August did not close the door on risk. It only narrowed the opening.
Investors are still buying corporate debt, and they are doing it with visible appetite. Under the calm surface, however, the market is working like a sieve. Good risk passes through freely. The weakest borrowers stay behind.
This is not yet a broad credit problem. It is selection. The question is whether the sieve keeps catching only the tail, or whether the pressure moves into better companies and the price of funding.
Where the picture has already changed, where July failed to spread, and which numbers would turn the signal: the full analysis is for subscribers.
