Four Inflation-Beating Bond Funds

An unfunny thing happened to "inflation-protected" bond funds in 2006. Many of them didn't.

Not only did a significant number of these funds fail to deliver returns sufficient to maintain positive constant-dollar returns; a number of them suffered outright losses on a nominal basis.

TheStreet.com Ratings' list of the worst-performing bond funds for 2006 includes a dozen funds, such as (TIPAX Quote)DWS Inflation Protected Plus , down 2.17%, (MIAAX Quote)MFS Inflation Adjusted Bond , down 0.79%, and (PPAIX Quote)PL Inflation Managed , down 0.48%, whose names imply that they will produce real returns. ...