Andrew Griffith: We need a UK DOGE to cut government spending
'We do need a scythe like exercise to push back on some of this level of regulation'
On the latest Planet Normal podcast, which you can listen to using the audio player above, columnists Liam Halligan and Allison Pearson speak to Andrew Griffith, Shadow Business and Trade Secretary, about the economic outlook for the UK following Labour's recent economic policy announcements, and whether the country would benefit from a DOGE, Elon Musk's cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency.
The Conservative MP for Arundel and South Downs says 'my old fashioned view is the job of every minister in their department is to deliver value for money and spend money wisely as if it's your own,' but did go on to say 'whether you institutionalise it as DOGE or have a separate unit in the cabinet office, I would certainly, on day one, have a very ambitious program of restoring lines of demographic accountability.'
Griffith, who has previously worked as CFO and COO for Sky, believes we have too many regulators, which stymies new business, 'The clock speed of the UK economy is just painful. We all know it takes so long to build infrastructure projects. It takes a long time to get clearance for a business merger. I want a new generation of entrepreneurs.'
'They have got smart ideas and they are ambitious. Many of them are leaving and going to other countries overseas. A little bit of movement is not a bad thing, but when people feel they are pushed out because of crime, the cost of living, housing or just facing a higher-margin tax rate, if they succeed, that is something I think should upset everybody.'
'When these people leave [the county] everybody is poorer. The people who stay behind have to pay either more tax or there is just less money to go round for our public services.
Planet Normal, a weekly Telegraph podcast featuring news and views from beyond the bubble. Listen on the audio player above or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast app.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
17 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Veteran fund manager resets stock market forecast amid Musk, Trump fallout
Put two mercurial personalities in the room, add competing goals and a hefty dose of media pressure, and what do you get? Let's just say that the high-profile friend-to-foe saga isn't overly surprising. Elon Musk and Donald Trump are polarizing figures with a penchant for dropping verbal bombshells, and that was particularly evident this week as the two sparred over the Big Beautiful bill, electric vehicle credits, and debt. The rift may shock some, however, given how closely Musk and Trump worked together over the past year. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Musk spent hundreds of millions helping elect Donald Trump as president, and Trump rewarded Musk with a high-profile role in his administration as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Trump even went so far as to host a Tesla showroom on the White House lawn to support Musk after Musk's political activism caused a drop in Tesla's sales. One person who wasn't the least bit surprised by the high-profile dust-up was veteran hedge fund manager Doug Kass. Back in December, Kass picked the break-up as one of his top 15 surprises for 2025. It was far from the only correct forecast for Kass. He also predicted a stock market reckoning could cause the S&P 500 to fall 15%, and in April, he accurately forecast that stocks would find their footing after the brutal sell-off. Kass recently revisited his take on Musk and Trump, and how stocks may react to their fallout. His S&P 500 outlook may disappoint many, while his take on Trump and Musk might surprise most. After back-to-back 20% gains in the S&P 500 in 2023 and 2024, including an impressive 24% return last year, investors may have complacently expected more good times in 2025. Then reality set in. The stock market has whipsawed amid a series of shocks, many delivered by President Trump and Elon Musk, via his high-profile and much-debated cost-cutting at DOGE. Related: Elon Musk latest message sends Tesla stock surging Stocks came into 2025 arguably priced to perfection. Optimism for a friendly Federal Reserve shift in monetary policy to dovish interest rate cuts and a flood of artificial intelligence spending fueled big returns last year, pushing the S&P 500's price-to-earnings ratio north of 22. Historically, returns following high P/E ratios have been largely lackluster. That point wasn't lost on Kass, who correctly said in December that the S&P 500 could drop 15% in 2025. "Surprise #9: In 2025, the S&P Index falls by about 15%. The technology-laden Nasdaq drops by over 20%," wrote Kass. Kass beat the bearish drum continuously through February, when the S&P 500 reversed after hitting all-time highs. From mid-February through early April, bombshells in the form of shockingly high tariff announcements from President Trump and job losses stemming from Musk's DOGE efforts caused the benchmark index to plummet. At its worst, the S&P 500 fell 19%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell about 24%. The sharp drop was painful, and many hit the sell button, worried that an endless stream of uncertainty would cause even greater losses. Kass, however, correctly reversed course, making bargain-basement buys on the indexes and tech leaders, including Amazon, near the lows. Since then, Trump's pause on tariffs and potential for trade deals that ease the tariffs' bite have helped fuel a dramatic recovery, lifting the S&P 500 by 20%. More Economic Analysis: Hedge-fund manager sees U.S. becoming GreeceA critical industry is slamming the economyReports may show whether the economy is toughing out the tariffs The result has been a nausea-inspiring roller coaster ride for buy-and-hold investors. That's been particularly true for Tesla (TSLA) shareholders. The EV company rallied after Trump's election amid hope that Musk's White House connections would pave the way to sales growth. Instead, Musk's DOGE efforts, and arguably controversial political comments, caused a mass exodus of left-leaning Tesla buyers. Sales cratered in key markets, including Europe and California, the largest U.S. auto market. In Europe, Tesla sales dropped 49% year-over-year in April to 7,261 vehicles, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association. In California, Tesla registrations fell 21.5% year-over-year in the first quarter, while non-Tesla electric vehicle (EV) registrations grew 14%. Tesla's stock price got hammered as a result, falling 54% from mid-December highs to early April lows. It's since recovered alongside the broad market, jumping 35%, largely on news Elon Musk would step away from DOGE. Doug Kass has seen a thing or two. His career stretches back into the 1970s at money manager Putnam, including a stint as research director for billionaire Leon Cooperman's Omega Advisors. His deep experience navigating markets professionally means he had a front-row seat to his share of political, economic, and stock market surprises. He witnessed Richard Nixon's Watergate implosion, the inflation-riddled 70s, the Savings & Loan crisis, the Internet boom and bust, hanging chads, the housing-bubble-driven Great Financial Recession, Trump presidency version 1.0, Covid, and the recent inflation shock and recovery. Related: Veteran strategist unveils updated gold price forecast Every December, he tests that experience with his "surprises" list for the coming year. This year, in addition to predicting the S&P 500 sell-off, he forecast the unfriendly end of the Trump-Musk relationship. "Surprise #2: The 'other' romance, between Trump/Musk, doesn't make it past spring 2025," wrote Kass. "National protests and demonstrations emerge and demands from a wide array of members of both the Republican and Democratic parties (including conservatives and liberals) call for 'ousting' Elon Musk, an unelected official, from playing such a dominant role in the U.S. government." Kass's Musk prediction is a longer read, but the gist is simple: Musk and Trump will suffer a fallout, which may have consequences for investors. He revisited his outlook, offering a new take on the Trump-Musk situation. "Right in front of us, it is obvious that political positions of influence can easily be bought-sold by both parties (and that certainly includes the presidency)," wrote Kass. "I am not even sure where the performance ends and reality begins. In the end (probably sooner than later) - just like the president's opening salvos of ridiculously high tariff proposals - the two actors will likely have a detente (and kiss and make up) because the downside is certain for both of them, as no one will win. When that make-up happens, no one knows. It could happen today, next week or next month, but the parties' 'interests' are now so enmeshed that Musk and Trump recognize where their bread is buttered." A potential "easing" of tensions would be welcome, given that a long-term tit-for-tat would fuel market volatility. Still, Kass's view of what happens to the stock market next isn't encouraging. "Never in my investing career has there been so many possible social, political, geopolitical, economic, interest rates and fiscal policy outcomes (many of which are adverse). That is why I don't understand the uber confidence expressed by the Perma Bull cabal (led by Fundstrat's Tom Lee) and manifested in a near-vertical move higher for equities over the last two months," continued Kass. "With a forward PE of 22x, equities remain overvalued and, after covering my Index shorts yesterday, I plan to reshort any rally." If Kass is correct that instability will force stocks lower, how low could it go, and when might things improve? "I see seven lean months ahead for our markets. We estimate downside risk to be roughly 3x the upside reward," concludes Kass. Related: Veteran fund manager who predicted April rally updates S&P 500 forecast The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Vance: Musk attacks on Trump ‘huge mistake'
Vice President Vance in a recent interview came to President Trump's defense in response to the recent spat between the president and tech billionaire Elon Musk. The squabble, which spilled out into the public arena via social media on Thursday, has been dubbed as a 'national divorce.' Vance called Musk's comments — including tying Trump to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and signaling support for impeachment — a 'huge mistake.' 'I think it's a huge mistake for him to go after the president like that. And I think that if he and the president are in some blood feud,' Vance told 'The Past Weekend' podcast team earlier this week. The episode was published on Saturday. 'Most importantly, it's going to be bad for the country, but I think it's going to be … I don't think it's going to be good for Elon either,' Vance added. The vice president also pushed back on the alleged connection between Trump and Epstein. Musk has since removed the post from his social platform X account. 'First of all, like, absolutely not — Donald Trump didn't do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein,' Vance told host and comedian Theo Von. 'Like … the guy is whatever the Democrats and the media says about him. That's totally BS.' The back-and-forth between the two men began after Musk voiced opposition to Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' The sprawling legislation includes most of the president's legislative agenda. The tech mogul's criticism of the bill — which he called a 'disgusting abomination' — is focused primarily on increases to deficit spending. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO also argued the legislation lacks necessary spending cuts. Trump, during comments from the White House on Thursday, said that while he and Musk had a 'great' relationship in the beginning of his second term, 'I don't know if we will anymore.' The tech billionaire later lashed out at the president, suggesting he would not have won the 2024 presidential election without his support and calling for a third party to rise up. In response, Trump threatened to cut off all federal contracts with Musk's companies. Vance in the interview said his loyalty will always lie with Trump. Still, he praised Musk's business acumen and commended his work at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 'And look, man, I'm always going to be loyal to the President, and I hope that eventually Elon kind of comes back into the fold,' the vice president said. 'Maybe that's not possible now, because he's gone so nuclear.' He also suggested part of Musk's outburst comes from his dissatisfaction with the GOP's megabill and as his businesses face scrutiny following the billionaire's foray into politics. 'Elon's new to politics, right? So his businesses are being attacked non-stop. They're literally, like, fire bombing some of his cars,' Vance told Von, referring to Tesla vandalism that cropped up amid protests over DOGE's influence on federal workforce cuts. 'And by the way, we're looking into a lot of this stuff. I mean, some of that stuff we're looking into is an act of terrorism, at the Department of Justice, because I think it is an act of terrorism,' he added. 'So I think part of it is this guy got into politics and has suffered a lot for it.' Vance acknowledged Musk's frustration with the reconciliation package, which currently faces an uphill battle in the Senate, but said 'it's a good bill, it's not a perfect bill.' 'If you're a business leader, you probably get frustrated with that process because it's more bureaucratic, it's more slow-moving,' the vice president added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
How faulty DOGE AI tool impacted VA contracts
The code, using outdated and inexpensive AI models, produced results with glaring mistakes. For instance, it hallucinated the size of contracts, frequently misreading them and inflating their value. It concluded more than a thousand were each worth $34 million, when in fact some were for as little as $35,000. The DOGE AI tool flagged more than 2,000 contracts for 'munching.' It's unclear how many have been or are on track to be canceled — the Trump administration's decisions on VA contracts have largely been a black box. The VA uses contractors for many reasons, including to support hospitals, research and other services aimed at caring for ailing veterans. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up VA officials have said they've killed nearly 600 contracts overall. Congressional Democrats have been pressing VA leaders for specific details of what's been canceled without success. Advertisement We identified at least two dozen on the DOGE list that have been canceled so far. Among the canceled contracts was one to maintain a gene sequencing device used to develop better cancer treatments. Another was for blood sample analysis in support of a VA research project. Another was to provide additional tools to measure and improve the care nurses provide. Advertisement ProPublica obtained the code and the contracts it flagged from a source and shared them with a half dozen AI and procurement experts. All said the script was flawed. Many criticized the concept of using AI to guide budgetary cuts at the VA, with one calling it 'deeply problematic.' Cary Coglianese, professor of law and of political science at the University of Pennsylvania who studies the governmental use and regulation of artificial intelligence, said he was troubled by the use of these general-purpose large language models, or LLMs. 'I don't think off-the-shelf LLMs have a great deal of reliability for something as complex and involved as this,' he said. Sahil Lavingia, the programmer enlisted by DOGE, which was then run by Elon Musk, acknowledged flaws in the code. 'I think that mistakes were made,' said Lavingia, who worked at DOGE for nearly two months. 'I'm sure mistakes were made. Mistakes are always made. I would never recommend someone run my code and do what it says. It's like that 'Office' episode where Steve Carell drives into the lake because Google Maps says drive into the lake. Do not drive into the lake.' Though Lavingia has talked about his time at DOGE previously, this is the first time his work has been examined in detail and the first time he's publicly explained his process, down to specific lines of code. Lavingia has nearly 15 years of experience as a software engineer and entrepreneur but no formal training in AI. He briefly worked at Pinterest before starting Gumroad, a small e-commerce company that nearly collapsed in 2015. 'I laid off 75% of my company — including many of my best friends. It really sucked,' he said. Lavingia kept the company afloat by 'replacing every manual process with an automated one,' according to Advertisement Lavingia did not have much time to immerse himself in how the VA handles veterans' care between starting on March 17 and writing the tool on the following day. Yet his experience with his own company aligned with the direction of the Trump administration, which has embraced the use of AI across government to streamline operations and save money. Lavingia said the quick timeline of Under a time crunch, Lavingia said he finished the first version of his contract-munching tool on his second day on the job — using AI to help write the code for him. He told ProPublica he then spent his first week downloading VA contracts to his laptop and analyzing them. VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz lauded DOGE's work on vetting contracts in a statement to ProPublica. 'As far as we know, this sort of review has never been done before, but we are happy to set this commonsense precedent,' he said. The VA is reviewing all of its 76,000 contracts to ensure each of them benefits veterans and is a good use of taxpayer money, he said. Decisions to cancel or reduce the size of contracts are made after multiple reviews by VA employees, including agency contracting experts and senior staff, he wrote. Advertisement Kasperowicz said that the VA will not cancel contracts for work that provides services to veterans or that the agency cannot do itself without a contingency plan in place. He added that contracts that are 'wasteful, duplicative or involve services VA has the ability to perform itself' will typically be terminated. Trump officials have said they are working toward a The VA has said it would avoid cutting contracts that directly impact care out of fear that it would cause harm to veterans. ProPublica recently reported that relatively small cuts at the agency have already The VA has not explained how it plans to simultaneously move services in-house, as Lavingia's code suggested was the plan, while also slashing staff. Many inside the VA told ProPublica the process for reviewing contracts was so opaque they couldn't even see who made the ultimate decisions to kill specific contracts. Once the 'munching' script had selected a list of contracts, Lavingia said he would pass it off to others who would decide what to cancel and what to keep. No contracts, he said, were terminated 'without human review.' 'I just delivered the [list of contracts] to the VA employees,' he said. 'I basically put munchable at the top and then the others below.' VA staffers told ProPublica that when DOGE identified contracts to be canceled early this year — before Lavingia was brought on — employees sometimes were given little time to justify retaining the service. One recalled being given just a few hours. The staffers asked not to be named because they feared losing their jobs for talking to reporters. Advertisement According to one internal email that predated Lavingia's AI analysis, staff members had to respond in 255 characters or fewer — just shy of the 280 character limit on Musk's X social media platform. Once he started on DOGE's contract analysis, Lavingia said he was confronted with technological limitations. At least some of the errors produced by his code can be traced to using older versions of OpenAI models available through the VA — models not capable of solving complex tasks, according to the experts consulted by ProPublica. Moreover, the tool's underlying instructions were deeply flawed. Records show Lavingia programmed the AI system to make intricate judgments based on the first few pages of each contract — about the first 2,500 words — which contain only sparse summary information. 'AI is absolutely the wrong tool for this,' said Waldo Jaquith, a former Obama appointee who oversaw IT contracting at the Treasury Department. 'AI gives convincing looking answers that are frequently wrong. There needs to be humans whose job it is to do this work.' Lavingia's prompts did not include context about how the VA operates, what contracts are essential or which ones are required by federal law. This led AI to determine a core piece of the agency's own contract procurement system was 'munchable.' At the core of Lavingia's prompt is the direction to spare contracts involved in 'direct patient care.' Such an approach, experts said, doesn't grapple with the reality that the work done by doctors and nurses to care for veterans in hospitals is only possible with significant support around them. Advertisement Lavingia's system also used AI to extract details like the contract number and 'total contract value.' This led to avoidable errors, where AI returned the wrong dollar value when multiple were found in a contract. Experts said the correct information was readily available from public databases. Lavingia acknowledged that errors resulted from this approach but said those errors were later corrected by VA staff. In late March, Lavingia published a version of the 'munchable' script According That openness may have eventually led to Lavingia's dismissal. Lavingia confirmed he was VA officials have declined to say whether they will continue to use the 'munchable' tool moving forward. But the administration may deploy AI to help the agency replace employees. Documents previously obtained by ProPublica show DOGE officials proposed in March consolidating the benefits claims department by relying more on AI. And the government's contractors are paying attention. After Lavingia posted his code, he said he heard from people trying to understand how to keep the money flowing. 'I got a couple DMs from VA contractors who had questions when they saw this code,' he said. 'They were trying to make sure that their contracts don't get cut. Or learn why they got cut. 'At the end of the day, humans are the ones terminating the contracts, but it is helpful for them to see how DOGE or Trump or the agency heads are thinking about what contracts they are going to munch. Transparency is a good thing.'
