A U.S. government shutdown has stretched into its second week, and the cracks are starting to show.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent now puts the damage at $15 billion a week, walking back his earlier “oops” of $15 billion a day.
The numbers may have changed. The dysfunction hasn’t.
According to Bessent, the shutdown is “cutting into the muscle” of the American economy. Projects are frozen, services crawl, and every dollar meant for progress gets buried under paperwork and politics.
Yet, somehow, he insists the nation’s investment boom, especially in artificial intelligence, remains “sustainable.”
Apparently, AI will thrive even while the lights are off.
It’s the kind of paradox only America could engineer: a system obsessed with growth while choking itself on gridlock.
The world’s most ambitious economy, paused by the same hands that promise to accelerate it.
In a country that worships momentum, the greatest threat isn’t sabotage – it’s standing still.
