Jimmy Carter dies at the age of 100

Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT Americas. Today we are covering:

• The death of former US president Jimmy Carter

• A surge in US credit card loan defaults

• Elon Musk’s intervention in German politics

• The year of democracy in charts

We start today with the sad news that the 39th US president Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. He passed away peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by family, the Carter Center said in a statement released yesterday.

Carter was the longest-living president in US history, having celebrated his 100th birthday on October 1 this year, and his death comes a year after his wife, Rosalynn Carter, passed away at the age of 96.

President Joe Biden and president-elect Donald Trump led tributes to the life-long Democrat who defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.

Carter “saved, lifted and changed the lives of people all across the globe”, President Biden said. Trump also paid tribute to the former president. “The challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Carter’s one-term presidency was marred by spiralling inflation at home and a hostage crisis in Iran.

But after his defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980 he rebuilt his life and devoted his energies to establishing the Carter Center, which became a mix of international think-tank and conflict resolution organisation. In 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Here’s more reaction to the death of President Carter.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: Brazil’s central bank releases results of a weekly economic survey with more than 100 financial institutions. This will include forecasts for GDP, interest and inflation rates. Chile’s statistics agency INE publishes unemployment data for the September-November period.

Five more top stories

1. South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok has ordered emergency safety checks on the country’s airline operation system as investigators examine why the twin-engined Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air failed to deploy its landing gear, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. Here’s what we know so far about the crash.

2. Defaults on US credit card loans have hit the highest level since the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, in a sign that lower-income consumers’ financial health is waning after years of high inflation. Credit card lenders wrote off $46bn in seriously delinquent loan balances in the first nine months of 2024, up 50 per cent from the same period in the previous year.

3. Friedrich Merz, the man in pole position to become Germany’s next chancellor, has condemned Elon Musk over his opinion article praising the far-right Alternative for Germany, calling it “overbearing and presumptuous”. Merz’s remarks come after German newspaper Welt am Sonntag published an article by Musk describing the AfD as the “last spark of hope” for Germany. Here’s more on Musk’s comments.

4. A group of JC Penney bondholders are seeking to re-litigate its Chapter 11 case, claiming that a scandal that has since ensnared one of the country’s top bankruptcy judges tainted the US retailer’s 2020 reorganisation. The case was overseen by David Jones, who left the bench in October 2023 after confirming he secretly lived with a top partner at a firm which frequently appeared in his court.

5. Mexico is sitting on more than half a billion litres of tequila inventory as the fast-growing industry reckons with slowing demand and the prospect of tariffs on exports to the US under Donald Trump. Consumer demand for tequila grew quickly over the past decade, with celebrities such as George Clooney launching their own brands. But drinkers have now reduced their consumption, leaving the industry with a hangover.

Today’s big read

The inauguration of Donald Trump as president falls on the same day as the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Trump’s “America First” nationalism is the antithesis to the values of the elite-driven, globalisation forum. Trump’s views are a profound challenge to the liberal international order, making the US a leading disrupter and a geopolitical risk on a scale with Russia and China.

We are planning to publish a special edition of FirstFT Americas in the run-up to Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20 and are looking for your help. Please email any questions you have about the incoming administration to firstft@ft.com and we will ask our experts in Washington and New York to answer them.

We’re also reading and watching . . . 

• Trump 2.0: The incoming US president is picking nominees with vested interest to be in charge of key regulatory areas, presenting a systemic financial risk, writes Patrick Jenkins.

• AI and androids: The technology’s rise does not mean the robots are coming — at least not yet, writes Robin Harding.

• 🎥The CEO succession problem: Turnover of chief executives is at a record high but many companies are not training new leaders. This new film looks at the costs of poor succession planning.

Charts of the year

With more than one-and-a-half billion ballots cast in elections across 73 countries, 2024 offered a rare opportunity to take the social and political temperature of almost half of the world’s population. Here’s what the “year of democracy” taught us, in six charts.

The most popular stories of 2024

As 2024 draws to a close, here’s a look back at the FT’s most-read stories this year. Our coverage of November’s US presidential election claimed the top spots, leading with the live results map which showed outcomes as they came in state by state. This was closely followed by our interactive story on polling data, which allowed readers to chart possible paths to victory for either candidate.

And outside the political realm, Claer Barrett’s piece on how to protect your financial data with the rise of phone theft was the most popular. Her advice is as useful now as it was when the story was first published in May.