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Trading Scandal: Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan and Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren resigned last week following the discovery of several large financial transactions completed during 2020. The crisis has raised questions about the strength of the Fed’s guardrails around personal finance interests for employees of the Federal Reserve. While Kaplan and Rosengren promised not to do any additional trading while senior Fed officials, they ultimately chose early retirement as details emerged.

Avoiding Shutdown: President Biden signed a bill Thursday evening to extend government funding through Dec. 3, averting a partial shutdown hours before the current funding would expire at midnight. The bill passed both the House and Senate earlier in the day, with bipartisan support. The continued partisan battle over the debt must be resolved before the government exhausts its cash reserve as early as October 18.

Evergrande Collapse: With the collapse of Chinese property firm Evergrande pending, experts are suggesting that it does not signal a global financial crisis. Its main effects are likely to be contained within China, with any global spillovers more likely to spread through the real economy rather than financial markets. So far, the main stressors are on the Chinese stock and bond markets, with some early stress in the Chinese funding markets.

Inventory Light: The lack of inventory investment has been a drag on the recovery thus far. But experts expect inventory restocking to ramp up in 2022, becoming an increasingly important driver to economic growth. It is also expected to provide a buffer against slower demand and waning financial impulse. As you’ve likely heard, though, lingering supply chain constraints have continued to be a major hurdle. Experts expect those bottlenecks to ease in early to mid 2022.

Superior Pasta: One man set out to create the most perfect pasta shape. Of course, the natural questions that came up were: “What is THE best shape?” and “What attributes do the best pasta shape have?” and “Who decides what represents an official pasta shape?” James Beard Award winner Dan Pashman decided there was no current pasta shape that satisfied his desire for “sauceability,” “forkability” and “tooth-sinkability.” The development took many twists and turns but landed on the shape in the photo here. It’s become so popular that there’s currently a 6-8 week shipping delay. Any pasta experts out there? What do you think?