Bond Market Overheat: Gabon Bonds Yield 3.3%

The bond market in the United States, whether sovereign or corporate, isn’t worth getting into. Yields have collapsed under pressure of quantitative easing, and fixed income investors are left searching around the world for high yield. High yield means high risk, but in Africa high risk doesn’t necessarily mean high reward.

A Reuters report on the burgeoning African bond market highlights some of the issues on the continent. Yields on debt maturing in 2017 issued by Gabon, a country few have heard of, and fewer still know anything about, have been cut in have in the...