The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that the recent rise in global yields is not just a U.S. issue. Guest columnist David MacNicol writes that investors are reevaluating global debt levels, inflation and geopolitical tensions. This has heightened bond market volatility, affecting balanced portfolios. Sharp increases in yields have led to losses for many fixed-income investors, a trend that is likely to continue. Long-duration government yields have jumped to multidecade highs globally, especially across the developed world, with the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield moving above 5.6 per cent, Japan's 10-year yield near 3 per cent and the British 30-year yield above 6 per cent. Global long-term yields are signalling something beyond the typical response to central bank interest rate increases: a lack of confidence from investors in the fiscal and monetary situation around the world. Central banks now face a difficult task -- balancing fragile economic growth with elevated inflation -- all the while paying more to service their debt. They are expected to be overly hawkish during this cycle after getting it wrong during the last inflationary cycle, postpandemic. These central banks do not want to be wrong twice.