Remember when one month ago, just as Elon Musk's bizarre descent into twitter paranoia was beginning, the Tesla CEO infamously lashed out at The Economist (i.e., the messenger) for citing a Jefferies research report according to which Tesla would need to raise as much as $3BN in capital this year. Musk's petulant response: "The Economist used to be boring, but smart with a wicked dry wit. Now it's just boring (sigh). Tesla will be profitable & cash flow+ in Q3 & Q4, so obv no need to raise money."

Few took Musk's bluster seriously for one simple reason: it's not the first time it has happened. In fact...

Of course, as we reported last week, Tesla revealed that in Q1 it had burned just over $1billion in cash, a near record $12 million in cash burn each day, thereby only validating worries about a new capital raise, even as its Model 3 production progress rose to just 2,000 cars per week, still more than 50% from the company's own bogey of 5,000/week.