Class action lawsuit against the exchanges, possibly SpaceX and Musk as well. He's put the dogs in SpaceX: X and XAI into SpaceX and they make SpaceX unprofitable. Buyers of SpaceX only own 3-5% of the company--so really nothing of it, even if normie shares had the same voting power as Musk does they basically have NO POWER. But they don't even have same voting power per share as Musk. Musk has special shares each of which has 10x voting power. Basically, these funds will be giving Musk money to pay for X and XAI and when and if those become profitable he can unilaterally spin them off and IPO them or take them private and the institutional investors will have no part in what they paid to carry for years, while their SpaceX investment was kept unprofitable the whole time. Who knows what other dogs Musk will make them pay for over time. It's a massive scam, possibly a conspiracy.
Wonderful piece, Catherine. I view this as another WE THE PEOPLE versus THEM the oligarchs, tech bros, etc. When you view things through such a lens, then you quickly realize that there are many more of US than there are of THEM. And that makes what the French common folk did in the late 1700s particularly appealing.
I'm the kind of troglodyte who still invests in individual stocks, so this doesn't worry me wrt my own portfolio, but If I were invested in ETFs, I'd be moving my money NOW into funds that aren't going to consist mostly of these false front Potemkin Villages, and that's what I'm recommending to family and friends. .
If unwitting investors are forced to own Space X because their Index fund made decision to allow the stock without the usual waiting time and approvals, then investors may be able to sue the Index fund that chose to trade in Space X. Wonder if the participating Index funds notified their investors of the decision to allow Space X to be added to the Index? If not then the investors didn't even have time to sell and get out if the Index fund. To call Space X a public company is somewhat an oxymoron given the near total control that Elon Musk will have over Space X.
I have no financial training or experience. Please explain to me the benefit to the average Jill or Joe of allowing companies to hold stock in other companies. I presume there is one besides just greater investment efficiency, but I sure don’t see it.
Considering the incestuousness of Musk, Inc. (and Huang, Inc., and Altman, Inc., and Zuck, Inc., and ...) what would be the going rate for a Blue Origin rocket to go ka-blew-ey on the pad just a week or so before the SpaceX IPO? I mean, that's just good business nowadays. Peak capitalism.
As with all propaganda you make your case in pure black and white while we all know the real world is painted in shades of gray. Tesla FSD provides statistical evidence that it can eliminate most of the 50,000 deaths and 200,000 serious auto accident injuries in the US alone. Tesla in the US provides over 100,000 auto jobs at $41/ hr. SpaceX will distribute over $3 billion of the IPO stock to the workers and engineers that created and produced products that are moving civilization forward into a new era. Is it perfect? No, of course not, but Musk’s repeated willingness to put everything he owns on the line, in order to leap forward, has made this all possible.
Yet another banger from the incomparable Catherine Rampell. Because I cancelled my WAPO subscription after Bezos decided to turn its opinion section into a WSJ knockoff, I was thrilled to see Catherine followed me here to the Bulwark (though I *suppose* that could be purely a coincidence, notwithstanding my obvious charms). You'd be hard pressed to find someone more adept at breaking down complex financial issues for the uninitiated.
Not gonna lie - I'm a class action attorney, and I've already looked into whether it's possible bring a class action against the indices for waiving their disclosure rules so as to facilitate listing SpaceX. Sadly, the answer seems to be no.
I get that people don't know history. There is a reason why aspects of the 1930s and 40s are repeating themselves. But another tech bubble a mere 25-ish years after the dot-com bubble!? Anyone old enough to be thinking about retirement remembers this. Yet we are about to go through this again! Have we learned nothing!
At a macro level, bubbles are painful but serve some useful economic functions. The dot-com bubble wiped out bad companies and made good companies affordable. They function as wealth transfers from older investors who are sitting on shares to younger investors who are still buying. Young people only get a chance to buy low when markets go through corrections and downtowns. Companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google were dirt cheap in those days and I am old enough and fortunate enough to have gotten some. Today’s youth deserves their shot at some similar opportunities. And there was a ton of useful infrastructure left over from the dot-com bubble that supercharged some new companies.
There is a case that the government has been propping up markets artificially for the past couple of decades with deficit spending and tax policies such that we need a reset. Markets going up forever isn’t healthier than occasional bubbles and exacerbates the pain when there is a bubble.
Besides, it is a bad form to complain about a party during the party. Wait until the actual hangover.
Regarding the tariff refund foot dragging. Companies generally have 6 years to sue the US government. I’d expect these suits to pick up in 2029.
Class action lawsuit against the exchanges, possibly SpaceX and Musk as well. He's put the dogs in SpaceX: X and XAI into SpaceX and they make SpaceX unprofitable. Buyers of SpaceX only own 3-5% of the company--so really nothing of it, even if normie shares had the same voting power as Musk does they basically have NO POWER. But they don't even have same voting power per share as Musk. Musk has special shares each of which has 10x voting power. Basically, these funds will be giving Musk money to pay for X and XAI and when and if those become profitable he can unilaterally spin them off and IPO them or take them private and the institutional investors will have no part in what they paid to carry for years, while their SpaceX investment was kept unprofitable the whole time. Who knows what other dogs Musk will make them pay for over time. It's a massive scam, possibly a conspiracy.
Wonderful piece, Catherine. I view this as another WE THE PEOPLE versus THEM the oligarchs, tech bros, etc. When you view things through such a lens, then you quickly realize that there are many more of US than there are of THEM. And that makes what the French common folk did in the late 1700s particularly appealing.
I'm the kind of troglodyte who still invests in individual stocks, so this doesn't worry me wrt my own portfolio, but If I were invested in ETFs, I'd be moving my money NOW into funds that aren't going to consist mostly of these false front Potemkin Villages, and that's what I'm recommending to family and friends. .
Smells like Enron
The most commonly owned index is the S&P 500, and SPCX will not be in that index for at least a year — and then only if it is profitable.
Unless they're subjected to irresistible pressure. I hope that you're right, but I'm not sure.
If unwitting investors are forced to own Space X because their Index fund made decision to allow the stock without the usual waiting time and approvals, then investors may be able to sue the Index fund that chose to trade in Space X. Wonder if the participating Index funds notified their investors of the decision to allow Space X to be added to the Index? If not then the investors didn't even have time to sell and get out if the Index fund. To call Space X a public company is somewhat an oxymoron given the near total control that Elon Musk will have over Space X.
I have no financial training or experience. Please explain to me the benefit to the average Jill or Joe of allowing companies to hold stock in other companies. I presume there is one besides just greater investment efficiency, but I sure don’t see it.
Considering the incestuousness of Musk, Inc. (and Huang, Inc., and Altman, Inc., and Zuck, Inc., and ...) what would be the going rate for a Blue Origin rocket to go ka-blew-ey on the pad just a week or so before the SpaceX IPO? I mean, that's just good business nowadays. Peak capitalism.
As with all propaganda you make your case in pure black and white while we all know the real world is painted in shades of gray. Tesla FSD provides statistical evidence that it can eliminate most of the 50,000 deaths and 200,000 serious auto accident injuries in the US alone. Tesla in the US provides over 100,000 auto jobs at $41/ hr. SpaceX will distribute over $3 billion of the IPO stock to the workers and engineers that created and produced products that are moving civilization forward into a new era. Is it perfect? No, of course not, but Musk’s repeated willingness to put everything he owns on the line, in order to leap forward, has made this all possible.
FSD is any day now, right?
thank you Elon-from Forbes:
Screwworm In Texas Cattle Could Drive Up Beef Prices—After DOGE Axed Prevention Efforts
Yet another banger from the incomparable Catherine Rampell. Because I cancelled my WAPO subscription after Bezos decided to turn its opinion section into a WSJ knockoff, I was thrilled to see Catherine followed me here to the Bulwark (though I *suppose* that could be purely a coincidence, notwithstanding my obvious charms). You'd be hard pressed to find someone more adept at breaking down complex financial issues for the uninitiated.
All of this infuriates me. We've got monsters running the country and can't seem to get rid of them. Especially those we can't even vote against. UGH.
Well, you could pull your money from index funds. And vote in folks who take an axe to Elon's gov contracts.
Per Matt Levine, it apparently is possible to buy ETFs that omit/reduce AI exposure. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2026-06-04/get-your-spacex-bets-in-now
Worth considering!
I wish there was some way to fight back against the big tech broligarchy. It seems like the system is rigged in their favor.
Not gonna lie - I'm a class action attorney, and I've already looked into whether it's possible bring a class action against the indices for waiving their disclosure rules so as to facilitate listing SpaceX. Sadly, the answer seems to be no.
I get that people don't know history. There is a reason why aspects of the 1930s and 40s are repeating themselves. But another tech bubble a mere 25-ish years after the dot-com bubble!? Anyone old enough to be thinking about retirement remembers this. Yet we are about to go through this again! Have we learned nothing!
At a macro level, bubbles are painful but serve some useful economic functions. The dot-com bubble wiped out bad companies and made good companies affordable. They function as wealth transfers from older investors who are sitting on shares to younger investors who are still buying. Young people only get a chance to buy low when markets go through corrections and downtowns. Companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google were dirt cheap in those days and I am old enough and fortunate enough to have gotten some. Today’s youth deserves their shot at some similar opportunities. And there was a ton of useful infrastructure left over from the dot-com bubble that supercharged some new companies.
There is a case that the government has been propping up markets artificially for the past couple of decades with deficit spending and tax policies such that we need a reset. Markets going up forever isn’t healthier than occasional bubbles and exacerbates the pain when there is a bubble.
Besides, it is a bad form to complain about a party during the party. Wait until the actual hangover.