MxM News

Quick Hit:

Tesla shares surged more than 16% this week, notching a fourth consecutive week of gains and cutting into steep year-to-date losses. The rally is fueled by news of a potential new pay package for Elon Musk and the strategic addition of Jack Hartung, Chipotle’s outgoing president, to Tesla’s board. These developments come amid rising scrutiny over the board’s governance and compensation decisions, especially concerning Musk’s controversial $56 billion pay package from 2018.

Key Details:

• Tesla stock has gained over 16% this week and is now down just 13% for the year, recovering from a 40% loss earlier in 2025.
• Jack Hartung, Chipotle’s president, will join Tesla’s board on June 1, bringing seasoned business leadership.
• A special Tesla board committee is evaluating a new compensation plan for Musk after legal challenges to his previous $56 billion package.

Diving Deeper:

Tesla’s stock (TSLA) closed the week strong at $349.98, climbing 2.09% on Friday alone and marking a fourth straight week of gains. This momentum has helped the electric vehicle maker erase much of its earlier 2025 losses, which had topped 40% at one point. Now down just 13% year-to-date, the turnaround comes as investors digest two pivotal developments that could shape Tesla’s future leadership and direction.

The most immediate catalyst: Tesla’s announcement that Jack Hartung, the president of Chipotle Mexican Grill, will join its board of directors beginning June 1. Hartung will also serve on the audit committee, a significant appointment given Tesla’s board has been under fire for lack of independence and weak oversight of CEO Elon Musk. Hartung brings executive experience from not only Chipotle but also board roles at Portillo’s, the Honest Company, and ZocDoc—credentials that could help restore confidence in Tesla’s boardroom governance.

Hartung’s addition follows the bombshell report from the Financial Times earlier this week that Tesla’s board has formed a special committee to explore a new pay package for Elon Musk. The committee’s task is to find “alternative ways” to reward Musk for past work in case Tesla fails to reinstate the original 2018 compensation deal, which is now under appeal with the Delaware Supreme Court. That deal—valued at $56 billion—has drawn fire from large shareholders, prompting broader questions about Musk’s influence over Tesla and whether the board has effectively served as a rubber stamp for his ambitions.

Critics have warned that Musk’s threat to redirect his artificial intelligence efforts away from Tesla unless he is granted additional stock options represents an outsized concentration of power in the hands of one individual. While Musk continues to be the face of the company’s innovation and success, these governance concerns have given activist investors and institutional shareholders new ammunition.

Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm has also come under scrutiny, particularly after Wall Street Journal reporting suggested the board was considering replacing Musk or had urged him to spend more time at the company. Denholm has publicly denied those claims, but her own record—cashing out more than half a billion dollars in Tesla stock since joining the board in 2014—hasn’t helped stem criticism. In fact, the board recently had to settle a lawsuit over excessive director compensation, refunding millions of dollars to shareholders.

Despite these governance challenges, the market has responded positively to the board’s recent moves, seeing them as steps toward restoring stability and investor confidence. The addition of Hartung and the new pay committee could signal a willingness to address long-standing concerns about independence and oversight, even as Musk remains firmly at the center of Tesla’s orbit.

For now, investors appear to be betting that a more disciplined board—paired with a still-charismatic and high-impact CEO—could be a recipe for renewed growth and focus.

‘Elon Musk introducing the Model X” by Steve Jurvetson licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)

From LifeSiteNews

By Tim Hinchliffe

A working paper by the International Monetary Fund suggests that cash may disappear from society entirely once central bank digital currencies become mainstream.

Digital currencies like CBDCs could make cash extinct, whether by design or through market preference, according to an IMF working paper.

With widespread digital currency adoption, cash may go the way of the dodo bird, and it would be “challenging and costly” to revive it if a society were to go fully cashless, according to the IMF working paper, Could Digital Currencies Lead to the Disappearance of Cash from the Market? by Marco Pani and Rodolfo Maino.

The disappearance of cash, according to the authors, could come about either through direct policy or as a natural part of innovation and digital currency adoption.

They say that “the introduction of a DC [Digital Currency] in a diverse payment ecosystem—comprising cash, traditional payment cards, and modern electronic money—where the use of physical cash has already declined significantly, could lead to the complete disappearance of cash, even if such an outcome were not an intentional policy objective.”

READ: Financial expert warns all-digital monetary system would enable ‘complete control’ of citizens

The authors looked at how merchants and customers use physical cash and cards, and simulated how the introduction of digital currencies could either complement cash and cards or wipe them out completely.

According to the report, the introduction of a new currency can alter the market equilibrium in several qualitatively different ways:

1. It may displace one of the exiting currencies (either cash or cards);
2. It may replace both currencies; or
3. It may continue to be used indefinitely alongside the other two currencies.

Programmable digital currencies like Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) cannot operate without pegging every user to a digital identity.

What’s more, these programmable digital currencies can be controlled remotely, so that taxes and fines could automatically be taken out of accounts, or so that restrictions could be placed on what you could buy, where you could buy it and when.

Last year, the IMF published a policy brief acknowledging that CBDCs could be used for state surveillance while posing risks to privacy and cybersecurity that could undermine trust in central bank money.

According to the November 2024 IMF brief, Central Bank Digital Currency: Progress And Further Considerations:

CBDC, as a digital form of central bank money, may allow for a ‘digital trail’—data—to be accessed, collected, processed and stored.

In contrast to cash, CBDC could be designed to potentially include a wealth of personal data encapsulating transaction histories, user demographics, and behavioral patterns.

Personal data could establish a link between counterparty identities and transactions.

While the IMF acknowledges the risks to privacy, the potential for government surveillance, and how public and private entities could leverage user data for nefarious means, it is still plowing ahead with a CBDC Handbook for central banks and governments to follow during their rollouts.

READ: International Monetary Fund ‘working hard’ on a global Central Bank Digital Currency platform

The IMF consistently says that digital currencies should be complementary to physical cash and to not replace it, but all signs point towards the erosion of cash over time, whether through convenience or coercion — carrot or stick.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy Development last year, Central Bank of Bahrain governor Khalid Humaidan told the panel “Open Forum: The Digital Currencies’ Opportunity in the Middle East” that one of the goals of CBDC was to replace cash, at least in Bahrain, and to go “one hundred percent digital.”

"We're probably going to stop calling it central bank digital currency [CBDC]. It's going to be a digital form of cash, and at some point in time hopefully we will be able to be 100% digital": Central Bank of Bahrain Governor Khalid Humaidan to the WEF https://t.co/Pspr0M1Uuq pic.twitter.com/N5aOkCpzh1

— Tim Hinchliffe (@TimHinchliffe) April 29, 2024

“If we think cash is the analogue and digital currency is the form of digital — CBDC is the digital form of cash — today, clearly we’re in a hybrid situation; we’re using both,” said Humaidan.

We know in the past when it comes to cash, central bankers were very much in control with all aspects of cash, and now we’re comfortable to the point where the private sector plays a big role in the printing of the cash, in the distribution of the cash, and with the private sector we use interest rates to manage the supply of cash.

The same thing is likely to happen with CBDC. Yes, the central bank will have a role, but at some point in time — the same way we don’t call it ‘central bank cash’ — we’re probably going to stop calling it central bank digital currency.

It’s going to be a digital form of the cash, and at some point in time hopefully we will be able to be one hundred percent digital.

"Is it [digital euro] going to be as private as cash? No. A digital currency will never be as anonymous and as protecting of privacy in many respects as cash, which is why cash will always be around": Christine Lagarde, BIS Innovation Summit, March 2023 #CBDC pic.twitter.com/BLMVOPax6a

— Tim Hinchliffe (@TimHinchliffe) April 11, 2023

While the IMF advises to not eliminate cash altogether, central banks and governments are already moving in that direction.

Furthermore, a WEF Agenda blog post from September, 2017 lists the “gradual obsolescence of paper currency” as being “characteristic of a well-designed CBDC.”

If cash were to go extinct, the latest IMF working paper warns, “reintroducing cash in a non-cash system would be challenging and costly.”

Therefore, the authors conclude:

To safeguard the continued utilization of cash and to uphold the equilibrium of the payment system, the study advocates for a proactive policy approach and for the implementation of measures aimed at ensuring the sustained relevance of physical currency, especially in scenarios where the introduction of new digital currencies might inadvertently lead to the extinction of traditional cash.

The IMF working paper Could Digital Currencies Lead to the Disappearance of Cash from the Market? was published on the IMF website in March 2025; however, the paper was first published in the International Advances in Economic Research journal on February 19, 2024 under its original title, Could CBDCs Lead to Cash Extinction? Insights from a ‘Merchant-Customer’ Model.

Reprinted with permission from The Sociable. 

Note from LifeSiteNews co-founder Steve Jalsevac: This article is a must-read and view for all readers because of the profound personal impact a digital economy would have on every individual and every family.

The great Catherine Austin Fitts has strongly recommended that every citizen use cash as much as possible for purchases. She says that if millions did this, it would delay, if not stop, a forced digital economy. She should know. Fitts emphasizes, “In a highly leveraged financial system such as we have, a single individual counts for a lot.”

See her article, I Want to Stop CBDCs – What Can I Do

The increased use of credit and debit cards, including phone and other digital payment systems, is tempting because of their convenience. Still, it is also your cooperation in building your economic prison and total control of all that you say and do, where and when you travel, what you buy or subscribe to, and so on. We are facing a totalitarian control that has never before been experienced in human history. It is beyond frightening.

Carrying and using cash for purchases, and refusing to purchase anything from shops, restaurants or other services that do not accept cash or checks, is inconvenient and requires a little effort, commitment and some degree of courage.