Government bonds are considered the steady – perhaps even boring – investment class. But this year has seen the biggest bond crash in a generation, as inflation runs wild and central banks pretend not to panic.

As if things weren’t interesting enough, the European Central Bank is concocting a new wheeze to keep bond spreads in check, the Bank of Japan is printing record-breaking amounts of money, and Russia has defaulted on its debt.

We try to make sense of all this and wonder whether now might be the time to buy government bonds? And if so, which ones?

And in today’s Dumb Question of the Week: Why don’t governments issue perpetual bonds?

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