SpaceX, the largest valuation in history, is making its mark on American ethics. What the SpaceX IPO ultimately illustrates is a gap that predates Musk and could outlast him. American ethics law was built for officials who enter government from the private sector, not for private actors who enter government while retaining and expanding their commercial empires. The record-breaking valuation is, in that sense, a monument less to innovation than to a regulatory architecture that never anticipated needing to contain it.

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