Even Great Britain is not escaping the wave of fear sweeping European markets. UK government bonds, known as 'gilts', hit record lows with a record 2,24%. This is good news for Cameron, who wants to reach a balanced budget by 2015, but it is further confirmation of the fragility of the equity sector.
Not even after the Second World War had the value of government bonds fallen so low – the interest was 2,5%. It is necessary to look even further back and reach the Victorian era to approach the threshold reached today. In the late 800s, under Queen Victoria's reign, the Bank of England calculates that gilts had a yield of 1,96%. According to the two historians Sidney Homer and Richard Eugene Sylla, however, the minimum reached was 2,21%.
In any case, it hasn't reached 2,27% since 1989, a symptom of an economy that isn't going as it should.
