There is a drumbeat emanating from family kitchens and elementary school classrooms, corner restaurants and city stadiums, office buildings and grocery stores, suburban gyms and resort hotels, and it is growing louder. And, those drumbeats have reached the financial markets. Starting two years ago, the financial markets have been percussed, but have since been cymbals of the central banks and the incongruous but profitable risk-on behavior they have fostered.

In an all too familiar scenario for writers, one persistent author suffered through 30 rejection slips before his book was finally accepted for publication. Canadian sociologist Laurence Peter had asked aloud: “Why do things always go wrong?”

The clock was built in 1947 by distinguished American engineers and scientists and it has been ticking away for 75 years now. For the past two years it has been stuck at 100 seconds, an urgent wake-up call meant to tell us how close we may be to destroying our own world.

With seven percent annualized inflation and supply chain woes carrying over from 2021, with our central bank clearly telegraphing the reversal of its decade-long loss insulation efforts, with uncertainty over the next path of a pandemic amongst other woes, it is no wonder that most financial markets are upside down this month.

108 years ago, the Senate compromised with the House and the Federal Reserve Act was signed into law on December 23, 1913. At present, the Banking Committee held re-nomination hearings for Jerome Powell, the seventeenth Fed chairman.

A new year began on Saturday and residents on part of the island nation of Kiribati in the Central Pacific were among the first to ring it in and flip the calendar page from 2021 to 2022. Then, hour by hour, the countdowns moves across the world. Finally, 25 hours after it began, 2022 rolled through the last spot on Earth to officially greet the new year.

In Year Two of this pandemic, while battling the Delta and Omicron variants, supply and labor shortages, multi decade-high inflation, and uncertainties on so many fronts, a number of organizations have nevertheless managed to celebrate significant milestones. Congratulations to one and all for enduring, thriving, and inspiring millions around the world through service, education and entertainment, in both good and trying times.

In the course of the day, thousands of numbers fly through our brains, some random, others not to be forgotten. It is hard to imagine life without numbers but there are reportedly some cultures that lack words for all but the one to three. For those of us who spend most of our day immersed in analyzing financial data, we cannot help but wonder how folks manage to get along without being able to precisely identify and verbalize quantities. How do they build, borrow, grow? Can they live longer and happier if the count is limited to “one”, “two”, and “many”?

A lot has been written about the pandemic, this hundred-year global plague. We know there is still a lot more ink to flow. No matter our roles, we have all become voracious readers of studies and speculations that have kept us swinging between the states of hope and heartbreak, confused by directives, irritated by extreme claims and flat assurances, tired of the topic but anxious to have all the latest news as soon as it breaks via our phones, TVs, watches, radios, or paperboys.