Today’s low-yield world puts income investors in a tough spot. Fixed-income alternatives are uninspiring: five-year US Treasuries yield 0.74% ten-year US Treasuries yield 1.73% and investment-grade corporate bonds yield only 3.18%. Newly issued corporate bonds—which have reached $3.3 trillion in value so far in 2012—are being sold at an even lower average yield of 2.68%. To earn a decent annual return a fixed-income investor currently needs to assume much greater credit risk in the form of non-investment-grade bonds (i.e. less than triple-B rated also known as “junk”) which currently average 6.68%. The problem with junk bonds is that there ...