Taxpayers Fund Musk’s Empire While He Attacks Democracy: Follow the money
Musk’s Twitter Takeover Is Now the Worst Buyout for Banks Since the Financial Crisis — WSJ
- Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Barclays provided approximately $13 billion in loans to Musk for the Twitter takeover. — Deep Dive
- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is an independent agency created by the Congress to maintain stability and public confidence in the nation’s financial system. — FDIC
- Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support. — LA Times
- Musk suggests support for replacing democracy with government of ‘high-status males’ — The Independent
How does Musk thrive off federal subsidies and bailouts while bashing democracy? Follow the money with this map to see how Musk thrives of Federal subsidies while sticking American taxpayers with the tab for his failures.
Musk creates financial crisis
Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Is Now the Worst Buyout for Banks Since the Financial Crisis. Loans of around $13 billion have remained ‘hung’ for nearly two years, bringing in interest payments but weighing on banks’ balance sheets. — WSJ
Seven major banks including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Barclays provided approximately $13 billion in loans to Musk’s holding company for the takeover in 2022. Typically, banks aim to sell such debt quickly to other investors, but this hasn’t been possible with the Twitter deal due to the company’s poor financial performance under Musk’s leadership.
The loans have remained “hung” or stuck on the banks’ balance sheets for an unprecedented 22 months, longer than any similar unsold deal since the last financial crisis, based on data from PitchBook LCD. This situation has forced some banks to mark down the value of the loans by hundreds of millions of dollars, significantly impacting their financial positions and operations.- Deep Dive
Musk suggests support for replacing democracy with government of ‘high-status males’
- Elon Musk has used his platform on X to promote a theory that a free-thinking “Republic” could only exist under the decision-making of “high status males” – and women or “low T men” would not be welcome in it.
- Musk re-posted a screenshot of the theory – which appears to have been conceived on 4chan in 2021– on the social media site.
- Musk often takes the stance that controversial, and sometimes offensive, posts on X are part of “free speech” and should be allowed on the platform – even when it includes false or misleading information.
- That is, in part, why X was blocked in Brazil. Musk refused to comply with a legal order in a long-running battle that ignited after the social media site failed to block accounts accused of spreading fake news. — The Independent
Musk dodges paying his fair share of taxes
“How much tax a wealthy person owes in a given year is a complex tapestry threaded with exemptions, deductions, credits, and obscure loopholes you’ve never heard of. The ideal is to owe zilch. If that sounds impossible to achieve, just look at the leaked tax returns of the wealthiest Americans that nonprofit news site ProPublica analyzed in 2021: Over several years, billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Michael Bloomberg, among others, paid no federal income taxes at all.” – VOX
TakeAway: Don’t put up with tax dodging billionaires getting richer with federal handouts while bashing democracy at the same time. Make everyone pay their fair share of taxes. Vote for Kamala Harris and Democrats.
Deepak
DemLabs
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Reposted from Democracy Labs with permission.