The Fed delivered on its expected quarter-point rate cut yesterday, the first decrease in short term rates since 2008. Fed Chair Powell cited “the implications of global developments for the economic outlook as well as muted inflation pressures” as reasons for the move, though by not promising a “rate-cutting campaign,” Powell gave markets plenty of fodder to dive despite getting the action they wanted – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

More on why, exactly, the Fed decided to act “even as the economic expansion in the United States reaches record length, unemployment hovers at historic lows and consumers keep spending” – NYTimes and Bloomberg

The Bank of England’s up next, and it has plenty to sort out as it considers its next steps – Bloomberg

Not the least of which is Boris’s gung-ho Brexit approach, which isn’t helping the pound sterling in the least. The UK currency has slid nearly 3% in value against the dollar and euro since the PM Johnson era began last week – NYTimes and Bloomberg

Some thoughts on China’s new go-slow approach to trade talks with the U.S., a tactic it appears to have adopted in hopes that “waiting may produce a more-favorable agreements” – WSJ

SDNY Bankruptcy Judge Shelly Chapman denied restructuring consultant Jay Alix’s motion to reopen the case of NII Holdings Inc. so that Alix’s company could “probe rival McKinsey & Co. for fraud,” calling his allegations “the stuff of ‘fantasy’” – Law360

US Federal prosecutors have indicted Chinese billionaire Lui Zhongtian and his China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd. for their role in allegedly fraudulently exporting “huge amounts of aluminum to Southern California” and arranging “bogus sales to deceive investors”—all a plot to “avoid paying $1.8 billion in tariffs that were imposed on certain types of aluminum imports in 2011” – NYTimes

Elon Musk has escaped a lawsuit from a pair of Tesla shareholders accusing him and other Tesla execs of agreeing to the $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity Corp. without following proper board authorization procedures – Law360

The Nordstrom family is preparing another attempt to increase its stake in its eponymous department-store chain “following a decline in its shares that has stoked tension on the board” – WSJ

And here you were thinking that Friday traffic up north to the cabin was bad . . . . Imagine the entire country trying to take that Clearwater exit with you – WSJ