Just like that, 2023 has reached the half-year mark. As the years pile up, each passing year seems to compress into a tighter timeframe, and 2022 feels like it was six weeks not six months ago; but that is a discussion for another time. The outlook at mid-year 2023 is certainly an improvement over that of mid-year 2022, when inflation was near 40-year highs and rising, the supply-chain crisis was raging, and the central banks were just getting started on their aggressive rate-hiking policies. The war in Ukraine was just a few months old, and China was still in its zero-tolerance phase of COVID-19 lockdowns. As July 2023 gets underway, the major central banks have largely completed their rate-hiking campaigns. The annual rate of change in inflation is about half the peak level reported in June 2022. Supply chains now appear to be normalizing. China has reopened; and Russia is surrendering ground in Ukraine.