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Here’s a pop quiz. Some questions are conceptual, others ask about particular facts. The correct answers are supplied at the end. (But don’t cheat by peeking beforehand at the answers!) Good luck!

As credit card debt hit an all-time high — just shy of $1 trillion — in the final three months of 2022, delinquencies among borrowers accelerated. Balances grew $61 billion in the fourth quarter from the previous one to $986 billion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found. That marked the largest quarterly increase and the highest total since the series began in 1999. At the same time, the rate at which credit card holders missed payments and became more than 90 days behind was higher than before the pandemic, especially among younger borrowers, a potentially worrying sign when...

It is gratifying to see a few other commentators starting to notice the dramatic contrasts between New York and Florida in government spending and policy outcomes. Here at Manhattan Contrarian, I first covered the subject in December 2020, with a post titled “Contrast Between New York And Florida.” I followed that up with reviews of the respective state budgets in April 2021 (“State Budget Time In New York And Florida”). And now others are weighing in. The Wall Street Journal had a lead editorial on the subject on February 9, with the headline “New York vs. Florida, By the Numbers.”...

The engine of the U.S. economy—consumer spending—is starting to sputter. Retail purchases have fallen in three of the past four months. Spending on services, including rent, haircuts and the bulk of bills, was flat in December, after adjusting for inflation, the worst monthly reading in nearly a year. Sales of existing homes in the U.S. fell last year to their lowest level since 2014 as mortgage rates rose. The auto industry posted its worst sales year in more than a decade.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's finances are becoming increasingly precarious, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki warned on Monday, just as markets test whether the central bank can keep interest rates ultra-low, allowing the government to service its debt. The government has been helped by near-zero bond yields, but bond investors have recently sought to break the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) 0.5% cap on the 10-year bond yield, as inflation runs at 41-year highs, double the central bank's 2% target. "Japan's public finances have increased in severity to an unprecedented degree as we have compiled supplementary budgets to respond to the coronavirus and...

The past year has been a rough one for the wild hot takes of The New York Times’s phony economics savant Paul Krugman. His ridiculous record on the state of the economy under President Joe Biden makes it hard to see how he still takes himself seriously. Krugman used 2022 to praise the inflation and labor-shortage-rattled economy as “amazing,” double down on his imaginary “Biden Boom” and convince the masses that skyrocketing inflation was a transitory phenomenon. Despite admitting in July that he was “wrong” on the inflation crisis, Krugman continued to spew his flapdoodle with hubris and impunity on...

… Pot farms across the state are shutting down as wholesale cannabis prices have crashed by as much as 95% since California voters legalized weed in 2016, according to SFGATE interviews with over a dozen California cannabis farmers, who could get as much as $2,000 for a pound of pot in 2016. Today, they’re lucky to get $400 — and some pot is selling for as little as $100 a pound. Economists have been predicting that legalization would cause a drop in wholesale pot prices since states first began discussing the pot reform. But cannabis farmers say that California’s government...

The late, great Julian Simon spent decades battling intellectually against biologists and zoologists who were convinced that human population growth, if governments did not hold it in check with draconian measures, would spell doom for multitudes of humans.

Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. has been facing withdrawal requests exceeding its quarterly limit, a major test for the one of the private equity firm’s most ambitious efforts to reach individual investors. The news, in a letter Thursday, sent Blackstone stock falling as much as 10%, the biggest drop since March. “Our business is built on performance, not fund flows, and performance is rock solid,” a Blackstone spokesperson said, adding that BREIT’s concentration in rental housing and logistics in the Sun Belt leaves it well positioned going forward. This year, the fund has piled into more than $20 billion...

The District is still stuck in a pandemic funk. Most days, the city, especially the core downtown blocks around the White House, looks more like a ghost town than a vibrant capital city. Before the coronavirus shutdown, visitors to Washington were often in awe of how many cranes punctuated the skyline. Now, it’s hard to find a building without a “for rent” sign. Coffee shops and restaurants are serving limited hours, if they’re open at all. Hopes were high for a revival this fall. Schools reopened. Covid cases were way down. Businesses were calling their employees back. But the city...

In some of my earliest coverage of the Ukraine war, I noted that just comparing defence spending between countries was extremely difficult and not all budgets are created equal. Today following a Patron vote, I'm going to try and unpack that a little more by diving into the world of defence economics and production 101. In doing so, we're going to try and answer some questions. Why does America dominate the global arms market? How can a 5th generation fighter be cheaper than those decades older than it? And why do so many nations chose to buy in arms rather...

The Biden administration insisted Thursday that the US will not face a recession — despite economists and even President Biden warning that a downturn could begin in a matter of months. Businesses are bracing for the worst as the Federal Reserve hikes interest rates to tame the worst sustained inflation since 1981. But when MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire told White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre that there are “real fears that the nation could be teetering on the edge of a recession” and asked “How will the White House prepare for that?” the administration’s chief spokesperson struck an optimistic tone.

Iron Laws of Economics Reside There.. When people talk about economics, they generally refer to macroeconomics. Macroeconomics is a squishy science. Over the last several decades, economists have tried to bring rigor to it, but the variables are so random with such a significant variance that there is a lot of room to argue. That’s how Janet Yellen can whisper in Biden’s ear that there is no recession based on how she sees it. It’s also how Alan Blinder can write editorials in the Wall Street Journal claiming that more central planning and government bureaucracy always gets it right so...

The bond market just carried out a hit on Liz Truss, so watch out, Sleepy Joe, you could be next. The implosion of the UK prime minister is certainly one for the ages. She came in with a burst of optimism that she would reverse the country’s economic malaise with Thatcherite tax cuts. Unfortunately, Truss left out a few steps, including Thatcherite cuts to government spending. The bond market revolted. After less than two months in office, she’s now political roadkill.

China also is heading over a demographic cliff. The population has peaked, much earlier than once predicted. With a shrinking population, and a potential two-thirds reduction in working-age population by the end of the century, the PRC might not outstrip the U.S. economically. Still much poorer than America, China is rapidly growing older before it grows rich. That might become its permanent status. The PRC also is rapidly aging and suffers a dearth of women, as a result of the infamous “one-child policy,” which encouraged rural dwellers to abort or kill baby girls.

This is a Youtube video expounding an analysis of the implications of the Ukraine war for Russia, out into the future. The presenter/author, Torsten Heinrich, makes no claim about who will prevail in the current conflict. He speaks in a rather careful manner, mentioning sources and listing potential contrary views. He brings up many interesting points about the problems Russia faces going forward, such as alienation of ethnic minorities and the potential breaking of the unspoken social contract in Russia. While time is a precious commodity, I found the 29:49 minute presentation well worth while.

Currently, the discussion of sovereignty sees the Pavlovian retort bellowing the false notion of xenophobia. Or, more recently, it is touted as comparing nationalists to national socialism (Nazi). We can see that the collectivists are masters at linguistic gymnastics. For example, as the collectivist narrative goes, Trump is a nationalist and must be xenophobic at best or populist at worst. So, in reality, it is not about Trump but the Predator Global Psychopath (PGP) big club and their programmed sheep among us. Who are a the PGPs? We, the ordinary people who can still think, know “them” to be people...

A Columbia university Economics professor was censured during a live TV interview when he suggested that US and Poland might be responsible for the mysterious leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipeline.He further claimed that several journalists have reported insinuating Washington for the sabotage of pipelines

In June 2014, I wrote a piece entitled “Reform Intro Economics” for Inside Higher Ed. There, I argued that then-current introductory economics courses were little changed from those of decades past. I further stated that the students of 2014 found the unrevised course somewhat unsatisfactory: Today’s students are … not accustomed to sitting through 50-minute lectures, taking detailed notes of material and techniques, the value of which has yet to be demonstrated to them. Thus, it is little wonder that more students do not elect [to take] introductory economics or, following the course, do not take more economics. I would...