The Tesla and SpaceX CEO did not add any comment to the early morning post, which featured a video of Friedman — who died in 2006 at the age of 94 — methodically explaining how the global supply chain works to produce writing implements quickly and cheaply.
“There’s not a single person in the world who could make this pencil,” Friedman began in the video. “Remarkable statement? Not at all. The wood from which it’s made, for all I know, comes from a tree that was cut down in the state of Washington. To cut down that tree, it took a saw. To make the saw, it took steel, to make the steel, it took iron ore.”
Friedman went on to suggest that the pencil’s graphite center came from mines in South America, while its rubber eraser came from “Malaya, where the rubber tree isn’t even native. It was imported from South America by some businessmen, with the help of the British government.”
pic.twitter.com/azqwPMa0om
“This brass ferrule, I haven’t the slightest idea where it came from,” Friedman added. “Or the yellow paint, or the paint that made the black lines or the glue that holds it together.
“Literally, thousands of people cooperated to make this pencil … What brought them together and induced them to cooperate to make this pencil? There was no commissar sending out orders from some central office. It was the magic of the price system … That is why the operation of the free market is so essential.”
Monday’s post came after Musk lashed out against some of the Trump administration’s loudest advocates of tariffs, namely senior counselor to the president for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro.
“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” Musk wrote about Navarro early Saturday. “Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.”
At one point, Musk also jabbed that Navarro “ain’t built sh—.”
Navarro has since downplayed the broadsides from Musk, while accusing him of trying to protect his own financial interests.
A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.
“I’ll probably see him today in the Oval — it’s no big deal,” Navarro told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday morning. “He is not a car manufacturer, he’s a car assembler in many cases.”
Navarro also praised Musk’s work on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“I’ll probably see him today in the Oval — it’s no big deal,” Navarro told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday morning. “He is not a car manufacturer, he’s a car assembler in many cases.”
“Elon, when he’s in his DOGE lane is great, but we understand what’s going on here. Elon sells cars. He’s simply protecting his own interests,” Navarro told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Over the last three weeks, Musk’s net worth has shed an estimated $46 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
On Sunday, Musk also poked fun at Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s defense of the tariffs on the penguin-inhabited Heard and McDonald Islands. Lutnick explained the duties were necessary to prevent countries from exploiting shipping loopholes.
“This is funny,” Musk remarked.
This is funny 🤣
Last week, Musk suggested that the ideal outcome of the tariffs would be for the US and Europe to collectively lower the trade barrier imposed against one another.
Trump had announced a 20% tariff on imports from the European Union as part of his “Liberation Day” initiative.