Guess What Happened The Last Time Bond Yields Crashed Like This?By Michael Snyder In the past, when there has been a flight to quality we have seen yields for German government bonds and U.S. government bonds go way down. As you will see below, this is exactly what we witnessed during the financial crisis of 2008. U.S. and German bond yields plummeted as money from the stock market was dumped into bonds at a staggering pace. Well, it is starting to happen again. In recent months we have seen U.S. and German bond yields begin to plummet as the smart money moves out of the stock market. So is this another sign that we are on the precipice of a significant financial panic? Back in 2008, German bonds actually began to plunge well before U.S. bonds did. Does that mean that European money is smarter than U.S. money? That would certainly be a very interesting theory to explore. As you can see from the chart below, the yield on 10-year German bonds started to fall significantly during the summer of 2008 several months before the stock market crash in the fall As you can see from this next chart, the yield on 10-year German bonds has been steadily falling since the beginning of last year. At this point, the yield on 10-year German bonds is just barely above zero Yes, the ECB is driving a lot of this, but it is still truly bizarre. So what about the United States? Well, first lets take a look at what happened back in 2008. In the chart below, you can see the flight to safety that took place in late 2008 as investors started to panic Yes, there are other potential explanations for why bond yields have been going down. But when you add this to all of the other pieces of evidence that a new financial crisis is rapidly approaching, quite a compelling case emerges. For those that do not follow my website regularly, I encourage you to check out the following articles to get an idea of what I am talking about Of course no two financial crashes ever look exactly the same. The crisis that we are moving toward is not going to be precisely like the crisis of 2008. But there are similarities and patterns that we can look for. When things start to get bad, investors act in predictable ways. And so many of the things that we are watching right now are just what we would expect to see in the lead up to a major financial crisis. Sadly, most people are not willing to learn from history. Even though it is glaringly apparent that we are in a historic financial bubble, most investors on Wall Street cannot see it because they do not want to see it. They want to believe that somehow things are different this time and that stocks will just continue to go up indefinitely so that they can keep making lots and lots of money. And despite what you may think, I actually want this bubble to continue for as long as possible. Despite all of our problems, life is still relatively good in America today at least compared to what is coming. I like to refer to this next crisis as our third strike. Back in 2000 and 2001, the dotcom bubble burst and we experienced a painful recession, but we didnt learn any lessons. That was strike number one. Then came the financial crash of 2008 and the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. But we didnt learn any lessons from that either. Instead, we just reinflated the same old financial bubbles and kept on making the exact same mistakes as before. That was strike number two. This next financial crisis will be strike number three. After this next crisis, I dont believe that there will ever be a return to normal for the United States. I believe that this is going to be the crisis that unleashes hell in our nation. So no, I am not eager for that to come. Even though there is no way that this bubble of debt-fueled false prosperity can last indefinitely, I would like for it to last at least a little while longer. Because what comes after it is going to be truly terrible. This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. 