Next week Rachel Reeves will deliver her budget and, for all the talk of fiscal rules, headroom and tax rises, there is a higher power she must contend with.
When the Chancellor goes for meetings in the City, she is rarely introduced to the people whose job it is to press the button on buying or selling several hundred million pounds’ worth of gilts.
It is to these people that we have been speaking in the run-up to the Budget.
You would not guess that they wield political power, but for them politics is not personal. They approach it with blunt, professional interest, seeing opportunity in chaos. And if Reeves thinks she can rely on their support, she’s wrong: the bond vigilantes.
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