{"id":1553,"date":"2026-06-13T07:36:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T07:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1553"},"modified":"2026-06-13T07:36:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T07:36:47","slug":"nobel-economist-sounds-alarm-on-trump-donors-retirement-funded-ponzi-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1553","title":{"rendered":"Nobel economist sounds alarm on Trump donor\u2019s retirement-funded ‘ponzi scheme’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

On Friday, Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX launched its initial public offering on the Nasdaq, but according to Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman<\/u>, it amounts to little more than a \u201cshell game\u201d as the world\u2019s richest person \u2014 who also happens to be President Donald Trump\u2019s top donor \u2014 gambles with American financial security to prop up his \u201cPonzi scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Biographer reveals the top Trump official getting \u2018thrown in front of the bus\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

As Krugman notes, Musk has a long and storied career riddled with big promises that don\u2019t deliver. The economist provides a list of such game-changing advancements, like Hyperloop, the Boring tunneling company, fully self-driving Teslas, and a colony on Mars, all of which the tech mogul declared would exist by 2025. Krugman admits that a handful of Musk\u2019s projects have been successful \u2014 like Starlink and aspects of Tesla \u2014 but notes that \u201cthese achievements weren\u2019t enough to make Musk the world\u2019s richest man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, writes Krugman, his wealth has \u201chistorically rested mainly on self-fulfilling faith \u2014 investors believing in Musk\u2019s genius have piled into stocks in Musk-controlled companies, and the rising value of these companies has enhanced his reputation for genius. We have a term for enterprises that look successful because they keep drawing in new investors and keep drawing in new investors because they look successful. They\u2019re called Ponzi schemes. And Elon Musk is basically a human Ponzi scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then, says Krugman, came the SpaceX IPO, which \u201cmakes it clearer than ever that Musk\u2019s greatest skill isn\u2019t developing futuristic products. It\u2019s his mastery of financial shell games and his ability to leverage insider influence, especially his influence with the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Krugman, that shell game is betrayed by SpaceX\u2019s astronomical valuation, which experts have called an \u201cinsane<\/u>\u201d \u201ctrainwreck<\/u>.\u201d As Krugman notes, the company is debuting at a record “$1.77 trillion valuation for a company that had revenues of only $18.7 billion<\/u> last year and lost money,\u201d which \u201cis premised partly on the assumption that retail investors will buy in, not because they have made any rational assessment of SpaceX as a business, but because they believe that they are buying stakes in Elon Musk\u2019s genius.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Reporter reveals Trump\u2019s about-face after interview tantrum<\/a><\/p>\n

Also unusual is the decision by major stock indexes to change their rules so that SpaceX could be admitted quickly. As Krugman explains, \u201cHistorically, the major indexes have waited at least a year after a company\u2019s IPO before considering its inclusion in their market measures, to give the stock time to \u2018mature\u2019. The bending of the rules for SpaceX shows that Musk is again exerting his ability to co-opt and corrupt key institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps most alarming of all, asserts Krugman, is the fact that retirement and mutual funds will be used to prop up this fund, linking American financial security to the success or failure of SpaceX.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe immense human Ponzi scheme that is Elon Musk will eventually collapse,\u201d Krugman concludes, \u201cbut traditional Ponzi schemes only exploit investors who choose to participate. This time much of the money propping up Musk\u2019s scam will come from ordinary Americans who have in effect been forced to buy in. Approximately 52 percent of mutual fund assets<\/u> are now invested in index or index-based funds, and over 50 percent of American households are invested in mutual funds. Thanks to the collusion between Musk and Wall Street, enabled by the perception that the Trump administration has Musk\u2019s back, many if not most of these small investors will be dragged, willy-nilly, into fueling the Musk juggernaut.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Critical failure: GOP strategists say Trump\u2019s unbeatable propaganda machine is crashing<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX launched its initial public offering on the Nasdaq, but according to Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman, it amounts to little more than a \u201cshell game\u201d as the world\u2019s richest person \u2014 who also happens to be President Donald Trump\u2019s top donor \u2014 gambles with American fin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nNobel economist sounds alarm on Trump donor\u2019s retirement-funded 'ponzi scheme' - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1553\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nobel economist sounds alarm on Trump donor\u2019s retirement-funded 'ponzi scheme' - 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