Musk now controls all US payments 🚨 | USDA freezes payments to farmers

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Why this also might matter is because there is simultaneously a ruling that came down from the SEC last year (and is being implemented this year) about centralized counterparties (CCPs) for clearing transactions in US treasuries as well as in the repo market, which transacts around $5 trillion daily. Currently both are settled overwhelmingly outside of CCPs (e.g. the CME could be a CCP) and instead settle bilaterally, away from the careful watch of regulators. Bilateral settlement on transactions is very risky as it's allowing small players in the market to dictate the price of treasuries, and there are too many long term holders of treasuries to allow a few hedge funds to control price action in the world's largest market. We had a preview of what that could look like in March 2020 when treasury market volatility spiked to the highest levels ever. Plus these hedge funds engage in a rather risky trade in the market known as the basis trade where they're basically betting on the interest rate differentials from the cash price in repo to the treasury futures price. This sometimes can lever up their book without even realizing it, causing the banks (who lent to them initially in the repo market) to have to eat the cost and bail out their client if their entire book goes under, as was the case with Archegos Capital in 2021.

The point is all of this is changing this year, and there was a minor point that Senator Cornyn made in Scott Bessent's confirmation about how one of the approved CCPs / Clearing companies is London-based and is outside of our jurisdiction. The CEO of the CME Group (who also owns the COMEX gold futures market) was making a big stink about this when I looked it up because in a crisis it would give British bankers tremendous power to dictate our policy if they also could corner the Treasury market. Some may remember this was a big deal in 1991, Solomon Brothers (who was very much linked into the Robert Maxwell world back then) tried to corner the US Treasury market and was fined and basically pushed out of business for attempting to do so. The person who took on the Solomon case on behalf of the Treasury was none other than Jerome Powell, who was Deputy Treasury Secretary back then.
 
Sometimes it feels like we're going to need a Designated Survivor scenario to reset everything that Trump and company are going to screw up.
 
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“… Elon Musk, a private citizen with no official government role, has been handed sweeping, unchecked power over key functions of the U.S. government.

After days of pushing career civil servants out of their jobs, Musk seized control of the U.S. Treasury’s payment systems—systems that handle more than $6 trillion annually in payments to households, businesses, and government agencies.

Millions of Americans rely on these systems, and now they’re under the influence of a billionaire with no government position.

This comes on the heels of Musk effectively taking over the Office of Personnel Management, locking out federal employees from their own systems.

The consequences of that power grab are still unfolding, but this latest move makes one thing clear: Musk isn’t just advising the president—he’s running parts of the government himself.

And here’s the most disturbing part: Musk is not a government official. He was not elected. He was not nominated. He was not confirmed.

His so-called “Department of Government Efficiency”—a name literally put in quotes in the executive order creating it—is not a real government agency.

It’s a smokescreen for consolidating power in the hands of a single private citizen.”
 
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The Journal also reports that “a person familiar with the arrangement said DOGE representatives won’t have direct authority to stop individual payments or make other changes, describing their access as ‘read only’”:

Bessent approved the arrangement on the condition that the DOGE representatives’ activity be documented and monitored. DOGE representatives intend to review the overall efficiency of the payment system, the person said.
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The report doesn’t specific who might be doing that monitoring; the Treasury Department’s inspector general was one of the 15 independent agency watchdogs the Trump White House purged a week ago.

So now Musk and DOGE have access to and potentially power over what is basically America’s checkbook, weeks before another debt ceiling crisis looms, at a time when Musk is vowing to somehow cut a hysterically large amount of federal spending, and during a chaotic period in which he and other officials in the Trump administration are running roughshod across the federal government like they have unchecked power.

On Saturday, Musk was already making wild unsubstantiated claims on X about what his DOGE investigators had discovered about federal payment processes. …”
 
“… But again, it’s not actually clear what Musk and his DOGE and White House allies intend to do with the federal payment system or the information it holds. The executive director of the progressive economic think tank Groundwork Collaborative, Lindsay Owens, notes some troubling possibilities in an MSNBC op-ed:

First, accessing the Treasury’s payment system could be a path to freezing government funding, as the administration attempted earlier this week. Musk could halt payments to programs like Medicaid, Meals on Wheels, Head Start and more, maneuvering around the courts. Musk has already directed his engineers to find ways to turn off the flow of money to programs he and President Donald Trump oppose. With the keys to the Treasury’s payment system, he can unilaterally cut off these funds right at the source.



Musk could also get his hands on the “Do Not Pay” system that lists individuals or contractors the government has blacklisted, theoretically granting him control over whom the government does business with. Government contracts have been central to Musk’s $400 billion net worth; his companies have signed billions of dollars’ worth of government contracts. He could easily place his rivals on the Do Not Pay list or turn the spigot back on for friends who have been blacklisted. …”
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There are far easier ways to find out exacltly how fedeeral money is spent than this. The info is public. If he wants something more granular, go to Treasury or the appropriate Congressional committees. Check disbusing needs to be controlled by the Treasury Dept PERIOD.
When you get politicians or non-govt olfficials like Musk access to that, you run the risk of potential abuse, be it delaying authorized payments, or going around authorizations.
He probably wants the govt to start paying in bitcoin.
 
Trump wants to personally approve or disapprove all payments. He thinks he can run this like the owner of a small business guarding the checkbook.
 
Trump released to Musk and his merry group of hackers the SSNs, ages, addresses and every data point needed to enable IDENTITY FRAUD. This is greatest security breach in American history.
It is appalling that the GOP is standing by silent, stupefied and complicit.
 
Trump confirms:



“Well, he’s [Musk] got access only to letting people go who he thinks are no good if we agree with him, and it’s only if we agree with him. He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs and we put him in charge of seeing what he could do with certain groups and certain numbers, the numbers, some of the numbers are horrible what he’s found uh a hundred, think of it, a hundred million dollars in condoms to Hamas. Condoms to Hamas and many other things that are frankly even more ridiculous. And they’re finding tremendous waste, really waste more than anything else, I think you could say, probably fraud and abuse could be added to it … “
 
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Looks like the fictional Hamas condom budget has now doubled. How long before it hits $1 billion?
 
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