For bond investors, every country is an emerging market now

To label a country an emerging market ought to spark a frisson of excitement. Such economies are meant to be on their way to being “developed”: integrated with the global financial and trade systems, growing stably and providing their citizens with high incomes. Because they aren’t quite there yet, they must pay their creditors a premium. Yet the label also applies to countries where policies have become a tad too thrilling to be trusted. Think of tricky customers like Argentina, whose profligacy made it a serial defaulter on its sovereign debt, or Turkey, where interest rates remain low even as inflation blazes above 80%.