historically, junk has returned more vis a vis risk / return than any asset class. Now junk took a little "bath" over the f**ed up telecom industry and Argentina crisis. It has yields around 13% and risk is not that bad if spread around in a good fund. The historical volatility is 17% for the SP and the yield around %19 the junk has yield 14 with volatility of 7-8 percent. You see my point ???