Michael, your comment made me actually look at that article's table.
What happened in 2008 was that illiquid positions made some entities (hedge funds?) sell the more liquid stuff. That was supposedly why inflation indexed Treasuries took a dive. So by analogy if such should occur now it wouldn't be just those lower quality less liquid bonds but maybe even further up the credit quality ladder to the liquid issues.
There have been a few articles over recent months saying how thin the bond market liquidity was getting. I do not understand the mechanics of all this but got the message of stresses in the bond market. Credit spreads have already widened to a pretty high level. The yield curve is steep and business conditions are not indicating an imminent recession with consequent stresses on lower quality companies. I would really be concerned if equities were really tumbling (ignoring last week).
Still I'm a bit worried about my intermediate bond funds. I'll be reorganizing my deck chairs to increase credit quality. A few I have:
DODIX credit quality = BBB (will decrease this in favor of VFIDX)
VFIDX credit quality = A
BOND credit quality = ?? (M* does not rate this one but management is quick on their feet ... I think. For more info see:
PIMCO ETFs - PIMCO Total Return Active Exchange-Traded Fund)