Musk's DOGE sparks worry over possible threats to vital US economic data - S&P Global

[swag]

https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/articles/2025/2/musks-doge-sparks-worry-over-possible-threats-to-vital-us-economic-data-87454247

06 Feb, 2025
By Brian Scheid

An unprecedented overhaul effort by billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has sparked fears that financial market-moving economic data may be compromised, potentially inhibiting monetary policy and future business decisions.

The Trump administration is planning widespread layoffs within the federal workforce, and Musk's team has worked to shut down federal programs and websites and has gained access to sensitive federal department systems.

Significant funding cuts to the federal agencies that issue inflation, unemployment and other economic data could upend decades of government statistical work, the former heads of these data-producing agencies said. Any harm to government statistical efforts could create hurdles for capital allocation decisions in the private sector or hinder the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decisions based on trends in inflation and labor market health.

"Deep cuts to the federal workforce could hurt the quality of official government data," said Jed Kolko, who served as undersecretary for economic affairs at the US Commerce Department during the Biden administration and oversaw the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. "The statistical agencies need both budget and staff with technical expertise to produce high-quality data that policymakers, businesses, and investors use to make decisions."

Even private sector data seen as an alternative to government data depends on official statistics for validation and benchmarking, Kolko said.


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[Irish_Dem]

1. Monetary decisions will no longer be fact based. The billionaires will make the decisions.

Based on personal interests.

[kimbutgar]

2. Unemployment numbers will go down on official government sites

While millions more people become unemployed and the economy crashes while the 🍊💩🤡 says he has the greatest economy when it will be a shithole.

I say by June our economy will be in dire straits. And massive layoffs and high food prices will hurt a lot of Americans.