<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> spike@rainier66.com <spike@rainier66.com> <br><br><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>>…Sayeth MusK:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#222222;background:white'>“…u can’t sell houses u don’t own u can’t sell cars u don’t own but u *can* sell stock u don’t own!? this is bs – shorting is a scam legal only for vestigial reasons…”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#222222;background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#222222;background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black;background:white'>>…</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#222222;background:white'>That sounds right to me. That whole short selling business just feels like it enables and encourages wrongdoing.</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black;background:white'> </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#222222;background:white'>spike</span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black;background:white'>After I posted this last night, it occurred to me that Elon did sell cars he didn’t own, massive fleets of them. About 5 years ago, he announced he was starting a new model which would sell for 35k, the Model 3. A lot of people around here already had the higher-end stuff, the S model and all that sexy stuff and liked them. I like those too, but I will be damned and sent straight to San Francisco before I will pay 80k for a car. I refuse to pay more for a car than I paid for my first house, ain’t happenin, not now, not later.</span><span style='background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black;background:white'>But 35k, well that is about an average car today, so I would carefully consider that, or buy one of those a coupla years old. Our local power company has set up the rate structure to accommodate (and to favor) these electric roller skates, so… I gave it careful consideration.</span><span style='background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black;background:white'>Meanwhile, another neighbor (not the one who owns two high end Teslas (a different neighbor)) plunked down 5k deposit to get on the waiting list for a 35k Model 3, which they estimated would take about 2 yrs, well, 2 yrs came and went, then 3. Then we hear reports of the storage lot up there in Fremont filled with the new Model 3, and oh boy, we are soon going to get our Model 3.</span><span style='background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black;background:white'>But that didn’t happen. Tesla hipsters may know the real story, but the way I heard it, they took all those baseline models back into the factory and dolled them up with all the gazazzafratzes and crystal chandeliers and electric butt massagers and were offering them to those high on the Model 3 waiting list for 50 to 60k, at a discount from what ordinary nobodies could buy that tricked-out Model 3.</span><span style='background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black;background:white'>Tesla is like any other car company: the baseline model isn’t where they make their money. The profit is in all those goodies they pile on top. Tesla was selling all that stuff and that’s how they were making money to fund the new factory in Texas: selling fleets of the dolled-up Model 3, most of them going in the 50s, some in the 60s. California has been insufficiently polite to their best cash cow. In Texas they know how to show a bit of respect for people who know how to make money.</span><span style='background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black;background:white'>That story might be wrong or exaggerated, but that is what I heard from my disillusioned neighbor who demanded his deposit back after waiting 4 years for a baseline Model 3, which (as far as I know) still hasn’t been delivered to anyone for 35k.</span><span style='background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black;background:white'>If that story is true, then Musk did sell cars he didn’t own, even if he eventually gave everyone’s money back who didn’t want to buy all those expensive trimmings. Adrian might know the real story.</span><span style='background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='background:white'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black;background:white'>spike</span><span style='background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>