New Delhi, May 21 -- U.S. President Bill Clinton's key political adviser, James Carville, once said that if he did believe in reincarnation he wouldn't come back as a world or religious leader, or even a great Major League Baseball player.

"I would like to come back as the bond market," he said. "You can intimidate everybody."

There's certainly an element of that in the recent surge higher in U.S. Treasury yields and government bond markets around the world. The start of the war with Iran in late February has stoked global crude prices and triggered a fresh round of inflation angst.

Bond markets have since pushed interest rates higher, played a hand in lifting inflation expectations to multi-year peaks, and reminded investors that the ...