Markets have spent much of the past few years adjusting to the idea that interest rates would remain higher than they were during the post-financial-crisis period. This week suggested something more significant may be occurring. The question is increasingly not how long rates stay high before returning to the old normal, but whether the normal itself has changed.

The US 10-year Treasury yield moved to within touching distance of 5%, the 30-year reached levels not seen since 2007, German yields reached 15-year highs and Japanese yields continued rising...