Gov’t “Magic Money” Machines? Elon Musk Sounds the Alarm

Speaking on Senator Ted Cruz’s podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz on March 17, he said these systems, which exist in agencies like the Treasury, Defense, and Health and Human Services, seem to send money without a proper accounting process.

Musk noted, "You may think that the government computers all talk to each other, they’re synchronized, they add up what funds are going where, and it’s coherent and that the numbers you’re presented as a senator are the real numbers". However, he argued that this is not the case, suggesting that these numbers could be inaccurate by 5% to 10%.

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He described these systems as "magic money computers" that seem to create money "out of thin air". While he did not suggest intentional wrongdoing, he pointed to cases where funds were sent out incorrectly and not recovered.

Bitcoin BTC $82,375.95 advocate Jameson Lopp commented on the discussion, saying, "Bitcoin fixes this". Supporters of the cryptocurrency argue that Bitcoin's fixed supply of 21 million coins prevents the kind of unchecked money issuance seen in traditional financial systems.

Musk also said that his recent work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uncovered another issue—some government departments have more software accounts, media subscriptions, and credit cards than they have employees. He estimated that about 80% of these issues are due to mismanagement rather than fraud.

On February 25, DOGE considered using artificial intelligence (AI) to review federal employees' work summaries and assess job necessity. How would the AI work? Read the full story.