A flippant Elon Musk takes shots at Biden, the SEC and anti-nuclear sentiment , SEP 29 2021 Lora Kolodny Kolodny@lorakolodny

  • At an appearance Tuesday at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California, Elon Musk criticized Joe Biden for not inviting Tesla to a White House summit on electric vehicles.
  • He also poked at the SEC and explained his point of view on taxation practices.
  • In addition, he said he didn't quite understand why renewable energy supporters are against nuclear power.
  • SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticized President Joe Biden on Tuesday, deeming his administration "biased" against Tesla and saying it appears to be "controlled" by unions during a speech on stage at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California.Musk, in his typically irreverent form, also repeated several of his prior taunts against federal financial regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission, reiterated his support for cryptocurrency and nuclear energy, and said he is optimistic about Tesla and tech in China despite recent antitrust and cryptocurrency crackdowns there

................On taxes. Swisher asked Musk — who is currently the wealthiest person in the world, according to Bloomberg — to respond to criticism that while his companies have received a good deal of government contracts and subsidies, the CEO has avoided paying some taxes personally in the U.S. through creative, if legal, accounting practices.

In June, the investigative news site ProPublica reported on Musk's tax bill as part of a massive analysis of billionaires' finances. They found that Musk's income tax bill amounted to zero in 2018.

  • Musk insulted ProPublica's reporting, calling it "tricky" and "misleading."Then he said that the number was so low because he does not draw a salary, so his cash compensation is basically zero. Musk borrows money against stock options that vest over time instead.As he has amassed more and more shares in Tesla and SpaceX, he said, he has "not really bothered" to take money off the table by selling a stake..........
  • When asked for comment by CNBC, ProPublica responded with the following statement from Editor-in-Chief Stephen Engelberg:

"Elon Musk's remarks confirm the accuracy of our reporting, which disclosed that he paid no federal income taxes in 2018. As we pointed out in our story, Musk has supported his lifestyle by borrowing money against his stockholdings, a textbook example of the strategy known as 'buy, borrow and die.' We noted in our story that his tax payments to the government in recent years were a tiny portion of his multi-billion dollar gains in wealth.".............

In 2018, the SEC sued Tesla and Musk for securities fraud after the CEO wrote on Twitter that he was considering taking Tesla private for $420 per share and had funding secured.They ultimately settled that lawsuit, with Musk and Tesla each paying a $20 million fine to the feds and Musk relinquishing his role as chairman of the board at Tesla. Musk also agreed to have his tweets reviewed by a compliance officer at Tesla before he posts them if they contain any material company information.

................. Crypto and China

Tesla made waves in February when it revealed it had purchased about $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. After it disclosed the holdings, the price of bitcoin skyrocketed. In May, when Musk said on Twitter that Tesla would stop accepting bitcoin as a payment for its electric cars, the price of bitcoin plummeted.

When Musk tweets an endorsement of a particular coin — as he has done with dogecoin — its price tends to increase, at least temporarily.

When Swisher asked about cryptocurrency regulation, Musk said that the SEC should back off.

"Just let it fly," he suggested.The People's Bank of China recently declared all cryptocurrency-related activities illegal. ............

Space and energy Swisher and Musk discussed SpaceX, its competitors, plans to expand satellite internet service Starlink, and ambitions to make humanity a "multi-planet species" at length. During the course of their SpaceX discussion, Musk took the opportunity to mock the phallic shape of Blue Origin's rocket and berate Jeff Bezos for his aerospace company's litigiousness.......

.... "I'm also kind of pro-nuclear. And I'm sort of surprised by the public sentiment against nuclear.  https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/29/elon-musk-takes-shots-at-biden-sec-anti-nuclear-sentiment-at-code.html

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