What I Read This Week…

Elon and Vivek shared their plans to reduce the size and scope of the U.S. federal bureaucracy.

Their plan focuses on five main areas.

First, they aim to remove regulations that Congress never explicitly authorized, using recent Supreme Court decisions as legal backing.

Second, they plan to cut the number of federal workers through workforce reductions, bypassing civil service protections by using existing "reduction in force" authorities rather than targeting specific employees.

Third, they will stop federal spending that wasn't authorized by Congress, which they estimate exceeds $500 billion per year.

Fourth, they intend to improve cost efficiency in government procurement by conducting large-scale audits of old contracts.

Fifth, they plan to address waste at the Department of Defense, which has a budget of more than $800 billion and has failed its seventh consecutive audit.

They plan to make these changes using presidential powers granted under existing legislation rather than trying to pass new laws through Congress, with a goal to complete this overhaul by July 4, 2026.

Bitcoin's price has nearly approached $100,000 multiple times this week.

What's driving this price increase?

First, political support from President Trump and his cabinet nominees has increased confidence in cryptocurrency markets. President Trump's pro-crypto stance has increased support for legislation to establish a strategic U.S. Bitcoin reserve and more favorable regulation of crypto markets, which would increase Bitcoin's mainstream adoption and legitimacy of the entire industry.

Moreover, institutional investors are increasingly buying Bitcoin through Bitcoin ETFs, which saw over $2 billion of net inflow over the last few days and represents a shift from previous years when Bitcoin was mainly bought by individual investors.

Furthermore, market psychology and increased attention on both traditional and social media are creating momentum as Bitcoin breaks through previous price records. With no historical price levels to act as resistance above these levels, and sentiment indicators showing extreme optimism, investors are increasingly targeting $100,000 as the next milestone.

Adding further pressure, the amount of new Bitcoin being created by miners is far lower than current buyer demand. This scarcity means buyers must compete for a limited supply, pushing prices higher. As prices rise, this attracts even more investors hoping to profit from further increases.

A recent study in Nature offers a new explanation for why it's difficult for people to maintain weight loss.

Scientists discovered that fat cells keep a biological record of previous obesity, even after someone loses weight. This record is stored through chemical modifications that affect which genes are activated (called epigenetic changes), which influences cell behavior.

When studying both humans and mice, the researchers found that these epigenetic changes persist even after successful weight loss and when overall health otherwise appears to return to normal. In their experiments with mice, the mice that had previously been obese gained weight more quickly when given high-fat foods compared to mice that had never been obese.

This helps explain why many people who lose weight often regain it – their fat cells retain a molecular "memory" of their previous obese state.

These findings are important because they show that obesity causes lasting changes in fat tissue that don't simply reverse with weight loss. This discovery could lead to new treatments that target these epigenetic changes in fat cells, potentially making it easier for people to maintain weight loss in the future.

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