If the early days of the pandemic were all about companies going on hiring sprees and posting record profits, 2022 was about the economy returning to Earth. U.S. inflation soared to a 40-year high early in the year, a blow to many low and middle-income households whose salaries failed to keep up with rising prices. Many have also worried about a looming recession, which some forecasters are starting to say may not happen at all.

The same trends have been playing out worldwide, and the negativity about the global economy is a key theme at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where nearly 600 company CEOs are in attendance and many have doubled down on gloomy outlooks for the global economy and their own businesses.

But negativity towards the global economy is not limited to the halls of Davos or CEO corner offices. Feelings of pessimism and alienation from the global economy as well as growing rancor against big institutions are filtering into households of every income level, according to a new report, as economic optimism worldwide takes a massive blow.

Only 40% of families believe they will be better off five years down the line, according to a new global survey on trust in institutions released Sunday by PR giant Edelman. Financial optimism among families surveyed has fallen by a massive 10% relative to last year, the report found, warning that economic optimism is collapsing around the world.

Edelman surveyed more than 32,000 people in November in 28 countries for the report, titled Navigating a Polarized World. The report, which Edelman has conducted annually for more than two decades, found that economic optimism is at all-time lows in 24 of the countries surveyed, with all but one country reporting lower optimism, while public polarization in democracies is growing and trust in institutions including government and media is falling.

We are in a period of huge systemic change in a multi-polar world, with divisive forces fanning economic grievance, Dave Samson, vice chairman of corporate affairs at Edelman, said in a statement. If neglected, the result will be increased levels of polarization, slowing economic growth, deeper discrimination, and an inherent inability to solve problems.

Shrinking optimism in a divided world

Declining economic optimism was particularly pronounced in developed countries experiencing slow growth, including the U.S., according to the report. 

Economic pessimism was highest in countries normally considered economic heavyweights, including Japan, the U.K., and several EU countries. Of the 14 developed countries surveyed, none reported economic optimism levels above 36%. 

Fast-growing economies, including Indonesia, India, and Nigeria, registered the highest economic optimism scores, although almost all were more pessimistic than last year. China was the only country where respondents are more optimistic now than they were in 2022 about their financial and economic situation in five years.

Declining economic confidence worldwide comes as global recession risks continue to mount. The World Bank warned last week that countries globally were perilously close to a recession, while IMF Director Krisatlina Georgieva said Tuesday that global economic growth will slow down in 2023, although she signaled it could pick up again by next year.

But while recession fears for the year ahead are an undeniable risk, some observers have pointed out positives in the global economy that could serve as tailwinds for growth in 2023. 

In the U.S., a growing number of banks including Bank of America are now preparing for a mild recession as opposed to the severe downturn many predicted last year, jumping on encouraging declines in inflation and resilient labor markets. In Europe, meanwhile, Goldman Sachs recently revised its recession forecast in a positive direction citing falling energy prices and Chinas faster-than-expected reopening to the world economy.

Chinas reopening alone might boost the global economy once the country overcomes a surge in COVID infections and Chinese tourists and trade make a return. Mathias Cormann, the OECDs Secretary-General, said at Davos this week that Chinas reopening could be overwhelmingly positive for the world in the long term as it will smooth out the supply chain snags that have plagued the global economy for years.

Polarization risks

But even if higher economic pessimism turns out to be unfounded, the Edelman survey found another concerning development in countries with low economic optimism, which tended to also be the most polarized. 

Countries including the U.S. and South Africa were seen as severely polarized by the survey, while several EU nations including Italy, France, and Germany were in danger of severe polarization. Countries with higher economic optimism, including China and India, tended to be less polarized.

The survey warned that high levels of economic pessimism and political distrust in several countries surveyed were drivers of polarization. Compared to governments and the media, the business world was seen for the third year in a row as the most trustworthy institution among survey respondents, many of whom clamored for business to become more actively involved in social issues.

The increased perception of business as ethical brings with it higher than ever expectations of CEOs to be a leading voice on societal issues, Edelman CEO Richard Edelman said in a statement. 

By a six-to-one margin, on average, respondents want more societal involvement by business on issues such as climate change, economic inequality, and workforce reskilling, he added, while also warning business leaders that they run the risk of appearing politicized should CEOs choose to voice their stances.

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Critics on the left have always viewed Finks ESG stance with skepticism as well, with some arguing that the whole ESG industry is just a market tacticor outright destructive. Its like giving wheatgrass to a cancer patient, Tariq Fancy, BlackRocks former chief investment officer for sustainable investing, told the Financial Times in 2021. Davos on Tuesday, Fink said that he is now trying to address the misconceptions about his companys policiesand something bad has happened to the discourse along the way.

Its hardbecause its not business anymore, theyre doing it in a personal way, he told Bloomberg. And for the first time in my professional career, attacks are now personal. Theyre trying to demonize issues.

Fink was first linked with ESG investing back in 2020, when he warned that climate change was fundamentally reshaping finance in his annual letter to CEOs and argued that executives needed to reallocate their capital into sustainable strategies. The stance drew the ire of a coalition of over 75 conservative leaders and elected officials who signed a letter to the CEO asking him reconsider the announcement.

Then, last year, the situation was made worse when Finks annual letter to CEOs echoed his past statements about sustainability, and added a new note about stakeholder capitalisma policy of serving not only shareholders, but also employees, customers, and the public. Critics began to call it woke capitalism. 

Louisiana State Treasurer John Schroder divested nearly $800 million in taxpayer funds from BlackRock in October due to Finks ESG stance. And in December, Floridas chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, chose to divest $2 billion of his states funds.

Whether stakeholder capitalism, or ESG standards, are being pushed by BlackRock for ideological reasons, or to develop social credit ratings, the effect is to avoid dealing with the messiness of democracy, Patronis said in a statement announcing the move. 

Fink admitted that BlackRock lost about $4 billion of flows from various states due to its ESG stance last year. But he said that in long-term flows, the company was awarded over $400 billion. Still, despite the inflows into its funds, BlackRocks assets under management, which peaked at over $10 trillion near the end of 2021, fell to $8.59 trillion in December. 

Fink also pushed back against anti-ESG statementslike Tesla CEO Elon Musks recent Tweet where he said S in E.S.G. stands for Satanicand claims that his company is anti-fossil fuel on Tuesday. He noted that Blackrock is a major natural gas pipeline financier and has some $171 billion of investments in public U.S. oil and gas companies.

We are one of the largest, if not the largest, hydrocarbon investors in the world, he said. Unfortunately, there are some politicians who are taking parts of what I said out of context, but thats the world we live in today.

The CEO added that, unlike some critics have claimed, he has always been against forced divestiture from oil and gas companies as a part of ESG initiativesand he isnt anti-fossil fuel.

We have to be working with energy companies, not against [them], he said, adding that any transition to clean energy will need to be fair and just. 

In a prophetic 2019 interview at the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policys eighth annual conference, Fink argued against divesting from oil and gas companies despite the push to do so from some ESG-focused investors and predicted what could happen to companies who lean into ESG initiatives too strongly. 

No company wants to be considered the environmental police, he said at the time. This is one of the things that Im worried about.

At Davos this week, the BlackRock CEO said that the narrative around ESG has become ugly and polarized, but he is doing everything possible to change it.

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Nearly 23% of the 565 passengers on four flights to airports in Rome and Milan from Dec. 26-29 were carrying the highly infectious disease, according to a study published last week in infectious disease journal Eurosurveillance. As many as 42% of passengers on one flight were infected.

The study likely gives a good sense of the number of infected individuals on the flights, experts told Fortune. Some passengers might have been too early in their infection to test positive. That number, however, is likely offset by others who tested positive but were too late in the course of their infection to be contagious.

About 11% of travelers in the study were highly likely to be infectious to others, but the remainder may not have been, Dr. Jay Varma, chief medical adviser at the New York-based think tank Kroll Institute, tells Fortune, citing the study. Varmas two-decade career with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention included postings in China.

And thats the number that matters most to travelers, he says: What percentage of people boarding the plane are likely to infect me?

Countries such as the U.S., Britain, France, Australia, Canada, Japan, and others are requiring travelers from China to provide proof of a recent negative COVID test result before entering. This comes as COVID infections in the country explodean increase that began prior to the lifting of zero COVID restrictions in early December. COVID levels began rising in the country during widespread protests of the policy, and they likely served as super-spreader events, Dr. Ali Mokdad, professor at the IHME and a former senior epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, previously told Fortune.

Such restrictions on incoming travelers from China are understandable, given the inability of countries to perform a full risk assessment on the situation in China, World Health Organization director of emergencies Michael Ryan said at a news conference last week, emphasizing that such measures are not travel restrictions.

COVID data coming from the country has long been uncertain, and the country stopped releasing daily updates last month. In a major update, Chinese health officials said this weekend that the country has seen nearly 60,000 COVID deaths since Dec. 8more than an 11-fold increase over its all-time reported COVID death toll prior.

But the number is almost certainly a dramatic underestimate, Dr. Stuart Ray,
vice chair of medicine for data integrity and analytics at Johns Hopkins Department of Medicine, tells Fortune: The number could be 10 times what is being reported, given the lack of transparency.

Virtually all sequenced samples obtained by the studys authors were Omicron subvariants, mostly off-shots of BA.5, BF.7, and BQ.1.1, lining up with data released by China.

Nearly a quarter of travelers participating in the CDCs voluntary COVID testing and sequencing program were COVID-positive during Christmas week, the latest period for which data is available on the agencys website. The CDC did not respond to Fortunes request as to what percentage of travelers from China are testing positive.

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According to the IRS, January 23 marks the beginning of the 2023 tax season and the first day that the agency will begin accepting and processing 2022 tax year returns. 

If you planned to hold off until April to think about your taxes, you may want to rethink that plan. Getting started earlier can help ensure that you arent scrambling for tax documents at the last minute and that any tax refund you receive makes its way to you sooner rather than later. 

Make note of important deadlines in your calendar  

There are several tax deadlines youll need to be mindful of for the 2023 tax season. Before you begin gathering tax documents and receipts, these are the key dates youll want to mark on your calendar depending on your unique tax situation. 

• January 13: IRS Free File opens. For taxpayers who earned $73,000 or less in 2022, the IRSs Free File program lets them file their taxes electronically for free using brand-name software provided by commercial tax filing companies.
• January 17: Due date for tax year 2022 fourth quarter estimated tax payment.
• January 23: The start of the 2023 tax season when the IRS will begin accepting and processing individual 2022 tax returns.
• April 18: National due date to file a 2022 tax return or request an extension. 
• October 16: Due date to file for those requesting an extension on their 2022 tax returns.

5 ways to prepare for tax season 

Whether youre a first time filer, or youre already familiar with the tax season drill, there are a few steps every filer will need to follow to ensure that the process goes smoothly. Plus, many tax pros and softwares are already accepting tax returns now so that they can submit them on the first day the IRS begins accepting and processing returns. And the earlier you file, the sooner you can expect a tax refund if you plan to receive one. 

1. Gather your important documents 

To ensure that all of the information youre reporting to the IRS is accurate, youll need to gather your tax records and documents. These forms may include: 

• A W-2 from your employer(s) 
• A 1099 from banks, issuing agencies and other payers including unemployment compensation, dividends, pension, annuity or retirement plan distributions
• Form 1099-K, 1099-MISC, W-2 or other income statement if you worked in the gig economy
• Form 1099-INT if you were paid interest on bank accounts such as a money market accounts, certificates of deposit (CDs), or savings bonds
• Any income documents or records of transactions related to digital assets like cryptocurrency, NFTs, or stablecoins 
• Any letters or notices you may have received from the IRS throughout the year
• Form 1095-A, a health insurance marketplace statement 

Make a list of all income you earned in the last year, says Michelle Guissinger, CPA, CFP, CDFA, vice president and financial advisor at Wealth Enhancement Group in South Carolina. This can be done by reviewing deposits to your bank account or by reviewing amounts received on a mobile payment app such as Venmo. Most of these income sources should send you a tax document, but this gives you a list of what income documents you should be expecting. 

You may only receive one type of document, or a few of them depending on how you earn income, the types of financial accounts you have, your investments, and more. 

2. Max out your retirement account contributions 

A new year may have already started, but there are still money moves you can make now to reduce your 2022 tax bill. 

While the Dec. 31, 2022 deadline for 401(k) contributions has passed, you can still make contributions into your traditional or Roth individual retirement accounts (IRAs), up until April 18, 2023.

Maximizing the amount contributed to your IRA isnt only a wise tax move, but your future self will reap the rewards of your retirement account balance having extra funds in it. And thanks to the magic of compound interest, you can expect that amount to grow significantly between now and when its time for you to clock out for good. The annual contribution limit for 2023 is $6,500, or $7,500 if youre age 50 or older (2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 is $6,000, or $7,000 if youre age 50 or older). 

3. Consider any tax credits or deductions you may be eligible for 

Deductions can reduce the amount of your income before you calculate the tax you owe and tax credits can reduce the amount of tax you owe or increase your tax refund. 

There are tax credits available for individuals with children or dependents, credits for investing in your education, saving for retirement, purchasing an electric vehicle, or adding solar panels to your home. There are also tax deductions available for student loan borrowers who paid interest on their loans within a given tax year, taxpayers who made a charitable donation or made contributions to a health savings account. 

This is why its important to not only have a clear picture of the money you brought in this past year, but also the money that went out to determine if any money you spent could be used to reduce your tax bill or increase your refund. 

4. Think about how youd prefer to file your taxes 

Some taxpayers prefer to use a tax professional to help them prepare and file their taxes in hopes of avoiding errors that may crop up and could lead to delays in receiving their refund. It also doesnt hurt to have a professional on your side who knows all of the ins and outs of filing taxes and could advise you on the best money-saving tax strategies throughout the year. 

Although, for many taxpayers, experts say that going the DIY route is more than okay. 

Filing income taxes for the first time can be confusing and intimidating. Even the tax software programs aimed at assisting new filers are challenging as they navigate taxpayers through the complexities of the Internal Revenue Code, says Karen Wallace, CPA and visiting professor in Adelphi Universitys Willumstad School of Business. Nonetheless, I strongly encourage first-time filers to prepare their own tax returns. For taxpayers whose adjusted gross income is $73,000 or less, free online tax preparation is available via the IRS Free File program. 

Still, there are instances when you might consider enlisting a tax pro. Changes to your income, marital status, filing status, and living situation can all have greater tax implications come April. Wallace says that there are instances when working with a tax pro could make sense, including if you 

• Are self-employed 
• Own rental property 
• Have recently moved to another state 
• Work in more than one state 
• Sold your home during the tax year 
• Had a change in marital/filing status 
• Actively trade stocks

5. Make a plan for your tax refund 

The IRS issues most refunds less than 21 days after your return has been submitted and processed. Take this time to make a plan for how youll use your tax refund (if you expect to receive one). Receiving a lump-sum of money in your bank account can lead to frivolous spending if you dont have a plan in place for how youll use those funds. Think carefully about how to make that money have the most impact. That could mean throwing it at your credit card debt, using it to boost your emergency fund, saving it for a bigger financial milestone like purchasing a home, or a combination of a few different financial to-dos. 

The takeaway 

The thought of filing your taxes may seem daunting, especially if youre a first-time filer, but starting early, getting organized, and doing your research to determine the best ways to trim your tax bill can all make the process far less painful when the deadline rolls around.