For more than 30 years, a combination of receding inflation and increasing leverage has created an extraordinary bull market for bonds that now is coming to a close. Traditional fixed income investors can no longer expect a rising tide of new issuance, low inflation and strong economic growth to keep debtors afloat. A new era of fixed income investment is unfolding that will require more active management to find value in an environment of low yields. Central bank intervention raises the dual spectres of illiquid markets and overvalued asset prices as carry trades and central bank purchases distort prices. New metrics are needed not only for identifying value but also for sorting out vulnerable borrowers from those with a high probability of weathering the new environment of low growth and low inflation.