News: 2014-02-10

Markets

Taper time-bomb hits US high-yield debt – FT.com

“Late last week, Lipper, the mutual fund performance analysis service, said investors had pulled another $972m from the funds and ETFs betting on junk bonds in the week ending February 5, bringing total withdrawals so far this year to $1.4bn. Investors instead favoured funds investing in corporate bonds with higher credit quality and US Treasury securities.”

Junk Yield Premiums Soar on China’s Looming First Default – Bloomberg

Noahpinion: Does trend-chasing explain financial markets?

GoPro Files for IPO Confidentially

Europe

ekathimerini.com | Greece does not need third bailout, Samaras tells Bild

ekathimerini.com | Car sales up 18 pct in January compared to a year earlier

ekathimerini.com | Greek industrial production index up by 0.5 pct in December

Europe to review ties with Switzerland after immigration vote | Reuters

Germany’s constitutional court has strengthened the eurosceptics – FT.com

” If you read past the first 15 pages of procedural jargon, you find the court concludes that OMT violates the German constitution. It accuses the ECB of making a power grab by extending its own mandate. It says the scheme endangers the underpinnings of the eurozone rescue programmes. Worse, it says OMT undermined deep principles of democracy. Were it to be used, it would deprive the German parliament of its fiscal sovereignty by forcing it to accept any losses the scheme generated. The ruling considers OMT to be debt monetisation, whereby a central bank prints money to finance sovereign debt. It is hard to think of any act short of a military coup that could violate so many important constitutional principles all at once.”

Second Week With Italy’s on ECB Support

For the Swedish central bank, the use of bitcoin is still so small that it does not have any impact on financial stability or the payments system. So it has not been an issue for the central bank to make a statement on.

Kriminella köper droger med bitcoin

This Swedish paper shows that bitcoin was a fundamental part of at least six narcotics cases in Sweden last year.

Why Mt. Gox, the World’s First Bitcoin Exchange, is Dying