Sometimes, economic developments creep up on you almost unawares – and then, all of a sudden, they are the established reality. One such phenomenon is now almost universal: even in Spain, long-term rates have fallen to the point where they are almost as low as in the US – a dramatic turnaround given that as recently as two years ago, yields on Spanish government bonds were off the scale over fears of a sovereign debt default. Even Greece, so bad a basket case that most of its sovereign debt had to be written off, has this week been able to tap the markets for new money at rates of close to 5 per cent. Two years ago, Greek bonds were yielding six times that.