Read this if you’re not quite ready for Dry January

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a botched turkey recipe of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here. A cheeky champagne is still on the m [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a botched turkey recipe of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - A [cheeky champagne]( is still on the menu. - The [vibecession]( is officially over. - Some [positive news]( for the climate. - Jane Fraser’s [big test]( for 2024. Post-Holiday Detox-ish When was the last time you turned to alcohol as a response to stress? For me (as with, I expect, many of you) it was just this Christmas Day. But it wasn’t in response to an argument about the [future of driverless cars]( or the [second coming]( of Donald Trump — it was when I was lied to about cooking a turkey. Disclaimer: I am Australian — we don’t do turkey! Here I was, tasked with cooking Christmas lunch while visiting friends in France. The host did the grocery shopping, graciously, because the furthest my French stretches to is, “Un champagne, s'il vous plaît.” The so-called “chicken” I requested arrives suspiciously large. Who was I to tell this new Parisian that their “chickens” are hideous? I continued Ottolenghi’s [preserved lemon]( recipe without a concern in the world. That was until the host realized his mistake, having misread the packaging in a Christmas Eve supermarket meltdown. It wasn’t until the bird was in the oven that he revealed the truth. Everyone becomes a poultry expert in hindsight. Photographs: Christine Vanden Byllaardt Just four Australians in Paris, a fake chicken in the oven, with no concept of cooking requirements. A glass of champagne was the only way to get through Christmas dinner. Herein lies the problem: How often do we get the impulse to grab a drink? Lisa Jarvis [is asking this]( (free read!) in the lead-up to what can be the most stressful time of year: the post-holiday detox. So-called Dry January — initially intended as a UK public health campaign — is now “as fully commercial as Christmas and New Year’s Eve,” Lisa writes. She’s trying to make this farce achievable with a new concept: Damp January. “Maybe one way to get more on board would be to extol moderation rather than abstinence,” Lisa writes. For some, a dry-as-the-desert January can feel daunting. According to data from Morning Consult, fewer people in the US participated in Dry January in 2023 than in previous years. I certainly don’t want to forgo a celebratory Aperol Spritz, or a stress-induced glass of bubbles in a turkey crisis. But you start to think: If you’ll cave once or twice, why bother at all? Lisa says there are still health benefits to a “damp” January, a major one being [reflecting]( on one’s relationship with alcohol. If you don’t find yourself reaching for the Advil PMs as often, or your mind is clearer after a night of sleep, your body might be telling you to consider more than just a month of moderation. Lisa says that’s a message worth listening to, especially for women, who are [catching up to men]( when it comes to alcohol use disorder. But even a damp January requires a plan! One expert claims, “You can’t wiffle waffle and get chaotic about it.” To avoid wiffling and waffling, George Koob from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism shares a few principles of self-regulation: monitoring, strength and standards. Set a goal for how often you plan to abstain (your standards), have the internal fortitude to stay the course (your strength), and keep track of your progress (monitoring). Whether your January is bone-dry or moderately damp, Lisa says it’s well worth the effort. You could take a leaf out of my brother’s book this winter — a non-drinker in winemaking family — with a non-alcoholic [mulled wine](. I hear it pairs well with turchicken. Wave Goodbye to Gloom As this newsletter’s matriarch Jessica Karl [warned recently](, the [lingering spirit]( of the dead and gone vibecession “seems to have stuck around.” But Conor Sen has [put his foot down](: Recent shifts in data, markets and consumer confidence signal that the “vibecession” that has confounded economists for the past two years is finally behind us. All the main culprits are now trending in the right direction! Take a look at gas prices: Put headline improvements in the Consumer Price Index together with inflation-adjusted average hourly earnings, the almost miraculous surge in productivity, and the Fed acknowledging it’s done raising interest rates, and it’s no wonder people are feeling better about their prospects. Check out the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, which jumped by the most since 2005 in December: Now that the metrics people care about are improving, Conor says you can expect confidence to more closely track the economy in the ways economists expect — making the vibecession one final pandemic-era disruption we can put behind us. Telltale Charts Here’s a quiz that will blow you away: What has been the best performing developed-world stock in the Bloomberg World Energy Large & Midcap Price Return Index over the past quarter? Believe it or not, [writes]( David Fickling, it’s a company in the most unloved bit of the energy market — Vestas Wind Systems A/S, the Danish turbine-maker whose shares have gained 32% since the end of September. As promised in Bloomberg Opinion [Yesterday](, David followed up his “[year’s worst climate news](” roundup with some of the [positive climate news]( you may have missed this year. And despite all the negative headlines, less expensive wind power is one reason for hope as we head into 2024. In 2021, when all banks were struggling to attract and retain staff, Citigroup chief Jane Fraser’s human approach had a goal of making the struggling bank a more attractive place to work. How things have changed, [explains]( Paul J. Davies. After the collapse in investment banking over the past 18 months, and with Citigroup’s own wave of job cuts well underway, Fraser has adopted a different approach. But the CEO’s “huge and long overdue” financial fix-up has a long way to go. “A tough remodeling job at the underperforming bank will test the CEO’s leadership in 2024,” Paul writes. Further Reading New York can build more homes and [save the world](. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Our columnist had trouble hearing. Then he [tried new glasses](. — Dave Lee We learned some [tough lessons]( from China’s fizzled recovery. — Daniel Moss 2023 showed [Japanese audiences]( are skewing further east. — Gearoid Reidy Financing renewables [is vital](. Without training, who’ll be able to make it work? — Lara Williams This SocGen strategist’s doomster scribblings are [a must-read]( for fund managers. — Marcus Ashworth Think the goal of your retirement portfolio is to maximize returns? [Think again.]( — Allison Schrager ICYMI Elon Musk’s Tesla is [losing the EV race]( to China’s BYD. The Michigan Supreme Court has [rejected an attempt]( to remove Trump from 2024 ballot. A [blizzard]( is threatening holiday travel across the US. The chef who put [avocado toast]( on the map has died at age 54. Kickers  You can now follow this [9-month-long cruise]( on TikTok. (h/t Jessica Karl) [Taylor Swift]( has set a new record. A [Christmas mystery]( has been solved. Happy birthday [Timothée Chalamet](! Notes: Please send turchicken recipes and feedback to Christine Vanden Byllaardt at cvandenbylla@bloomberg.net [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. 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