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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. This is the Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Day ba QT podcast, available every morning on Apple, Spotify

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen. It's Wednesday, the thirteenth of November

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Speaker 1: in London. I'm Caroline Hepka.

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Speaker 2: And I'm Stephen Carroll. Coming up today, Donald Trump picks

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Speaker 2: Elon Musk and Vivik Ramaswamy to lead a new Department

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Speaker 2: of Government Efficiency or DOGE for short.

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Speaker 1: The Fed's Kashkari weighs in on today's US inflation data

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Speaker 1: as warnings grow over the impact of Trump's proposed policies.

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Speaker 2: Plus, we have a special report on Europe's biggest lithium

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Speaker 2: mine and why Rio Tinto's two point seven billion dollar

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Speaker 2: bet in Serbia is now running into a geopolitical fight.

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Speaker 1: Let's start with a round up of our top stories.

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Speaker 2: The world's richest person, Elon Musk, will join entrepreneur Vivik

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Speaker 2: Ramaswamy leading a new US Department of Government Efficiency in

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump's administration. Trump says that the two men will

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Speaker 2: be tasked with dismantling government bureaucracy, slashing regulations, cutting spending,

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Speaker 2: and restructuring federal agencies. Here's Bloomberg John Harney.

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Speaker 3: It's a little bit unclear as yet how this would

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Speaker 3: work out. Musk, who of course is the world's wealthiest

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Speaker 3: man and has many many government contracts, might come into

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Speaker 3: the administration is sort of a somebody who's in their temporarily,

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Speaker 3: sort of almost like an informal designation. But it much

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Speaker 3: has to be worked out.

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Speaker 2: At a pre election Trump rally, Musk predicted he could

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Speaker 2: cut at least two trillion dollars from the US federal budget.

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Speaker 2: That would be almost a third of the six point

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Speaker 2: seventy five trillion the government spent in the last fiscal year.

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Speaker 2: More than five trillion of that came from social Security, healthcare, defense,

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Speaker 2: and veterans benefits. In a post on X, Musk suggested

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Speaker 2: the Department of Government Efficiency, which abbreviates to DOGE, would

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Speaker 2: offer merchandise. Musk already runs a host of companies, including

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Speaker 2: Tesla and SpaceX. Bloom Billionaires Index calculates his net worth

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Speaker 2: at close to three hundred and twenty billion dollars.

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Speaker 1: Mosque and Ramswami's appointments combas Trump continues to firm up

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Speaker 1: his top team. The president elect nominated Fox News host

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Speaker 1: Pete Hegsith to be his Defense secretary and Mike Waltz

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Speaker 1: to be his national security advisor. Heyman Capital Management CIO

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Speaker 1: Kyle Bass told Bloomberg that Trump's choices look to be

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Speaker 1: much tougher on China.

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Speaker 4: I would just call him China realists. I mean, Shijingping

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Speaker 4: has been telling you what he's going to do since

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Speaker 4: twenty seventeen, and every public speech, every public appearance he's made,

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Speaker 4: and every truthfully every meeting he's had with US officials.

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Speaker 4: So when we start realizing that China is not our friend,

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Speaker 4: and if you read the Director of National Intelligence's annual

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Speaker 4: Threat Assessment report to Congress, in no uncertain words do

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Speaker 4: we say China's the largest threat to US national security.

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Speaker 4: So I think it's important to note that our leadership

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Speaker 4: has done a poor job in plaining to the American

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Speaker 4: public what kind of threat China actually presents.

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Speaker 1: Bass added that he expects Trump's aid to take a

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Speaker 1: toughest stance on Putin and Ukraine than Democrats believe. Republicans

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Speaker 1: are closing in on control of the House of Representatives

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Speaker 1: with two hundred and sixteen seats against the Democrats two

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Speaker 1: hundred and seven seats, with twelve races left to declare

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Speaker 1: two hundred and eighteen seats are needed for a majority

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Speaker 1: in the US House of Representatives.

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Speaker 2: Minneapolis FED president Neil Kashkari says he'll be watching the

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Speaker 2: inflation data closely to determine whether a December interest rate

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Speaker 2: cut is appropriate. Traders are now pricing in about two

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Speaker 2: US rate cuts by June versus almost four seen at

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Speaker 2: the start of last week. Kashkari was speaking at the

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Speaker 2: Yahoo Finance invest Conference.

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Speaker 5: It would be hard to imagine the labor market really

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Speaker 5: heats up between now and December. There's just not that

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Speaker 5: much time. I think there have to be a surprise

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Speaker 5: on the inflation front to change the outlook so dramatically.

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Speaker 5: The big question long run is where are we going

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Speaker 5: to settle? What does neutral represent? One big surprise over

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Speaker 5: the past couple of years. If the economy has been

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Speaker 5: more resilient than I expected in the face of this

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Speaker 5: high policy rate, how do you answer that question? Why

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Speaker 5: has that been the case.

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Speaker 2: Kashgari's comments come ahead of that US inflation data due

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Speaker 2: today at one thirty pm London time. A Bloomberg survey

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Speaker 2: of economists sees the consumer price index rising by zero

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Speaker 2: point two percent in October, with the Core index rising

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Speaker 2: by zero point three percent. Ahead of that, traders have

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Speaker 2: been increasing bets for further losses in the treasury market

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Speaker 2: on expectations that Donald Trump's policies will rekindle inflation and

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Speaker 2: keep interest rates higher.

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Speaker 1: Now to Europe, Germany's Zolof Schultz is asking his country

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Speaker 1: for another chance at power. The Chancellor will make a

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Speaker 1: public address to the nation later today after setting a

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Speaker 1: date in February for an early election his main opposition,

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Speaker 1: the Christian Democrats Unions. Friedrich Mertz, told the media he

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Speaker 1: had agreed to that date.

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Speaker 6: I don't want to make a secret of the fact

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Speaker 6: that I could have imagined the whole procedure taking place earlier. Basically,

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Speaker 6: with this delay, which the Federal Chancellor even wanted to

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Speaker 6: extend into January, we are losing around a month for

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Speaker 6: the election to the next German Bundestag and therefore also

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Speaker 6: for the formation of the government after the next election.

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Speaker 6: But I think this is justifiable.

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Speaker 4: Balm.

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Speaker 1: That was Mertz there, speaking of Vre. Translator Poles suggests

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Speaker 1: that he is the front runner to be the next

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Speaker 1: leader of Europe's largest economy. Schultz's support plunged to a

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Speaker 1: record low as growth stagnates in Germany and his government

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Speaker 1: has been attacked for its approach to migration.

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Speaker 2: The Bank of France is predicting zero growth for its

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Speaker 2: economy for the rest of the year. If the central

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Speaker 2: bank is right, it would be the first quarter with

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Speaker 2: no growth in nearly three years. The forecast is based

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Speaker 2: on business activity being put off by the country's fractious

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Speaker 2: political situation. Is likely to compound the government's fiscal woes

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Speaker 2: in France, where it's struggling to implement a program of austerity.

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Speaker 1: More expensive business class flights, levees on stock and bond trades,

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Speaker 1: and a five dollars a ton tax on fossil fuel emissions.

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Speaker 1: Those are just some of the ideas being pitched at

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Speaker 1: the COP twenty nine Climate summit in Baku to raise

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Speaker 1: the vast sums needed to battle climate change. However, the

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Speaker 1: President of the World Bank, aj Banger, says that there

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Speaker 1: needs to be more of a focus on the business

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Speaker 1: opportunities within the climate industry.

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Speaker 7: People think that there's a silver bullet to be fired

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Speaker 7: in all this. I don't think like that. Think about

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Speaker 7: it as a ceris of things to be done. With

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Speaker 7: the private sector, which over time changes their thinking about

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Speaker 7: this area. It's not that they don't want to invest.

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Speaker 7: If there is a business reason to take their money

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Speaker 7: to a country, they will, but they're not going to

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Speaker 7: take it there just because somehow we think is that

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Speaker 7: I think for them to do it, we've got to

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Speaker 7: allow them to see the opportunity.

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Speaker 1: And so when the presence of the World Bank come

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Speaker 1: as negotiates from almost two hundred countries continue to work

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Speaker 1: on a new goal for developed nations to provide climate

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Speaker 1: finance for emerging economies.

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Speaker 2: Apple is preparing to invent a new wall mounted tablet

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Speaker 2: as it works to catch up with rivals in the

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Speaker 2: smart home market. Bloomberg understands that the AI enabled product,

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Speaker 2: code named J four ninety, will be the size of

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Speaker 2: two iPhones side by side, with the ability to control

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Speaker 2: appliances and handle video conferencing. Bloomberg's Mark German says the

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Speaker 2: company is gearing up to announce the device as early

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Speaker 2: as March and will position it as a command center

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Speaker 2: for the home.

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Speaker 8: It'll have FaceTime, It'll have audio and video intercoms for

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Speaker 8: use across your home. If you have multiple things like this,

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Speaker 8: you'll be able to tap into Apple Music to control

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Speaker 8: the music playback on your speakers throughout the home. So

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Speaker 8: it's basically a command center for everything you might want

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Speaker 8: to do in your house, anything you might want to

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Speaker 8: control in your house. There's going to be a home

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Speaker 8: security element to a content consumption element to it. And

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Speaker 8: this is something that can drive Apple harbware sales but

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Speaker 8: also Apple service sales in sets the stage for further

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Speaker 8: entrance from Apple into the home.

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Speaker 2: Mark German, says CEO Tim Cook is betting that the

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Speaker 2: product can make the company a force in the sector,

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Speaker 2: which is currently dominated by rivals Alphabet and Amazon.

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Speaker 1: And those are your top stories.

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Speaker 4: Now.

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Speaker 1: Thinking about the markets this morning, Asian stocks are down

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Speaker 1: at their lowest level in almost two months. Concerns are

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Speaker 1: beginning to mount in the acty space around US President

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Speaker 1: elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs and his picks for key

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Speaker 1: administration jobs. You've seen this morning the Japanese yen week

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Speaker 1: in tow one hundred and fifty five versus the dollar,

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Speaker 1: which raises the risks of intervention. Also overnight, we've seen

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Speaker 1: the S and P five hundred stock futures dipping down

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Speaker 1: two tenths of one percent. US stocks fifty futures will

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Speaker 1: sit down four tenths of one percent. Asian stocks really struggling,

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Speaker 1: of course, yesterday, and we saw big rise in treasury yields,

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Speaker 1: which seems to take the steam out of the equity rally.

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Speaker 1: Tenny US treasury yields rose by twelve basis points. The

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Speaker 1: dollar also rose by half of one percent to a

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Speaker 1: new two year high. The S and P five hundred,

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Speaker 1: therefore on Tuesday close down three tenths of one percent,

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Speaker 1: and the small cap US stocks also reversed recent gains

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Speaker 1: and bank stocks lost ground. So those were the big

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Speaker 1: moves yesterday and they seem to be continuing in the

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Speaker 1: Asian session this morning.

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Speaker 2: Well, in a moment, we'll bring you more on the

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Speaker 2: latest appointments in the Trump administration. Plustic into our lithium

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Speaker 2: mine project in Serbia has become a major political controversy.

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Speaker 2: But un the story that caught our eye today we're

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Speaker 2: talking about the major jump in bitcoin's price. Of course,

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Speaker 2: since the US election results. In our colleagues has been

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Speaker 2: writing about how those who will work in the crypto

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Speaker 2: industry are working around the clock to keep up with

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Speaker 2: a surge in demand. Could the records of course piling

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Speaker 2: up for crypto tokens, Bitcoin marching towards one hundred thousand

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Speaker 2: dollars or at least that's some of the talk in

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Speaker 2: the market as well. So that means that even though

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Speaker 2: in an industry that's perhaps sometimes known for its success,

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Speaker 2: some people are being a little bit wary. There was

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Speaker 2: a trader's quotas saying he's not buying his Aston Martin

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Speaker 2: just yet.

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Speaker 9: Yes.

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Speaker 2: One another was complaining about the fact that he's no

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Speaker 2: time to go to the gym because he was having

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Speaker 2: to work so hard as well. Massive amounts of money

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Speaker 2: being poured into crypto.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, but I will just point to the fact

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Speaker 1: that there is a lease a bit of steam coming

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Speaker 1: out of that trade. This morning, were down by one

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Speaker 1: point seven percent for bitcoin in dollar terms, so we're

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Speaker 1: trading below eighty seven thousand dollars for bitcoin. But yes,

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Speaker 1: many you know, talking about whether we'll get to that

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Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars or not, which you'll see.

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Speaker 2: Well, let's turned to the latest news on he's joining

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Speaker 2: the Trump administration. As we've been telling you, Elon Musk

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Speaker 2: and Viva Gramaswami are going to head up the Department

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Speaker 2: for government efficiency. In addition, Fox News host and National

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Speaker 2: Guard officer Pete Hegseth has been picked as Defense Secretary.

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Speaker 2: Our senior editor Bill Ferries joins us Now for more. Bill,

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Speaker 2: what do we know about what Elon Musk's role is

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Speaker 2: going to be and how he's going to combine it

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Speaker 2: with his many business interests.

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Speaker 9: Listen, there's not a lot of details on how any

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Speaker 9: of this is going to work. I think it's most

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Speaker 9: likely going to be some sort of presidential commission that

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Speaker 9: will have a budget, will have a staff. Ramaswami and

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Speaker 9: Elon Musk will be the heads of it, and their

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Speaker 9: goal is to, I think, identify areas where they see

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Speaker 9: government waste, where they see unnecessary spending, and then try

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Speaker 9: to make recommendations to both the President and really to Congress,

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Speaker 9: which funds all these things, to cut them. President elect

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Speaker 9: Trump said that he wants the two co chairs I

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Speaker 9: guess here, to wrap up their work by July fourth,

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Speaker 9: twenty twenty six. He said that would be a president

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Speaker 9: to the United States on what would be the two

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Speaker 9: hundred and fiftieth anniversary of American independence. So a lot

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Speaker 9: to be worked out here in terms of how Musk

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Speaker 9: does it. With his companies. I mean he's not going

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Speaker 9: to become an official government employee in this case, though

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Speaker 9: he will. I mean presidential commissions call for no conflicts

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Speaker 9: of interest, and Musk, of course, receives his companies received

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Speaker 9: billions of dollars in federal contracts, so they will have

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Speaker 9: to thread the needle on that issue.

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Speaker 1: In terms of what the government of this new department,

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Speaker 1: as you say, commission, potentially hopes to achieve, it's pretty sweeping.

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Speaker 1: We tried to illustrate that in the figures that we

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Speaker 1: pointed out. Must talking about slashing two trillion dollars from

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Speaker 1: the federal budget, which is a massive chunk of the budget.

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Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean they've talked about having a large number

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Speaker 9: of layoffs or firings of federal government employees. Two trillion dollars,

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Speaker 9: of course, is more than the federal budget for government

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Speaker 9: agencies including the Pentagon. We're not talking about Social Security

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Speaker 9: and things like that, but it's a massive chunk. I

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Speaker 9: think they'll try to add up those savings over time.

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Speaker 9: So if you if you saved one hundred million dollars

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Speaker 9: from federal spending and you do that over two decades,

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Speaker 9: you start to get you start to get some big numbers,

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Speaker 9: but I think it's really unclear where those savings will

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Speaker 9: come from. Every agency has a con situency, not just

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Speaker 9: in terms of jobs, but in terms of members of

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Speaker 9: Congress who will fight to sustain it.

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Speaker 2: Another key appointment in this last raft of them that

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Speaker 2: we had as the new Defense Secretary Pete He except

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Speaker 2: perhaps best known for being a host on Fox News

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Speaker 2: as well as a National Guard officer. What do we

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Speaker 2: know about him and what sort of signal does that

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Speaker 2: send to the rest of the world.

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Speaker 9: We don't know tons. I mean, he is a TV

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Speaker 9: personality on Fox News. He's an Army veteran who served

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Speaker 9: in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he was not a senior officer.

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Speaker 9: He does not have really much experience managing any kind

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Speaker 9: of agency, let alone a place like the Pentagon, which

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Speaker 9: has you know, two million men and women in uniform

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Speaker 9: and seven hundred and seventy thousand employees. So it will

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Speaker 9: be a real challenge to see if he gets through confirmation,

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Speaker 9: how that how his leadership goes. I think he fits,

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Speaker 9: you know, the Trump mold in terms of he's a

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Speaker 9: strong proponent of President Trump and the America agenda. He

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Speaker 9: just doesn't have a lot of experience running a department

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Speaker 9: like the Pentagon. So I think when you look back

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Speaker 9: at who has led this both under Republican and Democratic

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Speaker 9: presidents over the last decade or two, you're really talking

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Speaker 9: about people who who managed thousands or tens of thousands

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Speaker 9: of people, you know, either in the military or in

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Speaker 9: private companies. And so it will be a real it

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Speaker 9: will be a real challenge. I think there are going

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Speaker 9: to be Republicans who question this appointment going into any

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Speaker 9: kind of confirmation hearing.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so that on the Pentagon, also nominations for several

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Speaker 1: other roles. Any names that stand out that we should

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Speaker 1: pay attention to.

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Speaker 9: I mean John Ratcliffe was announced in the last several

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Speaker 9: hours to lead the CIA. He was the final director

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Speaker 9: of National Intelligence under Trump. He got that job in

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Speaker 9: twenty twenty. He was a big defender of the president

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Speaker 9: during his first and PA hearing. He I think he's

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Speaker 9: someone who is also would be seen as a hardliner

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Speaker 9: on China, on a country like Iran, and I just

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Speaker 9: he's someone who in some ways seems almost like a

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Speaker 9: more traditional pick at this point. He has some relevant

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Speaker 9: experience and would probably get through the confirmation hearing process

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Speaker 9: at this point.

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Speaker 2: Okay bel Varies, our senior editor, thank you very much.

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Speaker 2: We're in to Serbia for our next story. We're a

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Speaker 2: two point seven billion dollar project by Rio Tinto to

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Speaker 2: build a lithium mine, as triggered protests, but it's also

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Speaker 2: a major political project for President Alexander Vuciic, who is

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Speaker 2: trying to juggle ties with Russia and China and his

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Speaker 2: plan to move closer to the European Union. Our privateer

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Speaker 2: chief Andrea Dudek joins us now for more. Andrea, good morning.

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Speaker 2: This would be the biggest lithium mine in Europe. What

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Speaker 2: are the big objections to the project?

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Speaker 10: Good morning. Protests our dis lithium project have been vest

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Speaker 10: and together a mix of political groups across the political

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Speaker 10: spectrum in the country as well as environmentalists. They've taken

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Speaker 10: to streets repeatedly over the years with the hope to

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Speaker 10: stop the project. But their main argument being is that

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Speaker 10: they think that lithium mining will pollute and destroy the

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Speaker 10: area and in western Serbia once it is up and running.

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Speaker 1: So how are the protests then affecting the government and

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Speaker 1: also Serbia's president. How a they're handling it well?

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Speaker 10: These projects over the lithium projects have been the biggest

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Speaker 10: threat that Alexander Woodage has faced during his decade long rule,

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Speaker 10: and he did take notice of the protests and their

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Speaker 10: impact because there's something that he does pay attention to.

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Speaker 10: Public discontent is always something that he focuses on. The

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Speaker 10: government that he controls suspended the lithium project in twenty

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Speaker 10: twenty two, but after a few years, permits for the

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Speaker 10: projects were range stated last year and it's in It's

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Speaker 10: back on track still though a majority of citizens in

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Speaker 10: opposed a project, and that's one of the reasons why

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Speaker 10: the president himself toured the villages and towns in the

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Speaker 10: area a couple of months ago, trying to convince them

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Speaker 10: the citizens there is of their economic interest for this

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Speaker 10: project to continue, because President does see the further economic

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Speaker 10: development as key as something that he focuses on, and

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Speaker 10: we can see impact of his focus already on the ground.

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Speaker 10: If you look at Belgrade these days, it is a

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Speaker 10: city of cranes. Eastern Europe's only high speed train link

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Speaker 10: between Budapest and Belgrade is being built and finished, and

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Speaker 10: on top of that, country has recently won its first

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Speaker 10: ever investment rating SMP lifted bonds out of junk status.

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Speaker 2: Serbia sits in a very interesting place geopolitically as well.

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Speaker 2: It's a country that has a long time ties to Russia,

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Speaker 2: which of course you know is in focus given since

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Speaker 2: the invasion of Ukraine, but it's also a kind of

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Speaker 2: for EU membership. I mean, how is that playing out

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Speaker 2: around their story.

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Speaker 10: Serbia has played the balancing act for years and it

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Speaker 10: feels sometimes that President Wochen has brought it to the top.

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Speaker 10: He is trying to keep balancing act between, like you said,

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Speaker 10: the desire to join the European Union and also been

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Speaker 10: close to Russia and China. But things have changed on

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Speaker 10: the geopolitical front, and that can also be seen in Serbia,

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Speaker 10: especially after Russia invaded Ukraine, because while Serbia has not

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Speaker 10: adopted sanctions agains Russia like many other countries have, the

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Speaker 10: president has parted ways with Vladimir Putin, hasn't communicated with

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Speaker 10: him for over two and a half years, and that's

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Speaker 10: a huge change for a leader who was a frequent

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Speaker 10: visitor in Moscow and kept close ties with Wadiner put

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Speaker 10: In over the years. In this period, also, what we've

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Speaker 10: seen is that both Europe and China have increased their

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Speaker 10: investments in Serbia, which has helped to feel economic growth

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Speaker 10: to about four percent.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and so what should we be thinking about sort

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Speaker 1: of going forward this You've mentioned the sort of support

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Speaker 1: that the projects will see from the EU and the

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Speaker 1: US and the kind of pivotal role of Serbia. What

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Speaker 1: are we thinking about next in this story is as

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Speaker 1: you continue to track what's been happening, the protests and

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Speaker 1: the reaction to them.

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Speaker 10: It seems that the protests will be ignored, the project

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Speaker 10: will continue, and the mind will be set up and

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Speaker 10: mining will start in coming years. If that happens, it

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Speaker 10: should create thousands of jobs and boost the nation's exports.

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Speaker 10: Rio Tinto, which is going to operate the mine, is

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Speaker 10: talking about an annual revenue of more than one billion euros.

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Speaker 10: And on the political front, it seems that the project

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Speaker 10: actually will bring Serbia closer to Europe because most of

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Speaker 10: the lithium and products related to lythium are going to

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Speaker 10: be banned for Europe, which is trying to face China

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Speaker 10: in the battle for EVS. So we have seen a

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Speaker 10: huge vollicle support that president, which it has received from

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Speaker 10: European leaders such as German Chancellor, I'll Off Schultz or

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Speaker 10: European Commissioned President Urslavonderley and who have come to Serbia

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Speaker 10: in the last few months to support the projects, speak

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Speaker 10: positively about it and address the publics as well.

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