Taleb claims there was deflation in 2020:
INFLATION (again)
When discussing the inflation of 2022 (like parrots), make sure you incorporate the deflation of 2020.— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) June 7, 2022
Of course, this is refuted by looking at the actual data, which shows inflation in 2020, about 1.2%. Any alleged deflation in 2020 is easily negated by huge gains in 2021 & 2022.
Another Taleb falsehood, this time about Tesla:
3/ Go back and check the numerous times when Tesla was on the brink of going bust.
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) June 7, 2022
Taleb and Elon have had a ‘feud’ since 2020 after Elon, correctly, said that people were overacting to Covid. This is why Taleb keeps spreading this bankruptcy lie.
Tesla was never at imminent risk of bankruptcy. I explain in more details in a post from 2018, Short-sellers wrong about Tesla, which coincided with the bottom of Tesla stock and a 20x gain to follow. In summary:
Tesla stock in 2018-2019 was trading at $250-300, which would not have been possible if it was on the brink of bankruptcy as Taleb claims. It’s possible for a stock to suddenly become worthless, like Enron, the obvious difference is that Enron’s busines model was a fraud, whereas Tesla’s business was booming:
Second, Tesla has always been able to raise capital at very favorable terms, which would not have been possible if it was at the brink of bankruptcy.
Third, much of Tesla losses were due to one-time expenses (these are called capital expenditures on the balance sheets), such as factories, not from the car busines itself being unprofitable.