Expected highlights for the week ahead, courtesy of the Times, include two highly anticipated and long-awaited events with major economic ramifications: a Fed liftoff and the debut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens – NYTimes

Perhaps the biggest missing piece in the Fed’s anticipated interest-rate action? Inflation. Or the lack thereof, to be precise—a problem that the Fed can’t seem to figure out – WSJ

The DOJ antitrust division isn’t the only one likely to have problems with the Dow/DuPont mash-up. hedge Fund manager Daniel Loeb is not pleased (though for very different reasons), questioning—via correspondence to Dow’s board—the speed of the transaction and Dow CEO Andrew Liveris’ judgment on the price of the deal – NYTimes and WSJ

And why stop there with merger mania?  Fresh news today that Newell Rubbermaid is acquiring Jarden (which, itself, just acquired Jostens in the past few months) for a reported $13 billion – WSJ

With a Friday vote to propose new rules on “fund companies’ use of derivatives,” the SEC was seen as staking out its position as the regulator of the asset management industry—a move meant to keep the Financial Stability Oversight Council from moving in to the space with rules of its own – Law360

This weekend’s Fair Game column looks at the post-bailout demands on government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that have been “far more draconian than anything asked of the big banks also rescued during the financial crisis” – NYTimes

One of the biggest raps on private equity firms has been their “hidden fees” charged to the companies they own. Often described as “monitoring fees” and “transaction fees,” these extras are “effectively hidden” from investors and are no small potatoes; a recent report by academics at Oxford and Frankfort Universities put the total at more than $20 billion in the past 2 decades – WSJ

More on the Third Avenue Management announcement that it was barring investors from getting their money back from the firm’s junk bond fund, including the details of a fairly brutal assessment of the junk bond market (and the fund) by lead portfolio manager Thomas Lapointe during  a conference call the day after the Third Avenue news broke – NYTimes

Third Avenue CEO David Barse is an early casualty of the move (but probably not the last) – WSJ

And behind it all?  The much-discussed liquidity concerns in the bond world – WSJ

Still, maybe it won’t all be that bad, Fed hike and all?  History, at least, offers some hope – Bloomberg

The Basel Committee’s done an about face and “updated” an earlier proposal for determining credit risk for banks (that would affect the amount of capital necessary to have on their books) to once again allow 3rd-party credit ratings in risk calculations despite “problems with such ratings that emerged during the financial crisis” – Law360

The Upshot reminds us that falling in love with (or being endlessly loyal to) companies never really works out for us—mostly, I think, in order to assuage distraught Starwood members still smarting from news of their beloved’s sale to Marriott – NYTimes

A crib sheet with highlights of the 5 “key decisions” of this weekend’s climate deal in Paris – Bloomberg

As we all prepare for a new trip to a galaxy far, far away, let’s revisit the last time humans actually left low Earth orbit with this “real story of Apollo 17” trip down memory lane – io9

Oh, ballerinas . . .  those crazy, crazy ballerinas – Huffington Post