Financial Mindset

The U.S. national debt has surged past $38 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department , just two months after surpassing previous forecasts to reach $37 trillion in August . This means the federal debt rose by $1 trillion in a little over two months, which the Peter G. Peterson Foundation calculates is the fastest rate of growth outside the pandemic. Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the nonpartisan watchdog dedicated to fiscal sustainability, said this landmark is “the latest troubling sign that lawmakers are not meeting their basic fiscal duties.” In a statement provided to Fortune , Peterson said that “if it seems like we are adding debt faster than ever, that’s because we are. We passed $37 trillion just two months ago, and the pace we’re on is twice as fast as the rate of growth since 2000.” The foundation’s analysis attributes the acceleration to a combination of deficit spending, rising interest costs, and the economic drag of the ongoing government shutdown. Peterson emph...

The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, the Pentagon announced Friday, in the latest escalation of  military firepower in a region  where the Trump administration has unleashed more rapid  strikes in recent days against boats  it accuses of carrying drugs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth  ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to the U.S. Southern Command region to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media. The USS Ford, which has five destroyers in its strike group, is now deployed to the Mediterranean Sea . One of its destroyers is in the Arabian Sea and another is in the Red Sea, a person familiar with the operation told The Associated Press. As of Friday, the aircraft carrier was in port in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. The person, who...

  The Social Security Administration’s annual cost-of-living adjustment will go up by 2.8% in 2026, translating to an average increase of more than $56 for retirees every month, agency officials said Friday. The benefits increase for nearly 71 million Social Security recipients will go into effect beginning in January. And increased payments to nearly 7.5 million people receiving Supplemental Security Income will begin on Dec. 31. Friday’s announcement was  meant to be made last week  but was delayed because of  the federal government shutdown . The cost-of-living adjustment , or COLA, for retirees and disabled beneficiaries is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers, up to a certain annual salary, which is slated to increase to $184,500 in 2026, from $176,100 in 2025. Recipients received  a 2.5% cost-of-living boost in 2025  and  a 3.2% increase in their benefits  in 2024, after a historically large  8.7% be...

Chen Tianshi, the 40-year-old founder and CEO of Beijing-based Cambricon Technologies, is now one of the 100 richest people in the world after his AI chip company, known in retail trading circles as “China’s Nvidia ,” posted a monster third-quarter earnings report last week, including most notably a 14-fold jump in quarterly revenue. It reported a net profit of $79.6 million (567 million yuan), compared to a net loss of $27.2 million (194 million yuan) a year ago— a 1,332% jump. ​ As you might imagine, these explosive results have been a powder keg for Cambricon’s stock, which was up 15% through Wednesday, while also ballooning Chen’s net worth by about $2.4 billion. The Cambricon CEO is now worth about $24.1 billion, up from from $21.7 billion last week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Forbes . He is now No. 94 on the list of 100 richest people in the world. ​ Cambricon’s tear is pretty indicative of China’s efforts to develop domestic alternatives to American semicon...

With about 350,000 employees on the front lines of tech, Ravi Kumar S of Cognizant Technology Solutions (No. 217 on the  Fortune 500 ) thinks a lot about the future of work. Like many of his peers, he has invested heavily in creating new AI services, platforms and proficiencies. Cognizant, an IT consulting and outsourcing firm, has created a massive library of prebuilt agents and accelerators for learning as well as platforms for digital twins in manufacturing and other tools for clients to scale AI. Unlike many peers, though, Kumar believes AI could create numerous opportunities for entry-level employees with a new range of skills—and he’s transforming his approach to talent to take advantage of that. Kumar spoke to Fortune about the impact of AI and the power of a Hollywood-style model of work. The following has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. Fortune: There’s a lot of noise around AI. How do you decide what to pay attention to?  Kumar: Every time I fin...

He brought the world Kallax shelves and Poäng armchairs, but can outgoing Ikea CEO Jesper Brodin help lead the world’s largest refugee organization? Brodin may have the chance, as the Swedish government announced him as its candidate to become the new United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) last Monday. If selected, Brodin’s career pivot would highlight an exceptionally rare trajectory among global CEOs: going from business to a multilateral international organization. The UNHCR, the organization says , protects people forced to flee, delivers emergency aid in crises, and helps displaced people find a place to call home. While some businessmen, such as Donald Trump in the U.S. or Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, have entered national politics, virtually none have crossed over to head a major United Nations institution. UN jobs are more typically reserved for career diplomats and politicians, while private sector leaders have been mostly absent in UN leadership. (Alexander ...

Some were born to lead. But many are just “ accidental managers. ” Take, Dustin Moskovitz. The millennial co-founded Facebook with his Harvard roommate, Mark Zuckerberg , and went on to become the company’s first CTO before leaving to found Asana, a project management platform, in 2008.  Again, Moskovitz led the startup (this time as CEO), taking the company public in September 2020 and growing it into the $3.4 billion giant it is today, before stepping down earlier this year. But now, looking back, he admits the top job was never really for him.  “I just found it quite exhausting,” Moskovitz told Stratechery , while adding that he’s really an introvert.   “I don’t like to manage teams,” he admitted, while adding that it was never his intention to do so, even after founding his second startup, Asana, with Justin Rosenstein. “I’d intended to be more of an independent or Head of Engineering… Then one thing led to another and I was CEO for 13 years…” The result? Ha...