Evening Briefing: Americas

The mounting level of US government debt, on track for $40 trillion courtesy of this summer’s “big beautiful bill,” risks a tectonic face plant for the economy if the pace of growth doesn’t pick up. A common sense sentiment certainly, but one that arguably carries more weight when coming from the chief executive of Goldman Sachs.

“If we continue on the current course and we don’t take the growth level up, there will be a reckoning,” David Solomon said on Thursday. He was echoing widespread concern that the US and other western economies are becoming addicted to debt-fueled stimulus.

Solomon has dismissed concerns about a potential “systemic” crisis in US credit after a small number of high-profile bankruptcies, and says he sees a “low” chance of a recession in the near-term. But still, he says that for economies drowning in debt, there is only one real alternative: “The path out is a growth path.” —David E. Rovella

What You Need to Know Today

“Truly great” is how President Donald Trump described his much-anticipated confab with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss trade between the world’s two largest economies, Robert Burgess writes in Bloomberg Opinion. But it wasn’t really, at least not for the US.

As far as not adding to disruptions in global trade caused by Trump’s chaotic tariff policies, sure. But rather than coming away with a framework for resolving the fundamental differences between the two countries, the few details we have of the one-year truce suggest a temporary stabilization of relations where China maintains significant leverage over the US in one critical area: rare earth metals. (The soybean purchases are a bit of a sideshow, Burgess notes.)

“China must feel more satisfied than the US about where it is compared to the beginning of 2025,” Eurasia Group’s Practice Head for China David Meale said in a note. This is in part because Beijing stood up to Trump’s tariffs and identified a “potent leverage tool through rare earths export controls.”

Weekly Documentary

Jamie Dimon Conquered Wall Street. Who Will Replace Him?

With almost two decades as CEO, he’s turned JPMorgan into a colossus of capitalism. But as he approaches 70, the question now is: Who will succeed him?

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So much for reshoring. Ford Motor Co. is said to plan a $370 million investment in India to churn out new engines as the US carmaker resuscitates a factory it shut down four years ago. The Maraimalai Nagar manufacturing site in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu will be retooled to make high-end engines for export markets with an annual capacity of over 200,000 units.

The move comes just as Trump has made boosting domestic manufacturing—especially where the automotive industry is concerned—a signature policy goal. Ford caught flack from the Republican during his first term for a plan to increase output outside the US, but more recently won praise from the White House after announcing major investments at its domestic plants.

Apparently a bleak future for America’s youth is bad news for “fast casual” restaurant chains, too. Younger diners seem to be losing their appetite for favorites like Chipotle and Shake Shack as they grapple with unemployment and slower wage growth. Executives at both companies cited challenges with younger diners, who’ve been hit hard by a “low-hire, low-fire” labor market that has new college graduates struggling to find entry-level work.

Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill tumbled on Thursday after the burrito chain cut its outlook for the third time this year. Chipotle Chief Executive Officer Scott Boatwright said the age group of late twenties to early thirties was a “particularly challenged cohort.”

Bloomberg Editorial

Europe Needs a United Response to Russia’s Hybrid War

The continent faces immense challenges in preparing for a possible war with Russia. It also needs better tools to wage a conflict that’s already underway: the Kremlin’s broadening campaign of hybrid warfare.

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More news for employees who fear replacement by artificial intelligence. This time it’s the consulting industry, where close to 150 ex-consultants from firms including McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co. and Boston Consulting Group were recently contracted by a third party to train AI on entry-level tasks, according to documents seen by Bloomberg News.

If that sounds familiar, that’s because the project, code-named Argentum, is being run by the same data-labeling startup that helped contract over a hundred ex-investment bankers to train OpenAI’s systems on how to build financial models (and thus replace those who currently build them).