Last week Schroders' fixed income chief Bob Michele remarked, in an interview, that investors could do worse than looking to the US mortgage market for somewhere to spend their cash.

What sounds like naked contrarianism – that particular market, after all, is what causes recession, famine, death, war, pestilence, hangovers, missed penalties and worse – actually followed some pretty basic logic.

Bonds in Freddie and Fanny are, as he put it, "triple A". When the Fed, terrified, with some justification, of the consequences of those lenders failing, protected them with startling speed and efficiency, the political message was pretty obvious.

"All the measures that have been put in place… indicate that the [US] government has basically supported these two agencies," said Mr Michele.

"Basically" is a heavy understatement. As he went on to point out: "Everyone in the US is a homeowner. Every homeowner is a voter… we are heading into an election year."