Confronting their autocratic president’s plans to put a weakened parliament firmly under his thumb with new elections, Tunisian civil society and political parties are putting aside their differences. But their tools are limited.

India’s vision of its role in the world is changing. It sees itself as a new “middle power” seeking multiple partnerships to grow its economy and balance Chinese influence. 

The bipartisan passage of the Respect for Marriage Act highlights how far Americans have shifted toward embracing LGBTQ rights. Blue Colorado with its deep-red pockets illustrates that journey.

If 2022 wasn’t quite a tipping point for diversity in film, it was at least a year of progress. A Monitor commentator brings it into focus for this week’s podcast on how we approach our work.

When an icon is widely misunderstood, it takes fearlessness to correct the narrative. Soledad O’Brien does just that with a “brutally honest” documentary on the life and work of Rosa Parks.  

Our reviewers’ picks for this month celebrate fiction set around the world. From Italy and Iraq to India and South Africa, characters seek courage to move beyond limitations. In nonfiction, an exploration of U.S.-China relations challenges long-held assumptions. 

The preface for much of the conversation about central banks this year has been how they misread the cues for inflation, and that allowed prices to run away.

One of the most important stories of the year, however, is the absence of consumer panic amid the worst inflation in half a century. Stock markets have bounced up and down. But wages and prices – as barometers of attitudes among shoppers and shopkeepers alike – have not chased each other into a frenzied upward spiral.

That calm is likely rooted in a moral explanation. Confronted by soaring inflation, the world’s monetary policymakers have responded with aggressive interest rate hikes – seven this year in the United States alone. Yet arguably their most effective tool has been honesty. “I wish there were a completely painless way to restore price stability,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday. “There isn’t.”

“Central banks have become increasingly open about their ... objectives, strategy, economic models and projections, and policy deliberations,” according to a study published in April by the European Money and Finance Forum, known by its French acronym SUERF. “Transparency enables accountability, which lends legitimacy to independent central banks and further enhances their credibility.”

That openness has enabled business owners and individuals to shape their own financial decisions with more certainty, resulting in wisdom, patience, and even compassion. Across the United States, for example, there have been countless examples of small-business owners making small adjustments to avoid passing on higher business costs to consumers through higher prices.

“Before I spent more time out in the dining room,” Wayne Shumar, a restaurant owner in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, told Fortune recently. “That’s what a family restaurant entails. Now I spend more time sitting here, looking at a computer screen, trying to keep costs down.”

A survey of consumer behavior by the University of Michigan in November found that, while “inflation has clearly inflicted much pain on the personal finances of consumers,” their long-run expectations about inflation have not dramatically changed this year despite a peak rate of 9.1% in June. A key reason is clarity. “Their views are informed not only by their own experiences but also by their observations and impressions of the economic environment around them, including news they encounter,” the survey found.

“Democracy,” the Supreme Court noted in its 2003 decision in McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, “is premised on responsiveness.” Strong institutions result in stability. That may be why a year of soaring inflation has not resulted in panic. From the United States to Japan, the transparency of central bankers has been a source of reassurance for consumers.