Interesting disconnect here: Elon Musk took the reins at DOGE with a pretty loud mandate—cut government waste, tighten spending belts, the whole efficiency playbook. But the numbers tell a different story. According to data from the Brookings Institution, federal spending actually climbed nearly 6% on his watch.

That's the kind of gap between rhetoric and reality that tends to move markets. When leadership voices promise fiscal discipline but the actual figures show expansion, it creates friction in how people think about policy credibility and macro outlook. Worth watching how this plays into market sentiment going forward.