John J. Ray III, the new boss of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, criticized the "unprecedented" management of ex-CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried that ultimately led to the once-mighty firm's demise, according to a court filing. “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” said Ray, who has more than 40 years of legal and restructuring experience, including overseeing Enron's high-profile bankruptcy in 2001.

Just as the holiday shopping season gets into full swing, families are finding less slack in their budgets than before. As of October, 60% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent LendingClub report. A year ago, the number of adults who felt stretched too thin was closer to 56%. Real average hourly earnings are down 3% from a year earlier, according to the latest reading from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed, said that even with his "generous" assumptions that tend to favor a more dovish policy, "the policy rate is not yet in a zone that may be considered sufficiently restrictive." Meanwhile, the yield curve inversion between  2-year and 10-year Treasury notes deepened to its widest level in four decades. The spread between the 2-year and 10-year extended to a mark of -66 basis points, marking the deepest inversion since 1982. An inverted yield curve is usually a sign of recession.