Quote from FullyArticulate:
The Fixed Income market is important. Without cheap capital, LBOs, mergers, stock-for-debt swaps all stop happening. With higher interest rates, there's something competing for investment dollars. If you can get 6 or 7% in coupons with no risk, why take 40%+ drawdowns with the hope of making a long-term 7% in the stock market?
IMHO, inflation is the real cause of the duration shortening. The government can tinker with CPI numbers all they want (and point to "core CPI" and other such non-sensical numbers), but numbers like M3 and the GDP deflator do not lie. Fuel, Food are far more expensive than has been priced in, and are likely to get worse. (Just look at the global soy & corn markets for next year. Increased production and increased demand. At some point (soon), you can no longer increase both.)
Take a look at 2/10 or 5/10 spreads to see what's going on behind the scenes.
There's my analysis. What's yours?
You really are fully articulate. Thanks for a good post actually worth reading. Cheers.

