Unintended Consequences.
Niall Ferguson on the bond market.
What follows is a lengthy excerpt from Niall Ferguson’s most recent column, posted yesterday at Bloomberg.com. The column is worth reading in full.
In terms of total returns, this is the biggest bond market rout in 150 years. Last year was in fact US bond investors’ worst year since 1871, with a total return of minus 15.7%, even worse than the annus horribilis of 2009. For 2023, the year-to-date return has been almost minus 10%; annualized, that’s minus 17.3% — even worse than 2022. We are looking at bond investors’ two worst years in a century and a half.
