This week, the U.S. debt reached a new record of $40 trillion. Economists and legislators expect this figure to continue rising.
The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee has revealed that debt increased at an astounding rate of $90,000 per second in the last year.
19-year-old illegal immigrant arrested after deadly Great Falls stabbing
7News talked to Don Boudreaux, a professor at George Mason University’s Department of Economics.
Boudreaux discusses the main drivers of the increase in the cost of living, the impact on families and the possible paths to fiscal recovery.

The fact that a tech executive has proclaimed the singularity in spite of all the evidence to the opposite is not surprising. Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that this claim comes from Stripe, a payment processor. Axios reports that the company, which recently acquired AI marketplace OpenRouter, told shareholders not only were we in the singularity but the event actually began in January.
What basis can Stripe use to say that AI has exceeded human abilities? Stripe is a business that acts as a broker between companies and financial networks. It’s because it seems to be true. Stripe said in the letter to shareholders obtained by Axios that “it’s a vague and overused term but we decided January 1st was the start of the singularity and have been operating since then.”
Stripe’s lone piece of meaningful evidence is that “there has been a massive increase in new firm creation.” The primary context of Stripe, however, is money. Stripe says that there’s “no limit to the size of global economies” and it is spending time to imagine a world with “quadrillions-dollars and to identify the bottlenecks necessary to bring it about.”
Lord save us if Stripe’s processing of money is the sole indicator of technology advancement. To be fair, the company is not the first one to use the dollar as a marker of singularity. OpenAI’s and Microsoft’s initial agreement on artificial general intelligence was that a system must generate profits of at least $100 billion to be considered a success.
Stripe probably saw this too. Patrick Collison, Stripe’s co-founder, CEO and founder of Stripe, said in February that “I believe Q1 2026 is going to be remembered as the Singularity” — he teased this announcement. Not only is he not the only one to drop a pin during that period. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said last month, “We’re now in, like, the singularity.” Elon has also made this claim recently. But he says it several times a year and is just uttering shit.
The people who claim singularity are usually either those with a lot of money to lose or people that move money. There’s surely got to be another way.

Stripe announced on Wednesday it would be acquiring OpenRouter. Sources told The New York Times, while the company did not disclose the price of the transaction, it was $7.5 billion.
This is a significant increase from OpenRouter’s valuation of $1.3 billion in May. In order to put this price into context, according to reports the only people who will benefit from it are the founding members. They’ll reportedly get $1.5 billion — which is more than what the company was valued at just three months earlier. According to NYT, the rest of the $6 billion will go to investors. Stripe had to bid higher than other interested parties, such as Databricks.
What is the goal of a company that uses AI to route prompts among different AI models when it comes to a payment giant?
According to an alleged letter sent by Stripe founders to their investors, the short answer is the singularity.
The letter was published by Eric Newcomer and confirmed by TechCrunch.
Singularity refers to the moment when humans and technology we have created become one new species. It’s obvious that this is a joke (as Patrick Collison acknowledged when he used the phrase at his company conference in April). Stripe founders John and Patrick Collison are pretty sure they don’t believe that humanity began to turn into The Borg 8 months ago.
They have mentioned the increase in Stripe’s revenue that AI has brought. Stripe is seeing more and more businesses being created, thanks to AI. Stripe claims that 88% (including OpenAI, Anthropic) of Forbes AI 50 use its products. 100% of Brex’s fastest growing startups also do. Everyone is sure that AI agents and AI will have a dramatic impact on the economy in the future.
This doesn’t answer why Stripe would want a company that is known for helping software developers to manage the usage of their models. Stripe founders admitted that the customer base overlapped.
In their letter, the founding members write that “OpenRouter has a lot of value for developers and Stripe is the largest platform in the world.” Stripe will benefit from OpenRouter’s internal use and it should be easier for them to develop future agentic models.
OpenRouter has promised that it will remain independent after the closing of the deal in the next few weeks. The startup stated in its blog post that “its product, mission and current commitments are unchanged.”
Stripe has made a lot of large purchases in the past, but most have focused on helping users collect and manage their incoming money. OpenRouter’s acquisition looks to be a shift in the other direction, as well: expense management.
Franco Granda, a research analyst at PitchBook said that this acquisition was Stripe’s “deliberate attempt” to get into the capital flow of the AI age.
The company is joining a diverse group of other companies that are also involved in token expense management. Databricks has developed its AI gateway. Rippling has just released one that focuses on ROI and employee AI spending. Ramp has also launched one for AI expenses management. The list is endless.
Stripe gains insight on how developers use AI by purchasing the grandfather of AI gateways. It also gets a sway over the AI market. Granda stated that OpenRouter would give it “some power over suppliers, such as frontier labs as well as hyperscalers or neoclouds.”
Payments plus token expenses management, a model of router and it may not even be Borg. It’s quite a bit of power.

Gov. Gavin Newsom defended California’s controversial tire regulations on Wednesday, insisting that the new environmental rules are a victory for residents – even though critics warned they could lead to drivers paying more.
At a Bay Area press conference, Democratic Governor praised the new rules that were approved on Monday. These will gradually phase out tires that do not meet the State’s energy efficiency standards.
Californians may have to pay more to buy rubber that is compliant with the new regulations.
Newsom dismissed the criticism and said the Golden State would benefit from the change.
Newsom said, “The ROI (return on investment) is quite good,” referring to Democrats who argued that the new rules which require lower resistance tires will result in cars using less gasoline or electricity due to better mileage.
The “rolling resistance” measures how much effort it takes to move a tire down a road.
Newsom stated, “Forget about the facts and save one billion dollars per year on fuel.” You talk about an affordable agenda. That makes sense to me.
He added, “It would be smart to use new tires that are efficient, as they will lower the cost of your fuel.” The savings are obvious from a consumer’s perspective. I believe it was the right choice.
The California Energy Commission had estimated that drivers would save nearly $1 billion in annual fuel and electric costs.
Newsom pointed out that the process of establishing the rules for the new regulation has been ongoing for many years, despite the attention it received recently. He said that all major tire companies except one were in favor of the new regulations. This is likely to be Goodyear who led the industry’s opposition.
Michelin and other tire manufacturers did not object to the new rules, but they expressed concern about enforcement, test methods, and possible disadvantages for smaller manufacturers.
The critics of the high-resistance tire ban claimed that the actual increase in price for tires would be several hundred dollars, as industry scrambled to replace the tires.
Tire prices can increase by up to 157%, according to Tire Industry Association. The difference in price between four tires and one vehicle could be as much as $300.
Republicans have attacked Newsom for using affordability as an argument to justify the new rules. They said that the state had not addressed the causes behind high gasoline prices such as state taxes or environmental regulations demanding specific blends of gas.
See the Magic Trick? Gas prices are deliberately raised to make you stop driving. Spencer Pratt, a former Los Angeles mayor candidate said that they then use artificially-high fuel prices to increase tire prices and impose more regulations.

California regulators have approved this new standard to replace car tires. They say it will increase efficiency and reduce costs for drivers at the pump. However, they will force them to pay more.
Harrison Reilly, a spokesperson for the California Energy Commission, said in an email that the California Energy Commission had approved the standard on Monday, after six years’ review and “collecting technical advice from tire manufactures”.
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The regulation, called the Replacement Tire Efficiency Program (RTEP), will come into effect in 2029. The CEC estimates that a set of tires for a typical vehicle will cost $26 more. There are several exceptions to the regulation, such as motorcycle tires and winter all-season performance tires.
The regulators maintain that more fuel-efficient tires can save motorists money at the gas pump. The cost to meet the minimum standard is minimal: just a few dollars for each tire. Fuel savings will pay back this additional expense in a couple of months, explained Reilly.
Tire manufacturers have overwhelmingly supported the regulation, particularly Michelin and Bridgestone who gave testimony during rulemaking. Discount Tire, California’s largest tire retailer, also supported the measure.
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Others in the industry, however, worry that the regulation was poorly conceived. Tracey Norberg is the executive vice-president and general attorney of the United States Tire Manufacturers Association. She expressed concern about the ability of the state to close loopholes such as import tires.
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Norberg stated during Monday’s hearing that “competitiveness” is a major concern in this industry. We see low-cost tire importers who cut corners with safety and performance. California, I will say, is particularly susceptible.
CEC believes that regulation will benefit all drivers. The CEC found in its analysis that the new standard is expected to save Californians $1 billion annually on fuel.