Musk’s Moves on Treasury May Equate to U.S. Payments Default

Outside of occasions when the U.S. Treasury Department is running down its cash pile while awaiting congressional action to raise the debt limit, bond market participants don’t typically pay much attention to the department’s payments-processing division. That may be about to change in light of efforts by the government efficiency initiative being run by billionaire Elon Musk.

Musk said in social media posts over the weekend that his “DOGE team” of enforcers is shutting down some payments, claiming that “corruption and waste is being rooted out in real time.”