IGLB

Fund investors were net redeemers of money market and equity funds during the week, withdrawing $9.3 billion and $5.7 billion, respectively, while being net purchasers of taxable fixed-income funds (+$6.8 billion) and municipal bond funds (+$607 million) this week.U.S. markets finished in the red for the fund flows week as investors evaluated the impact of an increasing number of COVID-19 cases, the lack of agreement on another round of fiscal stimulus on Capitol Hill, and the upcoming presidential election on the market and general economy.On the domestic side, the NASDAQ Composite Price Only Index (-2.41%) suffered the largest declines for the fund flows week of the broadly followed U.S. indices, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average Price Only Index (-1.06%) did the best job mitigating losses.

The amount of cash cycling through one of the world’s largest exchange-traded funds is turning heads across Wall Street.

Plenty on Wall Street fear the explosive growth of passive investing will eventually store up trouble for bond portfolios. An academic from the Swiss Finance Institute has found evidence it has already begun.

Americans cautiously returned to the doctor’s office for non-essential medical procedures like knee replacements in the third quarter but Wall Street expectations into the end of the year may be too high.

"Japanification" is the process of other countries' economies becoming like that of Japan: flatlined, with little to no growth or inflation and interest rates stuck at zero indefinitely. Because of the Monetary Death Spiral process that I've described elsewhere, many countries around the world are undergoing the process of Japanification. With interest rates now stuck at zero for the long haul and the Fed focused on employment above all else, the US has now completed the process. I go through nine economic metrics to show how the United States is walking down the path of Japan.

Ample economic research has shown that excessive debt, above a certain threshold of GDP, begins to drag down economic growth. US national debt is now well above that threshold. But ballooning debt, in itself, is not the fundamental issue. It is the result of the core problem. In the coming decades, the US economy will be asked to do the impossible: grow faster even while the government extracts more of its resources. There are no easy solutions. There are only painful trade-offs.

The best investment grade corporate bond ETFs for Q1 2021 are SPLB, IGLB, and VCLT.