Jack Bogle on PBS

The transcript of Jack Bogle's interview on Nightly Business Report yesterday is now online. Sample:

Just in the period I've been in this industry, which is now 55 years, I've seen us go to an industry focused on stewardship to an industry focused on salesmanship. I've seen an industry where management was the highest value to an industry where marketing and accumulating assets under management is the highest value. I've seen mutual fund portfolio turnover go from 16 percent a year to 100 percent a year.

Point to ponder: Neither Vanguard and its index funds nor Nightly Business Report are conventional, for-profit ventures. Yet both are unmatched in their fields.

Greed is surely good. Pity that the resulting craving for short-term gain mitigates against excellence.