Tesla falls after Commerce secretary recommends buying stock

Tesla valuation, fundamentals, and meme dynamics

• Many argue Tesla has been wildly overvalued for years (P/E >100, once worth ~6x Toyota) and is now undergoing an overdue correction.
• Several see it as a classic “meme stock” whose $1T valuation was never justified by earnings or growth, especially with negative/flat CAGR.
• Others claim P/E is the wrong lens because Tesla is not “just an auto company” but a long-term tech/manufacturing platform, so high multiples can be defended.
• Carbon-credit revenue and heavy debt are cited as major fragilities; a policy change or falling sales could hurt earnings further.

Innovation vs. stagnation and competition

• Bulls say Tesla repeatedly delivered step-change innovations (battery tech, charging ecosystem, OTA updates, manufacturing advances) and will do so again.
• Skeptics counter that many of these are now commoditized, competitors (especially Chinese makers) are moving faster, and recent Tesla products (e.g. pickup) are described as shoddy or unsafe.
• Debate centers on whether there have been any truly “recent” innovations not already copied by others.

Musk, brand destruction, and politics

• Multiple comments argue that Musk’s public behavior—now seen by a much broader audience—has severely damaged Tesla’s brand, more than earlier “online-only” controversies.
• Some link falling sales and sentiment to increasingly extreme political gestures and rhetoric, not just to financials or competition.

Government promotion, legality, and cronyism

• Strong concern that a Commerce secretary explicitly recommending Tesla stock, combined with a White House Tesla showcase, is unprecedented and blatantly corrupt.
• Discussion distinguishes between formal illegality vs. violations of federal ethics rules that are rarely enforced; punishment is seen as entirely political.
• Many frame this as “banana republic”–style oligarchy and peak (or “so far”) cronyism; a few downplay it as minor relative to other administration actions.

Market risk, margin calls, and contagion

• Some speculate about margin calls tied to loans collateralized by Tesla stock and worry about a cascading sell-off if price falls far enough.
• There is anxiety that whatever Musk normalizes in corporate behavior (aggressive layoffs, political capture) can spread across markets.

Democracy, voting systems, and protest

• Side threads compare US politics to systems with mandatory or preferential voting, arguing such mechanisms might produce more representative outcomes—or might just add more uninformed voters.
• Commenters cite gerrymandering and voter suppression as structural issues, and contrast US elections with more relaxed, community-centered voting experiences elsewhere.
• Another branch discusses differential treatment of violent insurrectionists vs. peaceful protesters as a marker of rising authoritarianism.

Meta: Hacker News culture and moderation

• Several note that posts critical of Musk/Trump or about politics seem to be aggressively flagged, turning HN into “orange Reddit” or suppressing uncomfortable topics.
• Others point to HN guidelines that de-emphasize mainstream political news and argue that front-page behavior reflects this policy, not targeted censorship.