For many, the holiday season is the busiest time of the year. Undoubtedly, 2021 is no exception. The world is gradually returning to “normal,” and we’ve started to resume some of the festive traditions that were missed in 2020. Personally, one of the things I enjoy most about the holidays is watching Scrooge learn valuable life lessons in the movie A Christmas Carol.

It has been going on two months since we last took a detailed look at the pandemic. Of course, a lot has happened since then. Between the winter wave of Delta, the emergence of Omicron, and the rising hospitalizations putting regional health care systems at risk again, there is a concern as to whether we are entering a third pandemic. I don’t think so, at this point. But let’s take a detailed look at where we are now and at the real question going forward—how bad will this get?

Over the past month, we have done a couple of posts about ESG investing, notably from my younger colleagues. I have gotten—not pushback, really—but comments to that effect both on the blog and elsewhere. The feeling seems to be, at least to some extent, that ESG is different from what prior generations, which is to say old people (which is to say me), have looked at and that somehow this represents a change.

Brad here. What is the next crisis? We get this question a lot. To keep up on such trends, we have to watch many things, such as countries getting into trouble. Turkey, which is currently struggling with the financial markets, is one of those countries we are watching—but not, as Anu Gaggar shows, all that worried about. This is a good case study of how we keep an eye on emerging risks. Thanks, Anu!

November was a solid month for the economy but difficult in terms of both the medical news and financial markets. After a strong October, the Fed announced plans to start tightening monetary policy. Then we heard about a new variant of COVID-19. By month-end, the combined news pulled the markets down from midmonth gains to much more mixed results.

Once again, we have some volatility in the financial markets. With the appearance of the Omicron variant of the COVID virus, stocks have pulled back. This has caused all sorts of speculation about the resurgence of the pandemic, the derailing of the economy, and more significant downturns in the market. It’s time for a deep breath, as always, and a determination of what is—not what could or might be—happening.

Brad here. This post follows up on last week’s excellent post on the United Nations Climate Change Summit by Sarah Hargreaves. I would like to call your attention to the generational tilt of today’s guest author, Sara Bray. As one of Commonwealth’s youngest employees, she is attuned to what her generation (Generation Z) is thinking—which is not necessarily what old people like me are thinking. She offers valuable information about what is happening with climate change policy, insights into how future investors may see these issues, and some thoughts about what all this means for today. Thanks, Sara!

It has been proven that being grateful is one of the best ways to make your life better—to be both happier and more successful. Here on the blog, I try to focus on gratitude a couple of times a year, although I notice that I have not done so through 2020 or really 2021. Perhaps that’s understandable, with the pandemic, but still misguided. Despite the real problems and concerns, I have much to be grateful for, and I hope you do as well. So let’s take Thanksgiving as the perfect opportunity to remember that.

I have always rather disliked the saying, “What gets measured gets managed.” On one hand, it is a truism. On the other hand, it is misleading in many ways. Today’s issue, inflation, is a great example. How we manage it depends very closely on how we measure it, which is quite true. But it begs the question as to how we should measure it. I might rephrase the saying, in this case, as, “What gets appropriately measured gets effectively managed.” This phrasing still has issues but is much closer to what we actually need to do. Beyond this, we start to get into pedantry, if we are not already there.

Inflation and what it means for investing is one of the biggest issues I have been hearing about recently. The topic can generate quite a bit of anxiety. But before we start to worry, let’s take some time to understand what actually happens when inflation hits the economy. Then we can panic—or not.