22 things to be thankful for in 2022

With the end of 2022 approaching, the threat of a renewed surge in coronavirus cases in the area and the economic outlook for 2023 not being very rosy, let’s reflect on some positive aspects we had this year.

Here are 22 “good news” items (some of) you experienced in 2022.

Riverside County and San Bernardino County are way ahead in the employment recovery race from the COVID-19 downturn. Differently from the nation and the state, the Inland Empire has gone a substantial distance beyond the labor force and employment levels seen in February 2020, the last month of the previous economic expansion.

The 2022 ski season has started in a spectacular fashion not only for Mammoth Mountain but also for local resorts. A possible “triple dip” La Nina event promises more snow and precipitation than in previous years. Europe may see a milder winter, which should help given the energy shortages experienced there. There is a more pessimistic scenario associated with the drought emergency scenario, but this article is about “good things.”

The LA Rams won Superbowl

LVI beating the Cincinnati Bengals 2320 at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles. Since we want to keep positive thoughts, we ignore the more recent NFL Rams games from our minds.

Despite two quarters of negative growth in real GDP, the National Bureau of Economic Research, or NBER, dating committee has not declared 2022 a recession year (and we don’t think it will). Since we forecast a recession for 2023, party like it’s 2022.

The U.S. Men’s National Team qualified, against realistic expectations, for the Round of 16 at the World Cup in Qatar by eliminating Wales and Iran before bowing out to the 8th ranked team in the World, The Netherlands. And they looked impressive in their games. This is better than failing to qualify for the World Cup in Russia in 2018. The World Cup brought us some refreshing surprises such as underdogs Morocco making the semifinals before losing to 2018 champion France.

Education returned into classrooms and lecture halls. Students will not fall behind further by only getting education through Zoom lectures.

LAFC won the U.S. soccer championship in a penalty shootout after the “best final in MLS history,” according to neutral commentators.

Inflation seems to be finally getting under control after the Federal Reserve increased the Federal Funds Rate half-dozen times, including four three-quarter point increases during the second half of the year, trying to slay the dragon while engineering a “soft landing” (no recession). The last increase was “only” 50 basis points.

The nuclear fusion breakthrough in December at the national laboratory opens up the prospect of a cleaner future energy source, even if it cannot be scaled up in the near future. The Biden administration is hoping for positive effects within a decade.

The world reached the 8 billion inhabitants mark — or wait, is that perhaps not so good news? Regardless, adding another 1 billion people has taken some time and will take even longer in the future as fertility rates continue to fall.

We saw the first successful heart transplant from a pig to a human at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Asian countries started to lift travel restrictions, both for incoming tourists and for their citizens to travel abroad. While we are far away from levels of international tourism seen in 2019, we are slowly moving toward those numbers.

There is less fear that humans will be wiped out like dinosaurs were from the impact of a large celestial object. NASA’S DART mission was the first fullscale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology. NASA had another success with its Artemis

mission, which, after many false starts, finally delivered promises of future moon landings, including female and minority astronauts.

Los Angeles elected its first Black female mayor and no one claimed that the election was rigged: democracy is still alive in this city, state, and country.

Cambridge scientists successfully created synthetic tetrataenite in a lab. The rare metal was previously only found in iron meteorites, and has magnetic properties equivalent to the rare earth magnets used in most electronics. If scaled, synthetic tetrataenite has the potential to break China’s stranglehold over rare earth elements.

We finally saw a real life demonstration that not all is as promised in the crypto world. Sam Bankman-fried was arrested in the Bahamas after criminal charges were filed.

Faced with a potential winter shortage of gas due to the end of deliveries from Russia, Germany was able to build a liquified natural gas terminal in just under 6 months.

The United Nations Climate change Conference (the 27th “Conference of Parties” or COP27) came to a somewhat successful end in Egypt, although the envisioned policies did not go as far as many of us had hoped. Climate change will continue to be a major concern for the future, but we seem to make small steps towards policies and solutions. Hopefully we will see real results before wine production moves from California to Canada.

A decade and $9 billion later, the James Webb Space Telescope was successfully launched and began scientific operations in July. With 344 single points of failure, NASA successfully unfolded the telescope in space after it was launched into orbit.

While the Russian invasion of the Ukraine was anything but good news, at least one war ended during the year: the Whisky war between Canada and Denmark. Few of our readers followed the event, but both authors of this article were fascinated by the border dispute involving Hans Island (we don’t know if there is a Franz Island as seasoned SNL viewers might think), claimed by both Denmark and Canada. Both countries settled on a border line right through the 1.3 km2 or 321 acres piece of land. After all, it shows that land disputes can be settled peacefully.

Vienna was declared the “most liveable city” in the world by The Economist. The highest ranked North American City was Toronto (clearly the temperature in January was not a determining factor) at No. 8, right behind Frankfurt, Germany. Remind us to call a friend in Toronto after their next ice storm and say “hey Malcolm, we are inviting you to come and spend a few days with us in Santa Monica. Oops, we forgot, you can’t fly here since Pearson International Airport is closed…”

Riverside County and San Bernardino County are way ahead in the employment recovery race from the COVID-19 downturn.

The Inland Empire Economic Partnership’s mission is to help create a regional voice for business and quality of life in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Its membership includes organizations in the private and public sector.