Los Angeles Times

The Tesla board's dilemma: How do you solve a problem like Musk?

Every now and then, decision-makers in government or business have to confront a dilemma with two contradictory qualities: it's imperative, and impossible.

That's the dilemma the Tesla board of directors faces with Elon Musk, the company's chairman and chief executive officer. Musk is inextricably identified with Tesla, its electric vehicle products and its "vision" of a world freed from the tyranny of the internal combustion engine.

If you believe in Elon Musk, you believe in Tesla. Lots of investors do, which is why the company has a market capitalization of more than $47 billion despite its inability to generate a profit more than once every few quarters - and then largely via fancy accounting.

Right now the company is the absolute epitome of instability.

But faith in Musk appears to have been fading, especially among institutional investors. Quite conceivably,

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