

This is complicated and something you have to understand the stock market to even imagine. Certain stocks retain value way above what may be considered their value because of the propensity of other people to buy the stock. Tesla is something that falls into the realm of what people will call ‘shit beta,’ which is a stock that only has value because people know that it is volatile and will therefore have value. It’s hard to explain, but think about it as a diamond or a Birkin bag - it’s valuable because people think it’s valuable, way beyond what it’s actually worth. And as long as people think that it’s going to be worth one dollar more than it’s actually worth right now, they’ll buy it. It’s ridiculous, but here we are.
I have two smaller businesses, and I’ve both laid off due to expected decrease in business and bought supplies ahead due to expected shortages.
You’re good putting together that you wouldn’t build a factory right now because uncertainty doesn’t let you predict returns. Not only can you not predict the next president and their tariff policy, I wouldn’t say you can predict trump’s actions tomorrow. I heard an interview John Bolton did today, and he said something along the lines that “trump doesn’t think, he reacts.” Tariffs could be zero or 500% next month or next year or tomorrow. The safe move is to wait and see - and while everyone waits and sees, only small-scale production will start, definitely not enough to sustain demand.
Honestly, if I had the money to build a factory right now, I’d park it and wait to buy one from a company that fails in all this. It would save so much money.