An “ugly feeling” about the economy prompts Elon Musk to plan a 10% reduction in Tesla employees and spark a long-distance squabble with Joe Biden, irritated by the growing cry of alarm from Corporate America about the health of the economy American. The billionaire-visionary’s announcement causes Tesla stocks to collapse, closing on Wall Street down 9.22%.
After Jamie Dimon and Larry Fink, Tesla’s boss also does not hide his fears about the US economic prospects amid the aggressive cycle of interest rate hikes launched by the Fed and the uncertainty of the war in Ukraine. In an email to employees announcing the hiring freeze and a 10% reduction in salaried employees, Musk explains that this is a decision linked to a “very bad feeling” about the economy, set in the direction of recession by many analysts and observers.
Words that Biden can’t digest. “Ford invests. Stellantis invests. A lot of luck in your trip to the moon “, replies the president obviously annoyed to those who asked him for a comment on the sidelines of his statements on the” excellent “performance of the labor market, which created 390,000 jobs in May with an unemployment rate stuck at 3.6%, on a 50-year low.
Musk’s reply is not long in coming. «Thanks Mr President», the Tesla boss tweets ironically, attaching an article in which he recalls that NASA has chosen SpaceX to help him return man to the moon. It is not the first time that the richest man in the world and the American president have teased each other from a distance.
Tesla’s boss has complained several times about Biden, even calling him a “puppet in human form” for his refusal to recognize Tesla as an electric car giant, preferring them on multiple occasions to General Motors and Ford. Accusing the administration of being union controlled, Musk also lashed out at the White House billionaires tax plan by joining in ‘protest’ to his space race rival Jeff Bezos. Not satisfied, he entered the mid-term elections with a straight leg by announcing that he will vote Republican since now the Democrats are the “hate” party.
Repeated attacks that are set to continue with Musk, an avid Twitter consumer in the race to buy the company that chirps. An operation that, behind the scenes, greatly unnerves the White House, worried by the billionaire’s absolutism on free speech for all and at all costs.