From COVID-era supply chain disruptions being exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine to rampant inflation and the subsequent interest rate hikes implemented by central banks to curb price rises, the economy has been at the center of global events this year. With so much newsworthy content available from across The Conversation network, picking the most relevant stories for subscribers each week is often a tricky task. But we’re not afraid of a challenge at The Conversation, so we’ve picked out some of our essential reads from the past year for this final newsletter of 2022.

In May, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and World Bank chief economist Lawrence Summers wrote about the outlook for a U.S. recession with his Harvard Kennedy School colleague Alex Domash. They highlighted themes that were weighing on the economic outlook such as higher grain and energy prices and continued COVID-19 lockdowns in China. Earlier in the year, the U.K. edition asked two supply chain experts to outline the five essential commodities that would be hit by the war in Ukraine. Along with transport, metals and microchips, food and energy again featured prominently. But an article from the University of Toronto highlights the bumper profits of major food companies due to price inflation this year. And for a thought-provoking – and fear-inducing – overview of the current “era of disorder”, try this article from our Spanish edition by Nebrija University’s Jorge Hernando Cuñado.

Of course there have been strong themes running through our business coverage as well this year – from the strikes and industrial action bubbling up all over the world, to COVID-era workplace buzzwords like “quiet quitting” and burnout. And, of course, we all watched the “crypto winter” arrive to wreak havoc among the burgeoning industry, as this article from our Australian team explains.

Read on for more from around the world in 2022. And if that gets you thinking about next year, look out for our special series on the global economy in 2023 during the first week of January.

Pauline McCallion

Senior Business Editor, The Conversation UK

Fed hopes for ‘soft landing’ for the US economy, but history suggests it won’t be able to prevent a recession

Alex Domash, Harvard Kennedy School; Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard Kennedy School

The Federal Reserve is expected to lift interest rates a half point at its next meeting and more in the coming months, but it may be too late to forestall an economic downturn.

Essential briefings

World Cup 2022: who won the prize for ‘soft power’?

How Ireland’s ‘great reshuffle’ could benefit women and older workers

Buying gifts? Why ‘buy now, pay later’ could be a dangerous option for many holiday shoppers

Inflation, unemployment, the housing crisis and a possible recession: Two economists forecast what’s ahead in 2023

Quote of the week 💬

  • “The best way to test Bad Santa rule variations and playing strategies would be to observe games in real life – say, by attending 1,000 Christmas parties (funding bodies please call me). I did the next best thing, deploying the same type of computer modelling (known as agent-based modelling) used to understand everything from bidding in electricity markets to how the human immune system works.”

    – Joel Gilmore of Griffith University, from his article How to win the gift-stealing game Bad Santa, according to a mathematician

Economy

Housing

Workers

  • El trabajo doméstico en España ya es trabajo decente

    Carmen Grau Pineda, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; María Gema Quintero Lima, Universidad Carlos III

    En España, las empleadas domésticas acaban de conseguir, tras años de lucha, el derecho al paro y que se endurezcan las condiciones para su despido. Queda pendiente regular las condiciones del trabajo doméstico interno.

More from The Conversation