The 2023 Investopedia Terms of the Year

2023 will leave us with a lot of memories, many of which we might like to forget. It was a year that brought us several bank failures, a spike in treasury yields and borrowing costs, questions about the future of the U.S. dollar as the world’s dominant currency, and the rise of artificial intelligence threatening to disrupt every industry it touches. For investors, 2023 also brought us a recovery in the stock market that seemed hard to believe, even as the bond market continued to tumble into a three-year bear market. Old rules of investing were questioned, and for many, hopes of achieving their financial goals were thrown into doubt. 

Through it all, however, our millions of monthly readers kept searching for ways to understand the market and economic dynamics that shaped the past year. Here are Investopedia’s top terms of 2023:

American Dream

The term “American Dream” originated in the depths of the Great Depression in 1931, and was coined by writer James Truslow Adams in his book Epic of America. He described it as "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement." It’s typically used to refer to a collection of milestones like buying a home and car, getting married, having kids, and economically prospering. Yet the economic dynamics of the past year made most of those accomplishments too expensive to achieve for many. Saving, owning a home, raising a child, and building wealth were severely impacted in 2023 by persistent inflation, a spike in mortgage rates, and ever-rising home prices, putting the modern day American Dream out of reach for millions of Americans.

Bank Failures

Banks are supposed to be boring, but they were anything but in 2023. The bank failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic shook the financial world and sent savers in search of a better understanding of if and how their money is protected. Our readers became experts in the role of the FDIC, how the Treasury supports the banking industry, and the real dangers of how and where banks invest their money.

Artificial Intelligence

The future went mainstream this year as artificial intelligence (A.I.) became the hottest investment theme of the year, and the most terrifying, fascinating, and controversial technology we’ve ever encountered in decades. A.I. became a dominant element in every industry it touched, and it touches a lot of them. Our readers were learning about how it works, the opportunities it presents if used effectively, the pitfalls it presents, and, of course, how to invest in its potential. It’s not a surprise that A.I. was also our readers’ top pick for the 2023 Term of the Year.

Certificate of Deposit

This year offered savers a real choice for their safety nets, and Certificates of Deposit (CDs) were among the most popular products in 2023. As banks offered higher yields to keep pace with the Federal Reserve’s rate-hiking campaign, our readers were learning everything they could about how CDs work and which banks were offering the highest yield at that moment.

Inverted Yield Curve

This dislocation in the U.S. Treasury market lasted all year, bringing threats of a recession and a bear market with it. We got neither, but an inverted yield curve for the 2-year and the 10-year U.S. Treasuries was but one of several dislocations in the Treasury market that befuddled investors in 2023. Given the economic uncertainty, yield curve inversions might just be the new normal for a while.

Debt Ceiling

Sadly, threats of a government shutdown as the U.S. government approached the debt ceiling made their annual return as members of Congress could not come to terms on approving continuing resolutions to fund the government until the very last minute, once again. They did, but it cost the House Speaker his job, and the can was simply kicked down the road, guaranteeing that we will likely see this term again next year.

Treasury Bill

Alexander Hamilton’s creation got a lot of attention in 2023 as treasury prices slid into their third year of a bear market, and the public’s appetite for them was called into question. The Federal Reserve’s unwinding of its balance sheet also put trillions of dollars of Treasury Bills (T-Bills) back onto the market as part of its quantitative tightening regime. This disruption in what was traditionally thought of as the safest and most widely-held asset on the planet drove our readers to learn more about how the treasury market actually works, and how to take advantage of the higher yields these government bonds offered.

BRICS

As the U.S. Treasury market continued to spiral lower and tensions between the U.S. and Russia, and the U.S. and China heightened, there was more talk of the rising dominance of the BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as global superpowers. The dominance of the U.S. dollar was also questioned as OPEC and its allies floated suggestions about moving away from the dollar as the de facto currency in the oil markets. The rise of the BRICS was a popular topic for our readers and likely will be for years to come.

Assumable Mortgage

The spike in the 30-year fixed mortgage to more than 8% this year made homebuying impossible for many Americans. The U.S. housing market has been in a deep freeze all of 2023, forcing buyers and sellers to get creative about how to make a deal, including using an assumable mortgage, effectively transferring the existing mortgage from the buyer to the seller as part of the transaction. If interest rates are indeed going to be higher for longer, expect this crafty strategy to become even more popular next year.

Racketeering

This criminal activity always seems to find its way into our most searched terms of the year. Racketeering charges against Donald Trump brought by a Georgia court drove the headlines this year, but there were several other high-profile cases that got our readers attention. SHEIN, the popular e-commerce fashion platform, was sued for racketeering by three independent designers who claim the company stole their designs.