Our sister company EIU has been ranking the world’s democracies for almost two decades, and this year’s numbers are the gloomiest yet for fans of liberal politics. The number of full democracies is slumping and two-fifths of the world’s population live under fully authoritarian governments.

And in one of those countries ranked as a “flawed democracy”, James Carville once said that he’d like to be reincarnated as the bond market, to “intimidate everybody”. That may even include Donald Trump, who shows signs of heeding jitters in the yields on America’s debt.