built a car company from the ground up — no easy feat — his wealth is largely thanks to a financial cult, one in which legions of dazzled investor-followers have enabled him to start an ever-growing number of disparate initiatives and provided immunity from critics who question his operational decision making, his [corporate governance](https://www.reuters.com/business/telsa-investors-urge-judge-order-musk-repay-13-bln-solarcity-deal-2022-01-18/#:~:text=Tesla's%20stock%20was%20down%201,rule%20in%20about%20three%20months.&text=Get%20a%20daily%20digest%20of,Sign%20up%20here.), his [obscene pay packages](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/judge-again-rejects-the-elon-musk-tesla-pay-plan-now-valued-at-101-billion/) and now his migration into the political sphere. > The high-wire act goes something like this: Dream up a business so ambitious that any setback is trivial and every accomplishment heroic. Identify yourself as the manic genius behind this ambitious business in order to personally capitalize on outsize returns from excited investors. Enlist social media to cement your iconic status, keeping your believers so enthusiastic that their fervor beats back any skeptics who dare to bet against your ventures, even as you pitch more and more fantastical ideas. At this point you hit the flywheel: Other investors, searching for outsize returns, flock to the shares of your other companies, pushing their valuations ever higher, thus fortifying your wealth and burnishing your reputation as a business mastermind. IOW Musk Inc is a bubble within a bubblicious stock market. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634)._