“For reasons that remain inexplicable, Twitter seems to create an impulse control problem for too many — and when billions of dollars of investors’ money is on the line and the credibility of the markets are at stake, that seems like a risk not worth taking.”
This line is about Elon Musk’s reckless tweets in which he implied that he has funding lined up to take Tesla private. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/business/dealbook/elon-musk-tesla-twitter.html . Yet it applies equally to any person in a power position. It is one thing to express a personal opinion about politics or the arts on Twitter. It is quite another to announce a public policy or financial decision that may affect the lives of millions, or the market, using a communication tool that provides extremely limited information, that is not subject to the checks and balances of government or a board of directors and that appeals to the most infantile impulses of people holding vast power.
It is time for the adults to take over again in business and government. Indeed, we might heed the Biblical admonition: “when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” 1 Corinthians 13:11.