Mr. Musk also probably had the support of many smaller investors who retained their stock despite slumping profits and car sales — and as Mr. Musk’s foray into politics in the last year, in support of Mr. Trump, alienated many people.
“The people who have stayed as shareholders after all this are the people who have drunk the Elon Kool-Aid,” said Randall Peterson, a professor of organizational behavior at the London Business School.

United, Southwest and Delta airlines began cancelling flights for Friday in compliance with the FAA’s directive that will see reductions in flights at 40 major airports from Friday to help address air traffic controller shortage safety concerns as a result of the government shutdown.
On Thursday evening, Delta said it will be cancelling 170 flights on Friday and “fewer” on Saturday because it is a lighter travel day. Southwest said it will cancel 120 flights for Friday and United said it plans to cut 4% of its flights Friday through Sunday, and American Airlines said most customers would be unaffected and long-haul international travel would remain as scheduled, and that customers could change their flight or request a refund.
The affected airports covering more than two dozen states include the busiest ones across the US – including Atlanta, Charlotte, Denver, Dallas/Fort Worth, Orlando, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco. In some of the biggest cities – such as New York, Houston and Chicago – multiple airports will be be affected, as will all three airports serving the Washington DC area, inevitably causing delays and cancellations for lawmakers and other travelers. The cuts could represent as many as 1,800 flights and upwards of 268,000 seats combined, according to an estimate by the aviation analytics firm Cirium.
The flight reductions, according to ABC News, will start at 4% on Friday and increase to 10%. The flights affected by these reductions are scheduled during the hours of 6am to 10pm. The likely airspace shutdown comes two weeks before the Thanksgiving holiday – typically the busiest travel period of the year – and raises pressures on lawmakers to reach a deal to end the shutdown.
Air traffic controllers, already in short supply, have been working unpaid since 1 October, with many working mandatory overtime and others taking second jobs, according to Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary. The Air Traffic Organization (ATO, the operational arm of the FAA) is responsible for the scheduling and safety of more than 44,000 flights and more than 3 million airline passengers daily across more than 29m square miles of airspace.
The government shutdown has left shortages of up to 3,000 air traffic controllers, according to the administration, in addition to at least 11,000 more receiving zero wages despite being categorized as essential workers. Bryan Bedford, the FAA administrator, said the flight reductions are intended to keep the airspace safe during the shutdown.
“I’m not aware in my 35-year history in the aviation market where we’ve had a situation where we’re taking these kinds of measures,” Bedford said. “We’re in new territory in terms of government shutdowns. “Our sole role is to make sure that we keep this airspace as safe as possible.
From Friday to Sunday evening, at least 39 air traffic control facilities reported potential staffing limits, according to an Associated Press analysis of operations plans shared through the Air Traffic Control System Command Center. The figure, which is probably an undercount, is well above the average for weekends before the shutdown.
During weekends from 1 January to 30 September, the average number of airport towers, regional control centers and facilities monitoring traffic at higher altitudes that announced potential staffing issues was 8.3, according to the AP analysis. But during the five weekend periods since the shutdown began, the average more than tripled, to 26.2 facilities.
The shutdown may also have other consequences, including slowing the investigation in a UPS cargo plane crash on Tuesday in Louisville that killed at least 12 people.
“At a minimum, the shutdown will certainly slow down the investigation,” said Matt Stoddard, an Atlanta-based transportation attorney, in a statement to the Guardian. “National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators must interact with other parts of government and those other departments’ responses will certainly be slowed.”

Fears that the US economy is slowing, with firms shedding jobs and imposing hiring freezes, sent Wall Street tumbling on Thursday. The S&P 500 index of leading firms was down 1.1% as investors also highlighted concerns about the potential for a slump in the value of businesses that have benefited from huge investments in artificial intelligence. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.9%.
A report showed that last month was the worst October for US layoffs since 2003, which grabbed the attention of investors in the absence of official data delayed by the federal government shutdown. Companies cut jobs and imposed hiring freezes, according to the global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Chris Beauchamp, the chief market analyst at the trading platform IG.com, said “The lack of US data and the ongoing government shutdown is making investors nervous.” US markets have been rattled by a review of Donald Trump’s tariffs by the supreme court, which could result in the US president being forced to abandon his flagship policy. Beauchamp added that "If the supreme court rolls back some of the tariffs then inflationary worries will subside to an extent, though this is a topic that will not come to fruition for weeks.”
A lack of official data has also forced the Federal Reserve to judge the state of the US economy with only a fraction of the information it would usually sift before judging the level of interest rates. Beauchamp further said the Fed and financial markets had found themselves “groping around in the dark” after the suspension of inflation and employment data.
Speaking on CNBC, the Fed board member Austan Goolsbee said the lack of official data on inflation during the government shutdown accentuated his caution about cutting interest rates further. “I lean more to the: when it’s foggy, let’s just be a little careful and slow down,” he said.
The survey by Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that employers announced 153,074 job cuts last month, compared with 55,597 in October 2024. It said US firms announced the termination of 1.09m roles during the first 10 months of this year, up 44% from the 761,358 cuts in 2024. Technology businesses led private-sector layoffs, it added.
The FTSE 100 fell 41 points or 0.4%. European stocks also fell. The Stoxx Europe 600 closed 0.7% lower, with tech stocks suffering the heaviest losses, and the Dax in Germany fell 1.3%.
Tech valuations have ballooned, and fears of a bubble loom large. “In the US, most of the big tech beasts have reported earnings but there is still lingering concerns about those lofty valuations and the mind-boggling sums of cash being invested into the AI dream,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.

As birds fly south for the winter, they're carrying with them some unwelcome cargo: the H5N1 virus, or bird flu. In the past 30 days, the virus has struck 66 poultry flocks, leading to the deaths of more than 3.5 million turkeys, chickens and ducks, a steep increase compared to the summer months. The virus can spread easily when infected wild birds mix with commercial or backyard flocks.
If not taken seriously, the fallout could lead to more than high egg prices. Influenza researchers fear a replay of last year when, for the first time, the U.S. saw close to 70 human cases, including one death. Scientists involved in tracking the virus say they don't have good visibility into what's happening in animals or humans. That's because the federal government has scaled back on surveillance and communication.
"We're not in a great position for monitoring things," says a virologist at Tufts University. She says a network of influenza researchers used to be in constant contact with their counterparts at federal health agencies about H5N1, mapping out research priorities and discussing changes in the virus. But now "much of that infrastructure has been either completely closed down or significantly hampered," under the Trump administration, due to cutbacks in staffing, early retirements and other policies.
Another pressing issue: Data coming from the federally-run lab that does genetic sequencing of virus collected from infected animals has slowed to a trickle, something that was true even before the government shutdown. Loss of staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture — and the fact that communication with scientists needs to be "pre-approved" — has created obstacles, at a time when the threat of spillover from wildlife is increasing.
As far as scientists can tell, the strain of H5N1 that's widely circulating has not seen the kind of mutations that would enable it to easily infect humans. But the conditions on farms with infected cattle are clearly a risk for workers who are essentially breathing in H5N1 particles that are aerosolized and remain infectious. Minnesota has seen about two dozen outbreaks on farms since mid-September, and an epidemiologist at that state's department of health says they are monitoring about 35 people who were exposed in case they develop symptoms.
Testing farm workers – the group at the highest risk of catching and spreading the virus – has been a problem since the beginning of the outbreak. This kind of long-term research requires buy-in from farmers and their workers who are often undocumented. And that's unlikely to happen now because of fears about the Trump administration's immigration enforcement. When they were interviewing farm workers in California about bird flu this fall, many were too afraid to leave their homes. Their survey of several hundred workers in three states showed about 20% had symptoms at the same time animals on their farms were sick. Most of those people said they were never tested.

Tesla shareholders on Thursday approved a plan that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire, two days after New Yorkers elected a tax-the-rich candidate as their next mayor.
These discrete moments offered strikingly different lessons about America and who deserves how much of its wealth.
At Tesla, based in the Austin, Texas, area, shareholders have largely bought into a winner-takes-all version of capitalism, agreeing by a wide margin to give Mr. Musk shares worth almost a trillion dollars if the company under his management achieves ambitious financial and operational goals over the next decade.

My favorite MuskRat post recently
"Control of Tesla could affect the future of civilization"
He demanded door handles flush with car and that could not be opened from outside without battery power, causing multiple deaths and infants locked inside hot cars.
Rather than spend $2500 or more to install radar and Lidar on cars ( and those that had it earlier were deactivated) he demanded only cameras ( $400) causing multiple deadly crashes in low light dusty and glare conditions with FSD .
The salary is bad enough but he wants 29% of the stock. Many reports I have read say the criteria for him to be granted that are very flexible and the board is likely to do so regardless of company's performance.

Hey, there was an emergency. His hero in Brazil was being sent to jail! That's an emergency for all ordinary Americans isn't it? smh

TBUX is still working for me. But, it carries some risk I-bonds are not too bad, but limited in the total amount annually.
I had a CD in the early 1980s that was paying 16%. Sad when that matured! lol
This is going to be a bigger issue going forward with CDs, MMF and even ultrashort bond funds

Less than half the bonds in TRBUX are rated higher than BBB. And it does hold some junk bonds and a lot of “unrated” which could be perfectly fine, but subject to TRP’s assessment. Possibly their strategy here: about 1/3 of the holdings consist of BBB / BB rated, with BBB being the greater of the two. I guess ultra-short funds can pull this off OK. It gives me some pause.
Albeit -T Bills & insured bank deposits represent the very safest “cash” holdings if that’s your desire. Beyond that you’re playing with credit risk, duration risk, management risk and in some cases derivatives risk. Sleep well. :)

I don't expect much from the usual suspects.
That depends on whether they follow the guidance of the duopoly of proxy advisors, Glass Lewis and ISS.

Proxy firm Glass Lewis has recommended that Tesla (TSLA.O) shareholders vote against the proposed $1 trillion pay package for CEO Elon Musk, days after ISS also urged investors to reject what might be the largest-ever compensation plan awarded to a company chief.

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/proxy-firm-glass-lewis-joins-iss-urging-vote-against-musks-1-trillion-pay-2025-10-20/