Musk’s Moves on Treasury Risk Debate Over a Payments Default (1)

Outside of occasions when the US Treasury 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.

But that may be about to change in light of efforts by the government efficiency initiative being run with President Donald Trump’s imprimatur 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.”

If the Musk team ...