The sizzle is missing from the vaunted bond fund comeback

It's hard to get revved up about the much-touted revival of bond mutual funds this year. Competitively speaking, bond funds have enjoyed near-perfect conditions, what with a long slump in stock prices, falling money-fund yields, and a strong market for high-quality debt securities. Yet these funds as a group have attracted only a trickle of new money from investors. If this is the best they can do when everything's breaking in their favour, it's an inauspicious sign for their longer-term prospects ' especially when you listen to talk among some analysts that a two-decade bull ma...