Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Category Archives: Financial System

These Are the 10 DOGE Operatives Inside the Social Security Administration

Wired [unpaywalled] – “The team working at the Social Security Administration appears to be among the largest DOGE units deployed to any government agency. At least 10 people associated with Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are now working at the Social Security Administration, according to government records reviewed by WIRED; this includes a number of young engineers whose presence at the SSA has not been reported. The ballooning of DOGE’s presence at the federal agency—which Bloomberg, citing sworn statements filed in federal court Wednesday, previously reported—comes as Musk and his cohorts are publicly threatening social security benefits, citing unsubstantiated claims of mass fraud. The DOGE-affiliated personnel in question are currently listed in the agency’s internal organizational chart. Background checks for two are still pending, according to a filing by the SSA in federal court in Maryland opposing a motion for a temporary restraining order filed by unions that would prevent DOGE from accessing SSA records. (A sworn statement attached to the filing from the SSA’s deputy commissioner of human resources claims that six of the background checks are still pending.) The operatives—whom the government did not name in its filing—are, according to internal documents, Akash Bobba, Scott Coulter, Marko Elez, Luke Farritor, Antonio Gracias, Gautier Cole Killian, Jon Koval, Nikhil Rajpal, Payton Rehling, and Ethan Shaotran. This team appears to be among the largest DOGE units deployed to any government agency…”

Fowl Play: How Chicken Genetics Barons Created the Egg Crisis

Today’s piece is written by antitrust lawyer Basel Musharbash based on a report he researched for Farm Action. It’s the second part of an investigative series on the egg industry called “Hatching a Conspiracy.” Part one is here. “As most people in America know, egg prices have gone haywire. Shortages and high prices got a… Continue Reading

Musk Watch DOGE Tracker

Judd Legum: “Yesterday, we launched the Musk Watch DOGE Tracker. This new tool authoritatively demonstrated that Elon Musk had been grossly overstating the cuts implemented by DOGE. While Musk claimed that DOGE had made $105 billion in cuts, the Musk Watch DOGE Tracker revealed that just $8.6 billion of those cuts were verifiable. Within hours,… Continue Reading

Rendering Social Security incapable of serving 71 million Americans is catastrophic

ProPublica: “Since the arrival of a team from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Social Security is in a far more precarious place than has been widely understood, according to Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration. “I don’t want the system to collapse,” Dudek said in a closed-door meeting last week,… Continue Reading

What US States Have Filial Responsibility Laws

Trust and Will: “Filial responsibility is a legal concept in which an adult child is financially responsible for their parents’ unpaid healthcare costs. Not all states have filial responsibility laws, and not all families are liable. In our guide, What is Filial Responsibility: we dive into an explanation of when these laws can possibly apply.… Continue Reading

Censor, purge, defund: how Trump is following the authoritarian playbook on science and universities

Christina Pagel – Diving into Data & Decision making: “The attacks on science and universities are neither random nor new. This isn’t chaos—it’s a deliberate war on science and academic freedom. In just six weeks, the Trump administration has slashed research budgets, purged health and scientific agencies, censored research, and threatened universities. Making a list… Continue Reading

DOGE Threat: How Government Data Would Give an AI Company Extraordinary Power

Gizmodo: “The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has secured unprecedented access to at least seven sensitive federal databases, including those of the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration. This access has sparked fears about cybersecurity vulnerabilities and privacy violations. Another concern has received far less attention: the potential use of the data to… Continue Reading

Signal President Meredith Whittaker calls out agentic AI as having ‘profound’ security and privacy issues

TechCrunch: “Signal President Meredith Whittaker warned Friday that agentic AI could come with a risk to user privacy. Speaking onstage at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, the advocate for secure communications referred to the use of AI agents as “putting your brain in a jar,” and cautioned that this new paradigm of computing — where… Continue Reading

Tariffs—Everything you need to know but were afraid to ask

Fact Sheet • By Adam S. Hersh and Josh Bivens • February 10, 2025 . “During his presidential campaign, President Trump pledged to impose universal tariffs of 10–60% on all U.S. imports—a whopping $4.2 trillion in goods and services purchased from abroad in 2024. This was always a real possibility. The International Economic Emergency Powers Act… Continue Reading

Trump Wants to Use the IRS to Track Down Immigrants. They May Stop Paying Taxes

The Bulwark: “Immigrants in this country illegally paid nearly $100 billion in taxes in 2022, according to a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic policy. But that source of government revenue may soon taper off as the Trump administration pushes the Internal Revenue Service to help it accelerate its program of mass deportations.… Continue Reading

New Articles and Columns – LLRX February 2025 Issue

Climate and DEI Deleted From Government Websites, Federal Workers Fired, Colleges Erase Programs and Research – “Colleges have been a conservative target for years. Under President Trump, it’s total warfare on all aspects of higher education — from student life to hiring to athletics.” This March 2, 2025 update by Sabrina I. Pacifici chronicles Trump’s… Continue Reading

Some DOGE Staffers Are Drawing Six-Figure Government Salaries

Wired – no paywall: “Engineers and executives at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency are drawing healthy taxpayer-funded salaries—sometimes from the very agencies they are cutting. Some staffers at Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency are drawing robust taxpayer-funded salaries from the federal agencies they are slashing and burning, WIRED has learned. Jeremy Lewin,… Continue Reading