Over the past few days, a quarrel has erupted on social media between Tesla founder Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump, where insults and various threats have been thrown back and forth.
It's about two extremely strong personalities where one has the billions, the other has the power – and both want to be in the center, says Robert Bergqvist at SEB.
Support benefited Tesla
The origin seems to be the budget proposal that the White House has presented, which Trump has described as "big and beautiful".
Elon Musk has turned against the budget increasing public spending and also undermining the work he has done to streamline authorities. At the same time, parts of the electric car support that has benefited Tesla are disappearing.
Robert Bergqvist gives Elon Musk the right in the matter when it comes to the national debt. He thinks that American politicians, regardless of party affiliation, have long taken the budget deficit too lightly.
The public debt just keeps pointing upwards. My picture is that there is a great lack of problem insight in Congress, and now also in the White House, about what can happen if you just continue as now, he says and continues:
There are limits to how much a state can borrow. Somewhere, investors start to lose confidence, we already see some such signs that one questions whether one should continue to buy American government bonds.
According to Robert Bergqvist, it can become a snowball effect where interest rates rise and with that the concern about how the deficit will be financed.
And then the interest rate rises even more. Then you put the fiscal snowball in motion.
Like a steamroller
He therefore thinks it's "welcome" that someone dares to raise their voice.
In this case, it's Elon Musk. As I interpret him, he means that the public sector has become a growth engine in itself, something that has created inefficiency.
Since I can't agree with him in the way he presents it. He goes forward like a steamroller and takes no consideration, which creates uncertainty, says Robert Bergqvist.
He also thinks that the quarrel between Trump and Musk has highlighted how deeply integrated Elon Musk's business empire is in politics.
The stock market fall in Tesla is an example of this. He has had great opportunities to get support from the Trump administration to develop his products. In addition, he has gigantic public contracts, not least through SpaceX, says Bergqvist.
