This begs the question: what will happen when or if the sector returns to favour? What will happen if even a small part of this 1000t of erstwhile ETF interest comes back? If a 30t poke stresses the lending market, what will a poke thirty times the size do to it?

But that’s not what is interesting. Rather, should the sector return to favour, should even a small fraction of that negative yielding sovereign debt spill into the one remaining financial asset that cannot be adulterated, the more interesting question is this: next time, where will they find the metal?