In 1993, Bill Clinton’s humbled chief of staff, James Carville, opened up to The Wall Street Journal after the then president was forced to abandon his ambitious spending plans when bond rates jumped from 5 to 8 per cent.

“I used to think, that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or a .400 [great] baseball hitter,” Carville said. “But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”