The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that as 2023 comes to an end, the negatives are plenty. Guest columnist Tom Bradley writes that wars in Ukraine and Gaza have no end in sight; China is getting ever more isolated from the West; governments are assaulting bond investors with a constant supply of new issues to fund their deficits; and Canada's mortgage refinancing cycle, which will be painful for many households, is accelerating. While these risks dominate the business news, Mr. Bradley says it is important to remember that capital markets are a synthesis of all types of factors -- positive, negative, short term, long term, transitory and enduring. When the news is bad, you have to look harder for the positives. In that vein, there are good things that will help your portfolio in 2024: Inflation is reasonable again; we do not yet know how low inflation will go, or how stable it will be, but the battle has largely been won; and the Consumer Price Index is back close to the Bank of Canada's target and still dropping, which should allow interest rates to sustain recent declines, or even extend them. More normal rates have made some financial products great again -- money market funds, GICs and annuities.