The mere threat of a pullback in the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program – not an end to the program or a threat to raise the record low federal funds rate – has been enough to throw global financial markets into a tizzy.
The 10-year Treasury yield hit a 14-month high of 2.29 percent Tuesday.
So the idea of the Fed and other central banks actually halting or reversing their easing programs is particularly scary. And at some point that will happen, though almost certainly not anytime soon.
Editor's Note: Unthinkable Haunts Investors: Evidence for Imminent 90% Stock Market Drop.
"There are spillover effects of the monetary policies that we're seeing in the world right now," Jim Young Kim, president of the World Bank, told The Wall Street Journal.
"One of the concerns is what's going to happen if there's a sudden stop to the loose monetary policy? What's going to happen to access to capital [for] developing countries?"
To be sure, this isn't the first time global financial markets have experienced a bout of instability.
"Part of this is the normal volatility you know you're going to get as you approach the date at which policy accommodation is going to be pulled back," David Stockton, a former top Fed staffer now at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told The Journal.
However, some experts believe a watershed moment has been reached in the U.S. bond market.
"I think you all should be ready, because rates are going to go up," JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told a financial industry conference Tuesday, The New York Times reported.
Editor's Note: Unthinkable Haunts Investors: Evidence for Imminent 90% Stock Market Drop.
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