Last week’s releases included consumer prices, sentiment in the housing industry, housing starts, and industrial production. Plus, of course, there was the most important one: the decision by the Federal Open Market Committee to start raising interest rates.

Although I identified consumer confidence as a yellow light in December’s economic risk factor update, last week’s data releases gave a largely encouraging take.

Last week was a busy one, with several important releases that provided a mixed bag of both support for a continued slowdown and a suggestion that growth remains solid despite that slowdown. Let’s take a closer look.

Last Friday, I was on set with TheStreet to discuss what’s ahead for the economy and markets with host Gregg Greenberg. From consumer income and spending growth, to a potential normalization in the energy sector, find out why I think 2016 will be a better year than many people currently expect.

This post is a follow-up of sorts to one I wrote a couple of weeks ago, “U.S. Dollar Still Failing to Collapse.” As expected, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) decided to add (as of next October) the Chinese currency to the list of reserve currencies. Also as expected, the world is not ending just yet.

Despite the Thanksgiving holiday, there was quite a bit of data released last week. Let's take a closer look.

When was the last time a Russian fighter was shot down? I’m guessing in the 1950s or so. The fact that Turkey was willing to shoot down a Russian jet, under any circumstances, is a major game changer.

The other day, I wrote that, as the cycle turns, we need to examine things that we assume to be true and make sure they still are. I used China’s quest to make the yuan a reserve currency as an example of just that type of decision. It’s a decision you might make based on what you know to be so but end up regretting once it turns out you were wrong in the first place.

Data was mixed last week, with multiple signs of a slowdown. But, in many cases, this was due primarily to a pullback from strong recent performance, while the long-term trend remains positive. In addition, more forward-looking indicators were generally more positive than those that look back, suggesting the slowdown is passing.

The big economic news yesterday was the release of the October minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve, better known as the Fed. For the past several years, these meeting minutes have been largely devoid of drama, as interest rates have been widely expected to remain low. But speculation over whether Janet Yellen will or won’t raise interest rates has gotten pretty intense over the past several months.