Tuesday March 17 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

German Yields Negative to 2021 as Investors Set for ECB Buying  - (www.reuters.com) German government bonds advanced, pushing yields on securities due in as many six years further below zero, as investors prepared for the European Central Bank’s program of sovereign-debt purchases. Anticipation of the 1.1 trillion-euro ($1.2 trillion) quantitative-easing plan, which is due to start on Monday, has already fueled a debt-market rally that sent yields across the euro region to record lows. The purchases, which are to include public and private debt, will be conducted in the secondary market by national central banks via existing counterparties. “The ECB may well have to bid bonds aggressively to procure them from their holders, in particular to avoid question marks around the credibility of its QE delivery,” Cagdas Aksu, an analyst at Barclays Plc in London, wrote in an e-mailed report. Yields on the safest euro-area bonds “will remain suppressed,” he wrote. “We also expect the core-periphery spreads of Italy and Spain versus Germany to grind tighter in this environment.”

Spain’s Post-Franco Elite Under Attack From Rise of Popular Podemos Party - (www.bloomberg.com) Pablo Iglesias was a foreign exchange student in Italy when reports of the 1999 protest riots at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle inspired him to switch to political science from law. Today, leading Spain’s most popular party less than a year before a general election, he’s aiming to clear out the political old guard and set the country’s economy on a new path. The eruption of Iglesias’s group, Podemos, over the past year is part of a tectonic shift stemming from the seven-year slump that destroyed more than 3 million jobs and threatens to unseat the political and economic elite that emerged to control Spain after the death of Francisco Franco 40 years ago. If the rupture gives Iglesias a chance to implement his program, the shock waves will be felt far beyond the Iberian peninsula.

ECB Starts Buying German, Italian Government Bonds Under QE Plan - (www.bloomberg.com) With the first purchases of government bonds under a broader stimulus plan, the European Central Bank showed willingness to be patient in its efforts to reignite the euro area’s economy. The ECB and national central banks started buying sovereign debt on Monday under the 19-month plan to inject 1.1 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) into the economy. While purchases included bonds from at least five countries, the size of individual trades -- at between 15 million euros and 50 million euros -- was small relative to the program’s goals, according to people with knowledge of the transactions. “The amount bought may be small to start with, but this will be like a pressure cooker,” said Ciaran O’Hagan, head of European rates strategy at Societe Generale SA in Paris. “They have just switched on the heat and we will need some time for the pressure to mount.” Euro-area bonds extended a 14-month rally fueled by speculation that buying 60 billion euros of debt a month will create a scarcity of government bonds among buyers of the securities. Yields already fell to record lows across the region as the Frankfurt-based bank follows in the quantitative-easing footsteps of the Federal Reserve, Bank of England and Bank of Japan.

Obama declares Venezuela a threat to US national security - (www.businessinsider.com)  President Barack Obama issued an executive order on Monday declaring Venezuela a national security threat, sanctioning seven individuals and expressing concern about the Venezuelan government's treatment of political opponents. "Venezuelan officials past and present who violate the human rights of Venezuelan citizens and engage in acts of public corruption will not be welcome here, and we now have the tools to block their assets and their use of U.S. financial systems," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement. "We are deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government's efforts to escalate intimidation of its political opponents. Venezuela's problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent," he added.

New Yorkers Consider Secession After Cuomo's Permanent Ban On Fracking - (www.zerohedge.com) One could argue America was conceived from intense frustration that ultimately led to separation. Fed up with what they perceived as excessive control by the Crown, colonists to the “New England”, in essence, seceded in 1776, and thus the United States was born. Now, there is a renewed and growing secession conversation brewing, this time fueled by a commodity: Natural gas. Infuriated by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s December decision to permanently instill a ban against hydraulic fracture stimulation, or fracking, residents in 15 communities in the Southern Tier of New York are discussing the possibility of redrawing the border between New York and Pennsylvania.

OTHER STORIES:

Greek Bonds Miss Out on ECB Rally Before Finance Ministers Meet - (www.bloomberg.com)
Eurogroup's Dijsselbloem: Greece reform outline 'far from complete' - (www.reuters.com)
EU aides play down Greek reform plan, no early progress - (www.reuters.com)
Emerging Stocks Fall to Three-Week Low on Rate Bets as Won Drops - (www.bloomberg.com)

ECB Said to Begin Buying German Government Bonds in QE - (www.bloomberg.com)
ECB Said to Leave Negative-Yield Losses Unresolved Under QE - (www.bloomberg.com)
European Stocks Decline Amid Greece, U.S. Interest-Rate Concerns - (www.bloomberg.com)

Google Ventures and the Search for Immortality - (www.bloomberg.com)

The Robots Saving the Dairy Farm - (www.bloomberg.com)