Coming Sunday

By all accounts, 2005 was a year of economic transition.

Buffeted by rising interest rates, the once-red-hot national housing market was cooling at year’s end. The nation’s retailers fared well overall, but their numbers dwindled thanks to consolidation; and the economy withstood inflationary pressure thanks largedly to the Fed, which itself is making the biggest transition of all with the retirement of chairman Alan Greenspan.

And on the local scene, columnist Bert Caldwell looks back at a year that turned out better than expected.

Read more about the what happened in the economy in Sunday’s Business section.