Euro Fragmentation Demons Haunt ECB’s Rate Hike Dreams

Time and again over the past several years, I've suggested that absent the ECB backstop, it's impossible to know where periphery European debt might trade. Hardly a novel observation, I know. But with net asset purchases set to end on July 1, and rate hikes commencing thereafter, this discussion is finally topical -- urgent, even -- after languishing in the realm of theory since Mario Draghi's "whatever it takes" pledge a decade ago. We often bemoan the death of price discovery in the QE era.