Public Markets as Distraction Tax

“He continued to resent the fact that Tesla was publicly owned, with so many short sellers betting on its demise. “I wish we could be private with Tesla,” he said. “It actually makes us less efficient to be a public company.””

“Musk spelled out his thinking. “Public company stocks, particularly if big step changes in technology are involved, go through extreme volatility, both for reasons of internal executions and for reasons that have nothing to do with anything except the economy. This causes people to be distracted by the manic-depressive nature of the stock instead of creating great products.””