May 3, 2022
THERE IS A ROTH EFFECT. THERE IS NO BIDEN EFFECT:
Was Jack Bogle The 5th Sex Pistol? (Anthony Isola, 4/26/22, Teachable Moment)
Who would've thought an old guy in a suit emerged as the fifth Sex Pistol.Jack Bogle was a Punk Rocker. Conflicted financial salespeople are the epitome of poseurs.The Clashs' Joe Strummer said it best; Punk Rock isn't something you grow out of. Punk rock is an attitude, and the essence of that attitude is give us some truth.Led Zeppelin played 11-minute songs while Punk condensed the rage of disaffected youth into a two-minute thrash.The message was simple, honest, and pure rebellion.Jack Bogle expunged investing fluff. You get what you don't pay for regarding returns--no need for the five-minute drum solo.Bogle exposed the old Hustler's adage to the public - The game's sold, never told.Eric Balchunas hits it out of the park in his terrific new book, The Bogle Effect.Bogle may have looked like a latter-day Henry Fonda, but his message and style had more in common with punk rock. Just as punk was a reaction to disco and style over substance, launching low-cost index funds was reacting to the financial industry's frothy status quo. Both were about being the opposite of what they saw around them. Rolling Stone magazine describes punk rock as "a negation, a call to streak, brutal simplicity." if that doesn't describe Bogle's life's work-and cheap index funds don't know what does.Bogle's North Star was addition by subtraction.Vanguard slashed fees to the bone. They were calling out the investment poseurs and making them play their game. Firms entered the new arena kicking and screaming. They had no other choice. The cost savings Bogle unleashed through the aptly named Bogle Effect transferred trillions of dollars from salespeople into the hands of the investing public.
Posted by Orrin Judd at May 3, 2022 7:32 AM
