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How much is it worth to have oligarchic control of the United States government?

Thanks to Elon Musk, we now have a ballparked answer: a bit more than $100 billion, or 14 percent of Tesla’s value. How did we arrive at an answer here? Well, in the first stock trading session after Donald Trump won the election last November, Tesla shares gained 14 percent, or about $110 billion. On Thursday, Elon Musk’s alliance with Donald Trump exploded in public view, and what happened to Tesla’s stock? It fell 14 percent. A company that was worth more than $1 trillion on Wednesday was worth a piddly $892 billion on Thursday.

It’s hard to be exact with these things. Tesla’s sto

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