I first wrote about the Tesla enigma back in September 2018, during what we now know to be far more innocent times regarding speculation about the company and its valuation. This was shortly after Elon Musk tweeted that he wanted to take his company private for $420 a share and that he had “funding secured.” As it turned out, of course, Elon was just being Elon. He didn’t have the funding secured for the buyout, apparently had no intention of taking Tesla private, and may have violated securities laws in the process of suggesting to the market, as Tesla’s largest shareholder, that he was going to do something he had no intention of doing.