Business

Jim Grant, author of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, first hinted last week that not all is well when it comes to the world's biggest hedge fund, Ray Dalio's $160 billion Bridgewater (of which one half is the world's biggest risk-parity juggernaut). Speaking to Bloomberg last week, Grant said he was "bearish" on Bridgewater because founder Dalio has become "less focused on investing, while the firm lacks transparency and has produced lackluster returns."

Submitted via Doug Kass,

"We seem to be living in the riskiest moment of our lives, and yet the stock market seems to be napping. I admit to not understanding it.'

--Dr. Richard Thaler, Nobel Prize winner

White House budget director Mike Mulvaney has come out swinging at The IMF, after the establishment-sponsored organization threw shade at Trump's tax reform plan's growth expectations, accusing them of wanting the reforms to fail.

The angry response came after Vitor Gaspar, The IMF’s head of fiscal affairs, told the Financial Times:

News that Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) is retiring from the Senate was not welcome news for advocates of reform in the government-controlled world of housing finance.  "A big loss," said John Thune (R-SD). "He's always been a guy who's really about trying to find solutions, common ground, and getting results."

Looking at today's scheduled release of Minutes from the September FOMC meeting (which at least according to one trader will be the "start of the market changeover process"), RanSquawk reminds us that the Federal Open Market Committee stood pat at the meeting, as expected. The Committee also announced that it would begin to shrink the size of its balance sheet in October, as expected, with the process falling in line with a previously disclosed detailed plan.