The New York Times – “Government investigations into Mr. Musk’s companies are stalling from President Trump’s firings and Biden administration resignations… Trump firings hit agencies with oversight of Musk’s companies. Staffing changes, including the firing of several top officials, have affected agencies with federal investigations into or regulatory battles with Elon Musk’s companies… The events… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Financial System
Elon Musk’s AI Fueled War on Human Agency
The New Yorker [unpaywalled]: “…To run his agency [DOGE], Musk brought on a group of tech-company managers and inexperienced twentysomethings whose credentials included internships at SpaceX. We watched as this crew began interrogating federal employees about their jobs, interfering with the system that controls payments at the Treasury Department, and trawling government budgets while Musk… Continue Reading
Musk associates access confidential info about X’s competitors via CFPB takeover
Musk Watch and Bloomberg – “Just nine days before his DOGE team visited CFPB, Musk’s X — the former Twitter — announced that it had struck a deal with Visa to process peer-to-peer payments. Musk has publicly mused about expanding into payment-services since he first took control of X in 2022. Entering that business could… Continue Reading
The Fragile States Index
“The Fragile States Index is based on a conflict assessment framework – known as “CAST” – that was developed by FFP nearly a quarter-century ago for assessing the vulnerability of states to collapse. The CAST framework was originally designed to measure this vulnerability and assess how it might affect projects in the field, and continues… Continue Reading
Searchable Full Project 2025 Text: Mandate for Leadership
“Project 2025 – the extreme political right’s plans to dismantle the U.S. federal government and put all power in the hands of the Executive.” One of the primary authors is Russell Vought who was confirmed as the head of OMB and promptly named himself Acting Director of the Consumer Finance Protect Bureau (CFPB), whose work… Continue Reading
Finance, Economics & Banking (FEB-RN) Research Paper Series
SSRN – “FEB-RN research paper series promotes open access and dissemination of high-quality empirical, theoretical, and descriptive research across all the major fields of finance, economics and banking. The series will include papers from the interconnected global research community. FEB-RN advocates knowledge sharing through the extensive networks of scholars, PhD students, and practitioners. It aims… Continue Reading
Policy Map – Where to Find Trump’s Disappeared Data
“The administration removed hundreds of federal web pages containing critical information about Americans. Fortunately, it still lives at Philly-based PolicyMap, whose director walks us through what just happened — and why it’s too soon to Last week, President Donald Trump came for our data. Executive orders to eliminate any DEI and climate change-related language from… Continue Reading
The Government’s Computing Experts Say They Are Terrified
“Charlie Warzel and Ian Bogost from The Atlantic talked to four experienced federal-government IT professionals who have all “built, modified, or maintained the kind of technological infrastructure” that Elon Musk’s team of young hackers are attacking. They are beyond concerned about the potential consequences. Based on what has been reported, DOGE representatives have obtained or… Continue Reading
Government Agrees to Temporarily Restrict DOGE From Treasury Records
Democracy Docket:”The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to restrict the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to Department of the Treasury records after a coalition of federal unions and an advocacy group sued to block DOGE’s actions. According to the order — issued by a federal judge Thursday after the DOJ reached an agreement… Continue Reading
Project 2025 Executive Action Tracker
“The Center for Progressive Reform and Governing for Impact are monitoring the Trump administration’s implementation of Project 2025, tracking the authoritarian blueprint’s executive action proposals across 20 federal agencies. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is the conservative movement’s blueprint for weakening our government and building an authoritarian presidency. To monitor the Trump administration’s regulatory and… Continue Reading
Trump tracker: US trade
This tracker is paywalled on FT.com – I reference it for those who have subscription access. “As the president threatens a trade war, follow the latest data on imports, exports and trade balances.” Continue Reading
GAO Annual Report on Nation’s Fiscal Health
“As the federal government’s publicly held debt continues to grow, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) today issued its annual report on the nation’s fiscal health. The report again warns Congress and the Administration about the federal government’s long-term fiscal path and calls for decisive action. As it has since 2017, GAO recommends a strategy… Continue Reading
