Similarly, not long ago many bond market gurus were predicting the end of high bond prices.
The four iShares index funds (see table below), issued by the Global Investors unit of Barclays (nyse: BCS - news - people ), sport a rock-bottom expense ratio of 0.15 versus open-end bond fund averages of around 1.00 and the 0.20 charged by low-cost leader Vanguard.
The end of national government-bond markets may hurt just as much.
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While bank lending remained an important source of financing, companies of all sizes and all credit ratings had the option of accessing the bond markets and, by the end of the 1980s through the issuance of high yield securities, a different universe of creditors.
Quite possibly, but I see a crucial difference between the end of 2012 and the end of 2011: The ECB's government bond-buying program, announced earlier this year.
Although the Fed is trying to limit the surprise of an end to its bond-buying program, there is a more likely event that officials will have to increase it to support a weakening economy, Nichols added.
Those minutes reveal that several FOMC committee members think that with the economic recovery showing increasing strength, the Fed will need to halt the bond purchases well before the end of 2013.
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In spite of this, municipal bond closed-end funds are attractive.
This year through the end of October, the SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) and the iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond (HYG) are up 12.6% and 10.1%, respectively.
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At the end of March, Slovenia's 10-year government bond yields had climbed to around 7%, prompting fears it would need external support to finance itself.
However, printing money eventually leads to intractable inflation and will send bond yields much higher, especially on the long end of the yield curve.
Congressman Ron Paul has seized on the absurdity of the bond-issuing ritual with his recent proposal to end-run the debt ceiling.
By the end of last week, the yield on Spain's 10-year bond hovered around 7%, the financial equivalent of being admitted to intensive care with a raging fever.
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