How to make Elon Musk’s budget-slashing dreams come true

ELON MUSK and Vivek Ramaswamy plan to whip the American state into shape. On November 14th their newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced that it wants to hire “super-high-IQ small-government revolutionaries” to work on cost-cutting. It is easy to ridicule the enterprise. Mr Musk has talked of ripping $2trn from the federal budget, an amount that, if done in a year, would exceed the government’s entire discretionary spending. His focus on deregulation, job cuts and fraud is unlikely to provide the requisite savings. Donald Trump has given DOGE less than two years. The entity is an advisory body. And its name is inspired by a joke cryptocurrency.