Although the development of information technology currently points towards more competition, the degree to which companies choose to take advantage of it could vary markedly from one industry to the next.
There would be a 180 degree difference in that they might be able to take advantage of opportunities available today instead of being taken down and having to rebuild their financial lives.
This leads me to the other advantage of bonds over bond funds: you can pick the maturity date and know with a high degree of certainty when you are going to get your money back.
With the current groundswell of death penalty opposition based on the possibility of executing an innocent person, elected officials may now find some advantage in approaching capital cases (even those where innocence is not an issue) with a greater degree of care and honesty.
By and large, for-profit education firms like Apollo Group (APOL) have been taking advantage of new trends in education by providing class structures that suit working adults who want to get a degree.