August has so far been notable for yet another set of bizarre market signals. Last week the Bank of England cut rates from 0.5 per cent to a record low of 0.25 per cent and pledged to introduce a ￡70bn quantitative easing programme.

In the wake of that, yields on sovereign debt in the UK, Ireland and Spain have tumbled to record lows: the rate on benchmark 10-year gilts is now a mere 0.56 per cent [cut: 0.51 per cent]while short-term notes have turned negative.

More startling still, the total global volume of sovereign and corporate bonds with negative nominal yields last week rose above $12.6tn, according to data assembled for the Financial Times by Tradeweb, the financial services group. [PRIVATE RESEARCH - NOT YET AVAILABLE ]That represents almost half of all western debt. By historical standards this is extraordinary — not least because investors continue to gobble up those notes, even though they will lose money on redemption.