Blackstone has marked its most active year in Japan, with about $7.7 billion in transactions across its real estate and private equity business in the country.

Labor markets remain in a delicate equilibrium. Hiring rates are low, but so are layoffs. The economy has added more than 140,000 jobs on average over the six months through November. But the unemployment rate has drifted up to 4.2%, from 3.7% at the beginning of the year.

Prices for groceries were up 1.6% from a year earlier in November. But they were up 27% from February 2020.

The small-business optimism index jumped in November to its highest reading since June 2021 and the index measuring company plans for capital investment, hiring and sales, rose to the highest level in more than two years in the fourth quarter.

There are about 1.1 million adults ages 50 and older living with a sibling representing about 1.6% of that age group in 2022, up from about 1.3% in 2012. There are also about 1.9 million adults ages 18 to 29 living with a sibling, about 3.6% of that cohort.

The dollar still accounts for 58% of global foreign exchange reserves, 54% of export invoicing, and 88% of foreign exchange transactions.

NAV loans experienced a 30% compound annual growth between 2019 and 2023, a market that amounted to about $100 billion in 2022 but poised to reach $600 billion by 2030. These loans usually pay an interest rate of above 10% and, while subordinated to the debt of the companies in the private-equity portfolio, have relatively safe loan-to-value ratios of between 10% and 25%.

The U.S. federal government spent $6.75 trillion in the most recent fiscal year ended Sept. 30. Walk around town handing $20,000 to everyone you see. Now do that for the entire U.S. population, all 337 million of us. That is about how much the U.S. spent.

The four-quarter moving sum of the percentage of balances becoming 30-plus-days past due fell 0.26 percentage point from the second quarter to the third, to 8.79%. Early data show the trend continuing into the fourth quarter.

Sales of bonds backed by the riskiest auto loans to subprime borrowers hit nearly $40 billion this year through October, up 17% from all of 2023.