It’s widely appreciated that the head-wrecking nature of government bond markets meant some borrowing was done at negative rates: bond markets paid us to borrow from them. The relatively invisible nature of bond markets is a bit of a puzzle. Government bond yields (interest rates) affect everything: stock market prices, mortgage rates, corporate investment decisions and house prices, to name but a few. If bond markets really misbehave, we will have problems in all asset markets, especially equities. Bond markets have recently reversed back to where they stood at the time the pandemic started.

Source: The Irish Times February 28, 2021 11:05 UTC