The typical credit card carried a 20.7% interest rate in May, up from 14.6% in February 2022.

In April of 2020 it surged to 33.8%, which compared with 8.8% over the course of 2019. It stayed elevated throughout 2020 and most of 2021, but last year it was just 3.5%. This year it has only been a bit better, averaging 4.3%.

Nearly $270 billion of leveraged loans carry weak credit profiles and are potentially at risk of default. Conditions have deteriorated as the Fed has raised rates, beginning to show signs of stress not seen since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Excluding a 2020 spike, the default rate for the past 12 months is the highest since 2014.

TikTok introduced its MyRTO — or my return to office — app this month. It’s part of TikTok’s latest mandate requiring its U.S. workforce to commute to a physical office at least three times a week with some workers expected for a full five-day workweek.

Federal debt held by the public now stands at 95% of gross domestic product, up from 80% at the start of 2020, and federal deficits are now 6% of GDP and projected to keep rising, from under 5% before the pandemic.

Blackstone recently disclosed that its Tactical Opportunities business closed the fourth flagship commingled fund, Blackstone Tactical Opportunities Fund IV (BTO IV), raising a record capital commitment of $5.2 billion.

Americans’ inflation-adjusted median household income fell to $74,580 in 2022, declining 2.3% from the 2021 estimate of $76,330. The amount has dropped 4.7% since its peak in 2019.

Overall options activity has smashed records in each of the past three years. About 44 million options contracts have changed hands each day so far this year, on average, an 8% bump from last year and more than double the figure in 2018.

Investors put $33 billion toward U.S.-based venture capital funds in the first half of 2023, less than half the $74 billion in the same period in 2021. Global fundraising for all private funds fell 10% last year to $1.5 trillion.

Money-market yields recently soared to their highest level in 16 years. Similarly, yields on 10-year Treasurys have lurched to the highest since 2007.