Michael Darda sent me a scary graph showing 10-year TIPS spreads (white line) and the (real) yield on 10-year TIPS (yellow line):
Notice the recent sharp increase in real interest rates in the US. This is exactly what happened in late 2008. Indeed almost everything that's happened recently in the financial/commodity markets is a replay of what happened in late 2008.
But the rise in real interest rates is especially interesting. When I point out to economists that nominal interest rates don't measure the stance of monetary policy, they sometimes say, "Yes, but real interest