Friday's Fast Five: Week of 11.4

How Healthy is the Consumer? (JP Morgan): Coming into 2022, investors expected that a healthy consumer – supported by significant fiscal stimulus during the pandemic – would power the economy at an above-trend pace. While this was indeed the case at the start of the year, a series of idiosyncratic factors pushed aggregate growth into negative territory.

"Unleash all this creativity": Google AI's breathtaking potential (Axios): Google's research arm on Wednesday showed off a whiz-bang assortment of artificial intelligence (AI) projects it's incubating, aimed at everything from mitigating climate change to helping novelists craft prose.

Fed approves 0.75-point hike to take rates to highest since 2008 and hints at change in policy ahead (CNBC): Along with anticipating the rate hike, markets also had been looking for language indicating that this could be the last 0.75-point, or 75 basis point, move. The new statement hinted at that policy change, saying when determining future hikes, the Fed “will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments.”

Coming soon: A $25,000 solar-powered electric SUV (Axios): With climate change accelerating and high gas prices squeezing consumers' budgets, the notion of filling up with free, clean solar energy is certainly enticing.

When It Pays to Have a Mortgage in Retirement—and When It Doesn’t (The Wall Street Journal): Quit your mortgage before you quit working. So goes the standard advice for those nearing retirement, but that might not be feasible for retirees who bought or refinanced homes later in life.