It's Monday, December 26th.

I'm Amary for Tolley for the Wall Street Journal.

2022 was another year of big changes, and everything from politics to economics to public

health, as the world continues to recover from the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the year comes to a close, we're reviewing the past 12 months and looking ahead to the

new year.

This week, instead of our usual twice-daily episodes of What's News, we'll have a special

series of episodes.

We'll have a look at the new year's trends with experts in their fields about some of the

issues that defined 2022, starting with what the midterm election results mean for democracy.

The institutions of democracy were perhaps stronger than some of the worriers feared that

they might be.

That doesn't mean this debate is over by any means.

And how the Fed's planned to tame soaring inflation impacted the housing market.

We are going to see a lot of new homes come online that are being built currently.

We still do see pretty high mortgage rates, though.

Plus, after a tough year for investors, could there be some bright spots?

We know the Fed is planning to continue to raise rates at the beginning of the year to

make sure that they tamp down the inflation, but we're looking beyond that.

And the relationship between two global powerhouses, the U.S. and China.

Instead of just sort of rushing off a cliff in the fever of competition with China, let's

really think about everything we're doing.

...