The rout in UK and European bonds

Katie Martin· Host0:00

[upbeat music] Pushkin. The war in and around Iran has still got the global economy on edge. Now, investors are obviously not the most important people in all this, but they are having a very tricky time of it. And by investors, I mean everyone from punters like you and me, putting a bit of money aside in stocks or cash for a rainy day, to the professionals who are managing billions in massive pension schemes. And that's because what we're looking at here is either a modestly bad situation or a huge economic disaster. Nearly a month into the war, we still don't know which one it is. So stocks and bonds and commodities and everything else are getting beaten up by every passing headline, but one corner of the markets has been hit especially hard, and that's UK and European government bonds. Now, it's mostly hedge funds that have taken the immediate hit there, and I don't know about you, but my tiny violin is at the repair shop. But longer term, this matters for everyone. Today on the show, we'll tell you why the hedge fund struggle is your struggle, too. This is Unhedged, the markets and finance podcast from the Financial Times and Pushkin. I'm Katie Martin, a markets columnist here at FT HQ in bright and sunny London. Still got an annoying cold, but I'm being a hero and spreading my germs around with, in the studio, Mr. Ian Smith, markets reporter extraordinaire, really