Financial gravity spared no corner of global markets last week. Selling pinched all the major asset classes for the trading week through Friday, Sep. 25, based on a set of ETF proxies.

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Amy Coney Barrett will change balance of power in Supreme Court: FiveThirtyEight
Central banks face new challenges after spending $9 trillion in stimulus: BBG
Trump reportedly paid just $750 in taxes in 2016 and 2017: MW
UK-EU trade talks enter a final phase: CNBC
Armenia and Azerbaijan, former Soviet republics, clash over disputed region: CNN
Judge blocks Trump administration’s TikTok ban: CNBC
Uber wins court fight in London to continue operating: CNBC
Ransomeware attacks heighten risks for clarity on election night: NYT
Growth slowed sharply for US durable goods orders in August: MW

● The Wake-Up Call: Why the Pandemic Has Exposed the Weakness of the West,
and How to Fix It
John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge
Review via The Independent
“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen”. The situation must be serious when two of the West’s most prominent economic liberals begin a book by quoting Lenin.
Bloomberg’s John Micklethwait and The Economist’s Adrian Wooldridge do exactly that in their book-cum-pamphlet on how to relaunch Western liberal democracy after the pandemic.
‘Wake Up Call: Why the pandemic has exposed the weakness of the West – and how to fix it’ is one of two newly released books that prescribes how government should change for the benefit of us all.

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Waiting, Watching, Wondering: Maybe it’s the nation’s rising anxiety over the November election. Or worries that the economic rebound is slipping. Whatever the reason, the week that just in ended dispatched losses far and wide.

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Last month the Federal Reserve announced that it was adjusting its monetary policy in a bid to push inflation higher. Based on recent trading in the Treasuries market, the crowd remains unconvinced and may be in the early stages of unwinding a months-long rise in pricing inflation expectations higher.

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US officials try to assure public that vaccine will be safe: CNBC
NY state will review coronavirus any vaccines approved by Feds: Reuters
European Union to appeal ruling in favor of Apple in $15 billion tax battle: CNBC
GOP and Dems still trying to reach agreement on new stimulus bill: BBG
House Democrats preparing new, smaller coronavirus relief package: CNBC
Is US policy repeating mistakes in 2009’s economic stimulus? NYT
Investors warily eye prospects for US election: MW
Sales of newly built US homes rose to 14-year high in August: MW
US jobless claims continue to surge–up 870,000 last week: CNBC

US presidential elections always come with a certain amount of risk since the potential for the transfer of power from one party to another introduces a degree of uncertainty on a range of economic and geopolitical issues. But this year’s Nov. 3 contest promises (threatens) to be unusual for all the wrong reasons.

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J&J vaccine moves to final clinical trials: NYT
New stimulus bill before election looks unlikely: CNN
Republicans move ahead to confirm Supreme Court nominee: WSJ
Fauci tells Congress a US vaccine could be available as early as April: CNBC
California to phase out sales of gasoline-engine cars by 2035: NPR
Trump refuses to commit to peaceful transfer of power in election: BBC
Eurozone growth slows to a crawl in September: IHS Markit
UK growth ‘loses momentum’ in September: IHS Markit
Japan’s economy remains in recession in September: IHS Markit
PMI survey data: US economic rebound continues in September: IHS Markit

US Stocks Flirting With Fourth Weekly Decline: It’s only Wednesday, Sep. 23, but the downside bias for US equities is building. At today’s close, Vanguard Total US Stock Market (VTI) shed 2.6% for the week so far. Today’s sharp pullback more than reverses two days of moderate gains and so it doesn’t take a raging bear to imagine that VTI is flirting with its first run of four straight weekly declines in more than a year.

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Nearly every corner of global markets has rebounded sharply since the coronavirus crash pulled the rug out of asset prices in March. The US bond market is no exception, which has enjoyed a strong rally. Leading the way higher within the fixed-income realm by a wide margin: long-term corporate bonds, based on a set of exchange-traded funds.
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