A key theme dominating global financial markets in recent weeks has been the general upward pressure on sovereign bond yields, particularly at the long end of government bond market curves. This move reflects a complex interplay of macroeconomic factors, but increasingly, political instability is emerging as a driver — most notably in Japan and France, where recent leadership shakeups have introduced fresh uncertainty into the policy outlook and fiscal trajectory.

In Japan, the political landscape was rattled over the weekend when Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced his resignation. His departure has triggered a leaders

With just a week remaining until the highly anticipated September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, Wednesday’s wholesale inflation print and Thursday’s consumer inflation results for August are the last major hurdles lying between the expected resumption of the FOMC easing cycle. Fed fund futures have fully priced a 0.25% rate reduction next Wednesday — and are currently priced for a full percentage point of easing before Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell’s term ends in May (with roughly two-thirds of this priced in for 2025). Baring the unlikely chance Fed Chair Powell warns of a recession or outs

Key Talking Points:

• The bad news is that recent revisions have been largely to the downside. The good news is investors have alternative data sources.

• Unemployment in August rose to 4.3% from 4.2% the previous month. This is what a soft landing looks like, but we are in the early innings of the slowdown.

• Payrolls grew by 22,000 in August, but employment in June and July combined is 21,000 lower than previously reported. (Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.)

For decades, retirement savers had a fairly simple menu: stocks, bonds, and a few target date funds that combined the two in different proportions. Alternatives, such as hedge funds, private credit, and private equity, were not even an option unless you were a pension fund or ultra-high-net-worth investor meeting high-bar qualifications. That may change soon, as Washington is working on another big policy shift, this time particularly focused on alternative investments.

On August 7, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order called “Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors.” The order requi