Paywalled original source: https://www.economist.com/business/2026/07/23/elon-musks-vis...

10-minute and 6-minute video: https://youtube.com/@theeconomist

My biggest surprise from the video was that he seemed slow to respond to questions.

Time to wake up and smell the coffee --- Musk's primary skill is marketing and con artistry.

People buy into his grandiose visions that are really just ploys to move money from investor's pockets into his.

The interview is very informative b/c Musk is so knowledgeable and eloquent. He's hardly "melting down" -he's enjoying it! It is well worth listening to just for that. I can't say the same for his interviewer.

Musk is far more knowledgeable than his interviewer on what happened at DOGE. For example, he tries to explain when she asks about USAID cuts and she's simply too unaware of how USAID works and how NGOs work to listen, so she keeps re-stating that children must have died.

In short, she's brainless and the interview was a waste of his time. I learned a lot that probably isn't useful to me, but at least Musk was entertaining.

I was an Economist subscriber but now I've cut them off (like USAID) b/c they've begun hiring morons to do their field work.