Economy

Trump's USA  US national debt
Bessent on the shutdown: "Embarrassing us in front of the world"

The shutdown has been going on for 26 days and is now starting to affect the US economy, warns Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

– It is starting to slow down the economy and we are also seeing problems in air traffic control, which is slowing down travel, he tells ABC.

In an interview with CBS, the Treasury Secretary blames the Democrats. He calls on Democrats from the middle phalanx to be heroes by stepping across party lines and voting through a budget extension like they did last spring.  

The future of Open AI
Sources: Open AI made billion-dollar deals without advisors

Open AI CEO Sam Altman and his inner circle handled deals worth up to $1.5 trillion, just over SEK 14,000 billion, with barely any help from external advisors. Sources tell the Financial Times.

The company's lawyers and commercial banks are said to have been largely shut out when negotiating multi-year contracts with giants such as Nvidia, Oracle, AMD and Broadcom. Instead, Altman is said to have sought advice from OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, CFO Sarah Friar and top manager Peter Hoeschele.

The unusual way of doing business has resulted in agreements that have been criticized by analysts for lacking financial details, writes the FT.