"Quality Rated Paper With A High Yield!!!"

This is what currently qualifies as A rated paper:

Last Price (35.86)

If you do not know much about bonds. They always start out at 100. This bond has lost 65% of its value. The rating agencies should issue downgrades on these bonds soon, but they can only downgrade them to BBB- (one notch above junk status). That is because many large institutions are not allowed to hold bonds with ratings lower than a BBB-. If the rating was below a BBB- the institutions would be forced to sell all of their holdings of the bonds. That would cause further price declines and even more selling.

The question also has to be raised: Who has the capital to buy them from the large institutions???

Here is the worst preforming sub prime bond. The BBB- rated bond. You should keep a garbage can close by for puking into if you dare to click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

Last Price (18.57)