The Con Club

Musk and Madoff the M&Ms of Schemes, Dreams, and Hubris.

America’s Two Greatest Con Men

For decades I’ve watched powerful men weave seductive tales while Wall Street and Washington genuflected. But none compare to our two modern masters of financial fantasy — Elon Musk and Bernie Madoff — separated only by a prison wall and the public’s willingness to keep the delusion alive.

Musk struts across the stage at Tesla events, promising self-driving cars “next year” (every year), while Madoff whispered sweet nothings of consistent returns that defied market gravity. Both created alternate realities where the normal rules of finance and investment common sense didn’t apply.

The difference? Madoff’s scheme eventually collapsed under its own mathematical impossibility. Musk’s continues, propped up by fanboys, government subsidies, and our desperate need to believe someone, anyone, might save us from climate catastrophe and human obsolescence.

What do you call it when someone takes billions of investor dollars while consistently missing deadlines and overinflating projections? If you’re Bernie, it’s called fraud. If you’re Elon, it’s called “aggressive forecasting.”

Madoff wore custom suits and a Rolex while working from a lavish Manhattan office…