Most analysts attribute the recent plunge in global bond yields to economic sluggishness overseas and the desire for a safe haven in the United States.
But there's more to it than that, says Nobel laureate economist Robert Shiller of Yale University. Our fear of technology is partly responsible, he told
CNBC.
"I think fears have been growing for years that represent the willingness of people to bid up bond prices," Shiller said.
"They are worried about their future. They are worried not just about next year, they are worried about the next 20 years, the next 40 years. So they are desperately trying to provide for that, they'll even accept negative yields."
Some bond yields have turned negative in inflation-adjusted terms. Ten-year government bond yields stand at 1.8 percent in the United States, 0.4 percent in Germany and 0.28 percent in Japan.
"There's this increasing fear of technology, information technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, 3-D printers, the Internet and all these different forms," Shiller said.
Technology "seems to be changing life in such a fundamental way and what it's leaving people thinking is 'where will I be in 30 years? Look how fast everything is changing now. Where will my children be? I want to leave something for them because they could be in terrible straits,'" he added.
"We are going through a technological revolution unlike any in history. We seem to be getting right to the core of people's ability to think, to know."
Financial market participants appear to have a different fear: currency war. The conflict rages on, with China's central bank pushing the yuan to a seven-month low this week.
China's economic growth sagged to 7.4 percent in 2014, the lowest rate in 24 years, and the government hopes that a weaker currency will boost exports.
The problem, of course, is that many other nations are trying to devalue their currencies as well — for the same reason.
"These problems [of sluggish economic growth] have expressed themselves in a reliance in countries either maintaining cheap currencies or allowing them to depreciate," George Magnus, former chief economist at UBS, told
The Wall Street Journal.
"This is a phenomenon that will likely stay with us for some time."
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