That’s Muddy Waters Capital founder Carson Block talking Tesla TSLA, +3.84% with Chris Irons on the Quoth the Raven podcast on Saturday.
“It’s a company that makes no sense,” Block continued. “We got fond of saying internally late last year it’s a company that really could file for bankruptcy but still have a $30 billion market cap when it does. There’s such a disconnect between its shareholder base and what we see as reality.” (Tesla’s market capitalization as of Monday’s closing bell exceeded $59.6 billion.)
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Block acknowledges that he owns a small put position on Tesla in his fund, and he predicts that it’s just a matter of time before the stock succumbs to that reality. “I consider it a massive dysfunction in the market,” he said.
Over the course of the lengthy interview, Block, who typically focuses on individual stocks, also offered thoughts on the broader market. “It just gets worse every year in terms of the geopolitical risks,” he said. “We are still an economy that’s fueled by bubbles, and that is really not productive.”
Block said he’d like to see interest rates continue to rise, which would ultimately lead to a much-needed, albeit painful, reset. Otherwise, we’re in store for more “bubbles and bursts” going forward, he warned.
“With every single bubble, money is not destroyed; it’s just transferred. It becomes more concentrated,” he explained. “So [the] bubble bursts and the money goes from the hands of the many to the hands of the few.”
Listen to the full interview:
Block is coming off a great year. While hedge funds, on average, suffered another stretch of underperformance, his activist short fund, with $210 million in assets, reportedly posted a 20% gain in 2018.
Tesla shares were trading up more than 1% early Tuesday, and, after a rough start to 2019, are now solidly in the green for so far this year.