Getting the €30 billion message
Negative Bond Yields Are the Betamax of European Markets
Paying governments to borrow when economies are expanding looks increasingly anachronistic.
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The start of 2018 marks the beginning of the European Central Bank's efforts to unhook financial markets from its life support machine by halving monthly bond purchases to 30 billion euros ($36 billion). The bond market is starting to pay attention.
As 2017 drew to a close, the German two-year yield started to climb above where it ended the previous year, the first time it's done so since 2013. It remains in negative territory, though not so deeply as it was at the end of 2016.