The outlook for 2022 is for an economy surging for the second straight year. With the robust October jobs report, the unemployment rate has dropped to 4.6 percent, wages grew. The jobless rate is expected to fall below 4 percent by the middle of next year.

Inflation, to be sure, worries voters. It will be less of a problem if Goldman Sachs is right and the pace of inflation next year continually drops to about 2.5 percent in the fall.

On the pandemic front, the news is encouraging: The numbers are trending down — despite some irrational or politically motivated resisters— and vaccines and treatments are plentiful. Some experts predict by early next year COVID-19 will more resemble the flu than the ordeal we’ve suffered through for more than a year and a half.

In Congress, there still will be tough and delicate negotiations between the Democratic factions over whether to include paid parental leave and liberalizing immigration — both of which may be casualties in a final version — and whether to increase federal income tax deductions for state and local tax payments; ironically, a measure aimed at those who’ve been left behind or are struggling, this tax provision primarily benefits the affluent.