Changes to capital requirements for insurers and pension funds, for example, have been specifically designed to encourage them to match the duration of their assets and liabilities, 4/9  BIS central bankers' speeches  raising demand for long-dated sovereign issues. The new Liquidity Coverage Ratio induces banks to increase holdings of high quality liquid assets, of which government bonds are major part.
The ubiquity of access to instantaneous “news” – from globalised news organisations and via the screens on our desks, CNN and so on – and the pace at which households and businesses adjusted their expectations and behaviour based on this new information was surely a big part of the explanation for the highly synchronised slump in demand around the world during the final few months of 2008.