What happened to gilts?
Following the Truss-Kwarteng mini-budget of 23 September, which was widely deemed fiscally incontinent, the market for UK government bonds (gilts) took fright. Demand for long-dated gilts fell sharply and rapidly, meaning their price slumped and gilt yields (which move inversely to prices) soared. The consequences for the mortgage market were severe: fixed rates soared and some lenders withdrew from the market altogether in order to reprice. The political consequences have been turbulent, with the weeks-old Truss government looking painfully unstable. But what has received less attention – in the melee of recriminations,
