On December 28, 2007 Bloomberg news reported:
“The worst-performing bond fund was the $190 million Regions Morgan Keegan Select high Income, which plunged 59 percent because of losses tied to subprime mortgages. It’s managed by Jim Kelsoe at Morgan Asset Management Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Morgan Keegan bond mutual funds are “worst in class” at a time when the phrases “subprime crises” and subprime lending” have become household words and moved from the financial news to mainstream news. In 2007, the funds lost 50 percent or more of their value, while other funds in their peer group either had positive returns or losses of 8 percent or less.
Of 439 other intermediate bond funds and 253 other high-income bond funds, none suffered losses of this magnitude.