| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a meme token of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. The "First Buddy" is at it again. President-elect Donald Trump has created a new "Department of Government Efficiency" and put billionaire Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in charge of it. Can't say we didn't see this coming: DOGE already has an official X account, which this afternoon posted, "Working overtime to ensure your tax dollars will be spent wisely!" And Musk continues to share a plethora of Shiba Inu-themed memes. It looks and sounds extremely silly, but Bloomberg's editorial board says the administrative state is actually in need of a cleanup. Federal agencies under President Biden's leadership have been issuing new rules at a historic clip: "These proposals were presumably well-intentioned, and some were worthy of support, but their sheer volume — 284 economically significant rules through August — has imposed a serious burden and spurred fed-up businesses to bring a slew of lawsuits, many of them successful. (Voters share the outrage: There's a reason the death of an Instagram-famous squirrel at the hands of state regulators became a cause célèbre in the campaign's final days.)" But is DOGE the cure for bureaucratic bloat? It's not off to a good start, considering Trump appointed two people to head up the effort, an irony that many — including Senator Elizabeth Warren — have pointed out. The editors are especially worried about keeping the financial system stable: "Last time around, Trump scaled back several major rules adopted after the global financial crisis, an effort that may have contributed to last year's spate of bank failures," they write. "Weakening requirements further, without due discretion, could create needless risk." Elsewhere in needless risk, you have the acronym of the department, DOGE. "Musk is widely assumed to be a big holder of Dogecoin," Matt Levine writes. "This is like … the president of the United States announced a new government department (or, fine, whatever, vague blue-ribbon commission with a name that makes it sound like a government department) whose name acronyms to the name of a meme token that the president's big financial backer — who will run the department — promotes online and presumably owns a lot of. And so the token goes up. It is so much simpler than, you know, giving SpaceX government contracts or whatever; you just tweet the name DOGE and Dogecoin goes up. It is trolling, but with a market value, and a government department." The move only fuels the phenomenon that Aaron Brown points out in his latest column: "Trump boasted he would be a pro-crypto president, pledged to prevent the federal government from selling the crypto it acquires (mainly in seizures from criminals) as it currently does, said he would fire crypto-skeptic Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, push the US to dominate Bitcoin mining, and promised to appoint a crypto advisory council so rules will be written by cryptophiles rather than cryptophobes." Bonus Red Tape Reading: It's time to end America's absurd, bureaucratic, hard-to-manage, time-wasting system of taxing its citizens who live abroad. — Tyler Cowen Not everything Musk touches turns to gold: Florida Senator Rick Scott, his preferred choice for majority leader, didn't even make it through the first round of voting. Instead, Republicans chose South Dakota Senator John Thune, a longtime underling of Mitch McConnell and free trade advocate, to lead the chamber. Although Trump never formally endorsed anyone in the Senate leadership contest, it feels like the first substantial deviation from the incoming government's MAGA-filled lineup, which now includes Representatives Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard. Scott was one of eight Senate Republicans to vote to overturn the results of the 2020 election, while Thune — a seasoned Senate veteran — was critical of such efforts. Perhaps that's why most GOP lawmakers opted for Thune. Or — and here's my two cents — maybe Scott didn't work hard enough on the PowerPoint he shared with his colleagues last night. One X user said it looked like "someone spent all of 27 minutes" on it, but that's a generous assessment: "Set Objective → Build a Team → Make a Plan → Constantly Monitor Results." I'd say he wrote this with ChatGPT, but it's a hundred times worse than what AI would come up with! I'm glad this guy is not in charge of the Senate, and so is Mary Ellen Klas. In addition to being God-awful at making slides, she says Scott has a long "trail of ethical lapses and questionable business." Also, he "had zero governing experience when he arrived on the political scene in 2010 and announced his run for governor," she writes. "It was an attempt to clean up his messy legacy as the former chief executive of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., where he'd been forced to resign after the company was charged in what was then the largest case of Medicare and Medicaid fraud in history." During his tenure, Mary Ellen says Scott went full-on autocrat: "He ousted the head of the state law enforcement agency because the official refused Scott's demand that he falsely name someone a target in a criminal case. He violated the state's open meeting and public records laws, loaded his administration with political cronies, and axed programs with little reason — like eliminating the Office of Drug Control amid the opioid crisis because he claimed it was too expensive." Given all that, the PowerPoint seems to be his least egregious offense. Bonus MAGA Lineup Reading: - The environment will become an afterthought when Trump's leader of the EPA takes over. — Liam Denning
- Trump's staff picks show his immigration policy is going to be every bit as harsh as many feared. — Patricia Lopez
- Marco Rubio, Michael Waltz and Elise Stefanik send a Trumpy message to the world. — Andreas Kluth
Bankers in Hong Kong and Singapore are in for a rude awakening next year: Andy Mukherjee says they're "financing a rush of shipments from Asian exporters into the US ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs." After Trump takes over the White House and starts taxing imports to high heaven, bank revenue will plummet. But wealthy clients could offset the blow, Andy argues. "Asian billionaires have been at the forefront of growth. They will be in pole position in the coming years, too: In countries like China, India and Indonesia, trillions of dollars are set to change hands from one generation of ultra-high-net-worth tycoons to the next," he writes. Plus, McKinsey expects "increased wealth flows from Europe and North America as many global investors see Asia–Pacific as a third safe haven."  Speaking of wealth havens: Our retail columnist Andrea Felsted took a jaunt to Greenwich, Connecticut to check out the Zara store, which rebranded itself as "a women's boutique" earlier this year. Instead of offering the typical items for women, men and kids, Andrea says the outpost has a "less is more" feel. "Zara is famous for encouraging store managers to provide constant feedback to the head office about what is and isn't selling. In affluent Greenwich, this translates into the boutique being one of the few to carry cashmere, and a new range of real leather and suede bags," she writes. "On an unseasonably warm October day, Zara was easily the busiest store on the avenue." It's just one instance where the Spanish retailer is beating the US at its own game. The asset of the millennium isn't what you think it is. — John Authers Our fixation on trying to quantify everything is warping our judgement. — FD Flam The next White House may not have the leverage it expects in trade negotiations. — Jonathan Levin Tariff threats could open Latin America's door wider to China. — Juan Pablo Spinetto Rachel Reeves has her first shot at proving Labour will be good for finance. — Marcus Ashworth Trump's single victory, however lopsided, is not the end of the war against wokeism. — Adrian Wooldridge Two spry guys met at the White House today. There was a factory explosion in Louisville. Brazil has a gambling addiction boom. Ale Lampietti made a video about yesterday's chart-filled newsletter. Panic at the male-only magicians' society. (h/t Andrea Felsted) A "ghost" fish that disappeared for 15 years is back. These Cabinet pick memes are out of control: Notes: Please send giant salmon and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Threads, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. | 
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