Is This the Long-Awaited Bond-Market Breakdown?

Every year seems to start out the same. Pundit after pundit, economist after economist, trader after trader starts off saying "rates will rise this year." Time and time again, these forecasts continued to be wrong as deflationary pressures rule. No amount of money printing seems to be causing sustainable reflation in the U.S., Europe or Japan. At some point, the rising-rate meme gets old, tired, and given up on by everyone else who believed with conviction that the bond market is in a bubble about to burst.