Government bond yields in November have been characterised by a steepening trend as the impact of Donald Trump’s election victory sinks in. The message of populism is that globalisation will be reined in, and free trade and migration arrangements that markets love but many voters hate will be abandoned. As is now apparent from UK chancellor Philip Hammond’s latest budget figures, Brexit will hamper the growth of the British economy, and increased borrowing will be the substitute.

Trump himself said that his victory would be “Brexit times ten”, and his plans appear to include abandoning the Trans-Pacific Partnership and massive borrowing to fund infrastructure. US long bond yields jumped by 40 basis points as a result, a figure only exceeded by Australia whose long-dated bond yields rose by 50bps. Australia’s (and New Zealand’s) growth may be collateral damage caused by the end of the TPP, in the same way that Italy is being hurt by Brexit as it approaches a constitutional referendum with growing populist anti-establishment sentiment.

In selling longer-dated government bonds, investors are also sensing the populist mood against quantitative easing, seen as hurting pensioners and small savers whose votes helped Trump and Brexit. There are also technical pressures behind the steepening. The European Central Bank has concentrated its bond buying at the shorter end of the yield curve, creating a shortage of collateral in the repo market, which keeps short-dated yields low. A report that the ECB was considering loosening restrictions on lending out its portfolio caused short-dated yields to rise this week.

The political shifts that signal a new era of borrowing are far stronger than Fed chairman Janet Yellen’s modest signals that short-term borrowing rates will soon rise, and this also helps explain the steepening trend.