The Federal Reserve wrapped its September Open Market Committee meetings on Wednesday with the anticipated news that it would soon start to slowly taper its asset purchasing and is prepared to raise interest rates as early as next year—a “clear signal that policymakers are preparing to pivot away from full-blast monetary help as the business environment snaps back from the pandemic shock.” Still, the Fed acknowledged that its current outlook is far from set in stone, and virus and other “external threats . . . loom,” including recent troubles in China’s property market and “partisan wrangling” over America’s debt ceiling, could prompt the central bank to revisit these plans - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
Fed Chair Powell also addressed questions about the bank’s own internal trading rules for its officials - NYTimes and Bloomberg
Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer, a longtime company exec, is stepping down from his role next year and handing the reins to Andrew Bosworth, another Facebook vet - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
A new lawsuit against mortgage lender loanDepot accuses the company of “illegally cut[ting] corners and process[ing] thousands of loans without required documents such as employment and income verifications” in an effort to juice its growth figures ahead of an early 2021 IPO. The allegations “echo some of the abuses that fueled the mortgage meltdown in 2008” - NYTimes
Almost hard to imagine being able to do so after the havoc it wreaked on the global economy this week, but let’s set aside Evergrande for a minute. Doing so helps clarify that it’s far from the only problem plaguing the Chinese economy at the moment, as growth is slowing (thanks to slower retail sales, “slackened” industrial production, and “sharply reduced new housing projects”), and it doesn’t appear that the heavy government spending propping up the economy at the moment can keep it up through 2022 - NYTimes
Epic Games revealed this week that Apple has reportedly informed the Fortnite maker that “its ability to release software on Apple’s platforms won’t be reinstated until its litigation against the iPhone-maker is resolved.” Apple’s currently reviewing the September 10th mixed verdict from U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to assess its next legal moves in its dispute with Epic - WSJ and Bloomberg
Your week 2 dispatch from the Elizabeth Holmes criminal fraud trial saw some Mad Dog testimony about Holmes’ misinformation to him “before and during his time on the company’s board of directors” - NYTimes and WSJ and Law360 and Bloomberg
The SEC is pushing “dozens of companies” to provide “more information to investors about how climate change might affect their financial earnings or business operations,” a move that reflects new chair Gary Gensler’s prioritization of the fights against a warming planet within his agency - WSJ
Diving deep into Zinger’s successful 2008 “pod” approach to the Ryder Cup ahead of this week’s biannual tilt between the Euros and the Americans and whether it can help Steve Stricker’s bunch overcome the drubbing it suffered last time around - NYTimes
And, for good measure, whether the Wisconsin venue actually gives the Euros a leg up - WSJ
Stay safe, and get vaxxed,
MDR
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