Looking Past Scandal for a Few Good Managers

Contrary to public opinion, the entire mutual fund industry is not rotten.

In the good old days -- say four months ago -- my primary function as a mutual funds columnist was to hunt for solid fund offerings for TheStreet.com readers. Ever since New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer dropped the bomb on Sept. 3 that some mutual funds have allowed hedge funds and others to make abusive trades of their offerings, this gig has more closely resembled a crime reporter's beat. (Happily so far, none of the funds I have highlighted over the past year or so have turned up on the scandal sheet.)

For today's column, I'm going to put aside talk of scandal and flag some lesser-known mutual funds that are worthy of your consideration. In each case, I've chatted up the fund's skipper (or co-skipper, as the case may be) to hear their outlook for 2004 and the stocks they favor. ...