The answer starts with Wall Street’s long-held distinction between “smart money” and “dumb money.” In that view, the roughly $2 trillion value that the stock market is affording SpaceX — about the same as Amazon’s value, and more than JPMorgan’s and ExxonMobil’s combined — is being set by naïve investors who think Elon Musk’s promises will all miraculously be realized. The debt, on the other hand, is being priced by seasoned investors, the ones who understand that profits actually have to be earned, and who are rightly skeptical of Mr. Musk’s grand pronouncements.

 

It’s a World-Class Investment. It’s a Junk Investment. What Is Going On With SpaceX?

By Bethany McLean

Ms. McLean is a financial journalist and co-author of “The Smartest Guys in the Room.”

Under a 2015 accord that President Barack Obama signed but Mr. Trump later withdrew from, Iran turned over 97 percent of its then-existing stockpile. Mr. Trump is highly sensitive to any suggestion that he might get less than Mr. Obama did. But the first political struggle may be over the question of who controls the strait, where the administration is paying the price for a vaguely worded paragraph in the memorandum of understanding that Mr. Trump signed at Versailles. It is a prime example of what happens when Iranian and American officials fudge the differences in a negotiated document, then interpret it very differently.

 

Bombing and a Tentative Accord Didn’t Work. Does Trump Have a Plan C for Iran?

By David E. Sanger

David E. Sanger has covered five American presidents in more than four decades at The Times. He has written about the efforts to undermine or eliminate the Iranian nuclear program for more than 20 years.