General Wire — 15 August 2026

Business

Sourced from Bloomberg’s Morning Briefing Americas.

Americans are dipping into savings to fund their hobbies. Spending on pastimes — needlework, scrapbooking, marathon running and the rest — has reached a record share of US goods consumption, running above even pandemic-era highs. Amazon and Michaels are among the beneficiaries. — Bloomberg

Economics

Sourced from Bloomberg’s Morning Briefing Americas.

Fitch kept America at AA+ but flagged how exposed it is to a shock. The agency warned that high fiscal deficits leave the country vulnerable, noting that government debt is more than double the median for similarly rated nations. The affirmation lands the same week the Treasury went to market with a 30-year bond auction at the highest yield since 2001, and after a July budget deficit swollen by accelerating spending. — Bloomberg · Bloomberg

Finance

Sourced from The Economist’s Business in Brief.

The firms China relies on to defuse its credit crises are themselves in trouble. The Economist examines the country’s asset-management companies — the “debt-bomb squad” set up to absorb bad loans from the banking system — and finds the cleanup vehicles are now carrying problems of their own. — The Economist

Politics

Sourced from Bloomberg’s Morning Briefing Americas.

Washington has put tariffs of up to 100% on imported drones and their components. The measure is framed as reducing reliance on foreign suppliers and the announcement did not mention China by name, but it lands squarely on the world’s dominant drone manufacturer and risks reinforcing a two-way decoupling already under way. — Bloomberg

The “golden age” pitch is not landing with voters. With midterms less than three months away, President Trump’s argument that the economic good times have already arrived is running into public sentiment that says otherwise: approval sits at 39% per RealClearPolitics, and inflation is back above 3% even as unemployment stays low and consumer spending holds up. Some Republicans want fresh economic proposals, including further tax cuts. — Bloomberg · Bloomberg

Modi used the Independence Day address to make AI skilling a national target. Speaking from the Red Fort on the 80th Independence Day, the Prime Minister said the government will work to provide artificial-intelligence skill training to one crore young people over the next year, framing it as what India needs to lead rather than follow in the field. — The Economic Times

Tech / AI

Sourced from Bloomberg’s Morning Briefing Americas and The Economic Times’ ET AI.

OpenAI’s annualised revenue has passed $40 billion, roughly double its run rate at the end of 2025. People familiar with the figures attribute the acceleration to subscription sales and a nascent advertising business. The company filed confidentially for an initial public offering in June, and the revenue trajectory strengthens that case. — Bloomberg · Bloomberg

Indian AI acquisitions have run to $980 million across 25 deals so far this year. M&A involving AI startups has risen several-fold over the past two years, driven by buyers wanting to shorten product timelines and to secure data and scarce talent. Investors and founders say some targets were companies that had struggled to raise and became acquisition candidates for stronger rivals. — The Economic Times

A Chinese lab says its new model is closing on the frontier in cyber-defence testing. Z.ai reports results approaching those of Anthropic’s Mythos 5 — a build of Claude Fable 5 with cybersecurity safeguards removed, which Anthropic releases only to vetted organisations. The restriction reflects the double edge of models that can find and exploit software flaws: useful to defenders, but lowering the barrier for attackers too. — The Economic Times