The bond bubble is back and bigger than ever before

Many developed-world sovereign bonds now carry negative yields – investors are paying for the privilege of lending governments money. John Stepek explains what’s going on.

SNB Keeps Policy Ultra-Loose

Switzerland can charge investors to lend to it over any period up to 15 years.
(Image credit: © 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP)

In 2016, in the wake of the UK's Brexit vote, government bond yields around the globe spiked lower.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.