2022 the year that just was

Well, 2022 turned into quite a year, didn’t it?  

I seem to remember having written somewhere at some point that we were looking forward to better times after the pandemic, a prophecy that unfortunately was never to fulfil itself.  

We’ve had three Prime Ministers, three fiscal statements (though no actual full-fat budgets, curiously), four Chancellors, a major war in Europe, an energy crisis, double-digit inflation and a stalling economy. Throw in a partridge in a pear tree and you’ve got quite a Christmas carol there.  

We’ve lost a monarch and gained a new one. England’s Lionesses have achieved greatness as have England men’s cricket while various other national sporting teams have achieved mediocrity – although I note there is still time for the England men’s football team to pull a rabbit out of a hat for us.  

Of course, everyone’s years have been something different on a theme of this – not everyone is paying attention to the football in the same way that not everyone watched the Queen’s funeral. But there is still something of a shared, collective experience and memory of times and events. 

2022 will go down in our memories as a particularly trying year: just when we thought the worst of the strange pandemic years was behind us, a cost-of-living and energy crisis reared its head hot on the heels of a brutal war in Ukraine. 

But will 2023 be any better? Predictions abound and it’s easy to say it won’t. Britain, and the world in general, is facing a mounting series of problems, much of which we seem to be arguing too bitterly about to fix. But there is always hope, as there was at the end of 2020, and the end of 2021.  

So what about the last month of the year? We are as of yet just 11/12ths of the way through! 

There isn’t that much on-diary for us to take care of in December. We’ve got rate hike decisions from the US Fed and Bank of England on 14 and 15 December respectively.  

The latest UK inflation is also on 14 December while US employment falls on 2 December and UK employment and wages is on 13 December. 

Meanwhile the football World Cup Final is on 18 December. 

There are also a slew of strikes coming in December, from nurses to postal workers and rail staff to bus drivers. See our full list of dates for the December Forward look for more info. 

That being said, from all of us here at MRM and Mouthy Money, we wish you a peaceful Christmas and a Happy New Year.