It was quite a run, but on Thursday, ECB chief Mario Draghi announced that the bank is finally putting an end to the quantitative easing program it’s used “to hold down interest rates and encourage lending” since 2015. The move has been in the works for some time, but it remains controversial, as doubts about the eurozone’s economic vitality linger – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
Prime Ministership again secured, Theresa May was in Brussels yesterday asking for EU help in “salvag[ing] her embattled agreement on leaving the bloc”—a reminder that there were definite downsides to her victory in Wednesday’s confidence vote – NYTimes
GE is offloading part of its digital business by selling its majority stake in ServiceMax, “whose software helps with inventory management and scheduling service technicians.” The shrinking conglomerate will retain a 10% stake in the company – WSJ and NYTimes
In what many are hoping is a sign of a thaw in its trade cold war with the US, China has again begun purchasing soybeans from American farmers – Bloomberg
Corn appears to be next [Bloomberg], and the temporary reduction of its additional 25% duty on American vehicles is real, too – Bloomberg
Hard to believe, but Amazon will take far more time in bringing HQ1.5s to Queens and Northern Virginia than it did in selecting the sites themselves. It’s told its Seattle workers that it won’t require any to relocate, and Bezos & Co. are projecting up to a decade to reach the 25k employment figures promised for both areas – WSJ
Because cryptos need more headaches these days, White Collar Watch looks at how the rise in government regulation of the digital currencies (after a few years of near Wild-West conditions) is likely to affect cryptocurrencies and ICOs alike – NYTimes [and Bloomberg]
If some in the Senate get their way, Deutsche Bank could soon find itself answering uncomfortable questions about its AML compliance, an already perilous topic for the German banking giant – Law360 and WSJ
We’re not on full flashing red yet, but it’s worth noting that a nascent national housing slowdown is reaching pre-crisis boomtowns like Phoenix and Las Vegas—neither of which has fully recovered from the bubble burst of the late 2000s – WSJ
Pimco, by the way, is at “flashing orange” level for a coming recession – Bloomberg
Join me, will you, in this trip to the heart of Texas—a Craigslist and ebay-shunning world where the preferred means of connection buyers and sellers (and, perhaps, an entire town) was the radio. It’s tradio time, folks – Marketplace
Have a great weekend.