The City-State of New Lower Manhattan is a gargantuan, orderly nation, ruled by The Director with an iron fist, and renowned for its deadly medical pandemics, aversion to nipples, and digital currency. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless population of 22.009 billion Manhattanites are rabid consumers, partly through choice and partly because the government tells them to and dissenters tend to vanish from their homes at night.

The minute, corrupt, pro-business, well-organized government, or what there is of one, is effectively ruled by the Department of Defense, although Industry and Law & Order are also considered important, while Environment and Welfare aren't funded at all. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of New Lower Manhattan. Income tax is unheard of.

The frighteningly efficient Manhattanite economy, worth an astonishing 11,994 trillion NLM credits a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is broadly diversified and led by the Retail industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Gambling, and Uranium Mining. Average income is a breathtaking 544,962 NLM credits, but there is a vast disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 5,082,773 per year while the poor average 5,177, a ratio of 981 to 1.

Woodcutter axes are cited as the most common cause of death amongst death monsters, countless government officials are accused of espionage, commuters travel in zigzags to avoid stalking accusations, and the nation's soldiers often believe they're in the Air Force. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. New Lower Manhattan's national animal is the death monster, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is none.

New Lower Manhattan is ranked 171,284^th in the world and 8,088^th in Balder for Most Authoritarian, with 613.33 milliStalins.