Elon Musk's New Year’s resolution is to stop selling shares

Plus: Stove Wars! [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a tunneled underbelly of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Elon Musk sold [a lot of Tesla shares](. - Read the (war) room: [Ukraine needs help](. - The [gas vs. induction war]( is way too heated. - Inflation is [cool cool cool](. Giving Gilgamesh a Run For His Money What are the odds Elon Musk has [this pillow]( on his bed? Tesla’s CEO has been on what is quite possibly [the most mind-bending journey]( since the days of Gilgamesh. Having recently traded in his WRP crown ([World’s Richest Person]() for a cardboard tiara with FPL200B ([First Person to Lose $200 Billion]() scribbled on it in crayon, Musk has [made his mark on history](, for better or [for worse](. And all along, he has been selling Tesla stock, which played a big role in [his fall from grace](, writes Liam Denning. And [the manner in which the technoking cashed out]( is most peculiar, Liam notes. Musk started dumping Telsa stock in late 2021, on the advice of his [Twitter followers](. By August 2022 he had sold 99.8 million shares, averaging $319 a pop. But the more shares he sold, the lower Tesla’s stock price went — a doom loop of his own creation. When the end of the year rolled around, he was receiving a measly $181 a share: Many Tesla diehards now face their own [epic wealth collapse](, and [a pileup]( of 34,423 unsold vehicles is making them even more queasy: Musk [claims]( he’s done selling for now. In theory, that could help prop up prices, but Liam doesn’t put much stock in the promise. The outlook might improve [in a few weeks](, when Tesla holds its fourth-quarter earnings call. In the meantime, let’s just hope Musk is getting a good night sleep on his new favorite pillow. He’s going to need it. World War II Deja Vu When visiting Saint Petersburg eight years ago, I was struck by the fact that its metro still relied on physical tokens — a system introduced when its [first subway line]( was built in 1955. The tunneled underbelly of Russia’s second-largest city holds an [interesting place in history](: Before the subways were operational, the construction sites were [used as bomb shelters]( during the Siege of Leningrad. But metro tokens aren’t the only ancient technology still in use in Eastern Europe. The battlefield in Ukraine is a death trap of trenches and destroyed buildings, sprinkled with tanks, howitzers and machine guns — the same low-tech tools used in the 1941 Axis attack on the Soviet Union. Absent a few drones here and there, Leonid Bershidsky writes, “[it looks barely distinguishable from World War I-style trench warfare](, and Ukraine’s repeated requests for more artillery and tanks suggest a reliance on World War II-era warfighting methods.” [America has scored some points in statecraft]( by providing Ukraine with advanced gear, like the HIMARS rocket launchers that helped Kyiv turn the war around, Hal Brands writes. Technology that predates the creation of Saint Petersburg’s metro tokens won’t end this war. A highly connected modern military will — and the US can help Ukraine with that. Bonus War Reading: Tanks are nice, but [Ukraine needs all the firepower it can get]( — including so-called “offensive” weapons.  — Andreas Kluth A Heated Debate There’s a [morbid fan theory]( about Nancy Meyers’s film “The Holiday,'' which argues the main characters die in the beginning. It centers around a scene in which Kate Winslet’s character, in a moment of loveless desperation, ignites her gas stove, blows out the flames and proceeds to inhale the methane-loaded fumes for an uncomfortably long period of time: It’s enough to make you wonder [whether we should ban gas stoves entirely]( to avoid such scenes. Well! This week, we got a taste of what that might look like, with an official from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission calling the household appliance [a “hidden hazard” for our children]( — and the climate, Liam Denning writes in [the Elements newsletter](. Little did this official know, he was starting [a cutthroat cooktop war between gas and induction users](: Source: [Twitter]( [Prying people's gas ranges]( from their oven mitts in the name of climate change would be difficult, Liam argues. If it’s for the kids … then that’s an entirely different dish. Bonus Protect the Kids Reading: Too many American children struggle with obesity. The [old strategy — prevention — has failed](. — Lisa Jarvis Telltale CPI Charts “Is Joe Biden the president or a Bloomberg columnist?” asks Jonathan Levin. If you listened to [his speech on inflation today](, you’d be forgiven for thinking he was the latter.  In the first 100 words out of his mouth, Biden managed to utter *nine* different numbers and a size and scope. I’m no hiring manager, but if I was, then he’d have the job in the bag. Lucky for us, his soup of numbers can be distilled into one, very promising chart depicting core services prices sans shelter. [This is the CPI metric that keeps Powell up at night](, and it’s now back to its pre-pandemic average: This progress has some inflation watchers wondering whether [the Fed’s coveted goal of 2% inflation is in view](. But Isabelle Lee warns we might overshoot back into the oh-so-terrible territory of deflation. And Allison Schrager writes that even the softest of soft landings [doesn’t mean the economy is totally safe](. Further Reading The West can’t afford to have [a war between Kosovo and Serbia]( on its plate. — Bloomberg’s editorial board On the subject of classified documents, the document [separating Biden from Donald Trump]( is the Constitution. — Jonathan Bernstein [The FAA glitch]( is evidence of our excessive dependence on technology we don’t understand. — Sarah Green Carmichael George Santos and other House Republicans would like some oversight, [just not of themselves](. — Julianna Goldman ESG investing is beginning to [look a lot like Casino Royale](. — Merryn Somerset Webb JPMorgan paid a fintech company $175 million for an email list [that was allegedly purchased for $175,000](. — Matt Levine Chips wear many hats that help [TSMC weather the economic storm](. — Tim Culpan ICYMI Eggs are [MIA](. A [snowless Davos]( has us wondering: Is this [the end of skiing]( as we know it? Young bankers don’t know what [true pain feels like](. Mike Novogratz would like [to punch some people](. [UFO reports]( to the Pentagon are on the rise Kickers Have your Christmas tree and [eat it, too](. (h/t Ellen Kominers) The hit TV show “Yellowstone” has dads in Park Slope [dressing like cattle ranchers](. (h/t Robert Burgess) Single men, [please wash your sheets](. People [eavesdropped outside the Goldman Sachs offices]( so that you don't have to. [Larry Ellison got ticketed by a cop]( on his personal island in Hawaii. Notes:  Please send personal islands and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. 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