Elon Musk: The Great Congressional Swindler

This month, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blew up, destroying Facebook’s $195-million-dollar satellite.

This event eerily reminds us about the failed Falcon 9 launch just 15 months earlier, where SpaceX’s rocket blew up as it approached orbit and destroyed $118 million dollars of NASA cargo. This is the second failure in succession, reminding the public of the “risks of spaceflight.”

Except that “risk of spaceflight” is just rhetoric by the government – the other orbit launching company, United Launch Alliance (ULA), has experienced a 100 percent success rate in launches over a course of 10 years, compared to SpaceX’s reckless six years in business.

Big Solar’s Subsidy Bubble

The Department of Energy’s Inspector General revealed last week that the legendary solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra—a poster baby of the Obama stimulus—lied to the feds to get a $535 million loan guarantee before going bust in 2011. Solyndra is a cautionary tale, but the Obama Administration is still showing caution to the sun.

Autopilot tech supplier fears Tesla is pushing safety envelope too far

The chief technology officer of a technology supplier that enables Tesla’s semi-autonomous Autopilot driving technology believes the carmaker is pushing the safety envelope too far.

“It is not designed to cover all possible crash situations in a safe manner,” Amnon Shashua, CTO and executive chairman at Israel-based Mobileye NV, told Reuters Wednesday.

Shashua’s comments came the same day a second fatal accident was revealed through a lawsuit filed against Tesla by the father of a man allegedly driving a Model S with the Autopilot engaged.

Tesla Motors Inc – How Much Worse Could It Get? (TSLA)

Lithium, the key component found in battery packs, is necessary to propel an electric vehicle. It’s the lifeblood of the vehicle, so to speak. The problem, however, is that lithium miners are having a hard time meeting the demand. And what is available is becoming stunning expensive.

Since the middle of 2015, lithium prices have jumped about 200%, reaching $20,000 per metric ton. And as lucrative as it’s become (and it will likely remain at those prices), it’s not as if the industry can easily ramp up output. Indeed, CEO Elon Musk has already commented “we would basically need to absorb the entire world’s lithium-ion production.”

More sources are being found and developed, but the math of the supply/demand dynamic is concerning. Battery prices could soar. Granted, they’ll soar for all EV companies, but Tesla Motors is the most vulnerable.

China Crash Raises Fresh Questions About Tesla’s Disclosures

Tesla is already the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into whether it breached securities laws by failing to disclose the Florida crash prior to selling $2 billion worth of shares. The January crash would seemingly raise similar concerns.

With Tesla, still a minnow in the global auto market, soon facing new competition from deep-pocketed rivals including General Motors’ Chevy Bolt, its brand reputation has never been more important. The longer questions linger about the safety of its vehicles, and the company’s willingness to discuss potential issues, the more that reputation is put at risk.

Chanos: Tesla/SolarCity raises governance issues

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Goldman Sachs Plays A Rotten Role In Tesla-SolarCity Deal

Summary

You’ve not met Aswath Damodaran? Allow me to introduce you.
Damodaran lays bare the many follies & misdeeds behind the TSLA-SCTY fairness opinions.
In the Tesla fairness opinion kitchen, Goldman Sachs wrote the recipe, furnished the ingredients, and supplied the spoon; Evercore and Lazard merely stirred the pot.
Goldman Sachs has been consistently wrong in forecasting Tesla performance, and (very quietly) already has slashed the 2017 revenue forecast it gave Evercore and Lazard.
Ben Kallo stops by with an important reminder for us all.

Stop Elon From Failing Again

THE ONE STOP DATABASE ON STOPPING ELON MUSK

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