The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that the uproar last week in global markets underlines one big fact: Investors can't ignore bonds anymore. The Globe's Ian McGugan writes that yields on long-term government bonds are soaring to heights they haven't touched since before the financial crisis in 2008. The run-up in yields amounts to a long-overdue reappearance of the bond vigilantes -- those semi-mythical investors who are believed to push spendthrift governments back into line whenever public finances got too far out of whack. Market forces are laying down the law and demanding that investors recognize a new reality. For the first time in years, long-term bonds are looking like a half-decent investment option. U.S. 30-year bonds are now yielding over 5 per cent; British 30-year bonds are at nearly 6 per cent; Canadian 30-year bonds at 4.2 per cent, are paying the most since 2009. Those payoffs are more than double what was on offer just five years ago. The catch is that higher bond yields for investors mean higher borrowing costs for governments. That mean rising bond yields are unlikely to remain just a bond market phenomenon. They have the potential to rattle stock prices and shake the broad economy.