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The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

How the financial system undermined social ideals, damaged trust in the markets, robbed investors of trillions--and what to do about it.

There is no one better qualified to tell us about the failures of the American financial system and the grotesque abuses that have taken place in recent years than John C. Bogle, founder and former chief executive of the Vanguard mutual fund group. This legendary mutual fund pioneer has witnessed firsthand the innermost workings of the financial industry for more than fifty years and has set the standards for sound investment strategies and stewardship. Bogle's prudent advocacy of the rights of individual investors began with his 1951 Princeton University thesis on the fund industry, and he continues to champion the restoration of integrity in industry practices today. An astute observer, he knows that a trustworthy business and financial complex is essential to America's continuing leadership in the world and to economic and social progress at home. This audiobook tells much more than the story about what went wrong. More important, it tells why we lost our way and how we can right our course. The specific reforms Bogle advances in this program are practical and essential, his recommendations for assuring that investors receive their fair share of financial market returns.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 22, 2005
      Despite its inflated title, this volume is a worthy jeremiad against corporate excess, especially the kind hastened by the mutual fund industry that Bogle, former CEO of low-cost Vanguard, knows well. Among the problems: inflated executive compensation and creative accounting that allows companies to claim profits even when they're in the red. Mutual fund companies, Bogle charges, care more about short-term results than long-term value, and many of them gain profits for larger parent corporations by charging investors unnecessary fees that undermine the funds' net returns. To remedy such problems, Bogle writes, mutual fund owners and their fiduciaries must exercise the corporate responsibility they now shirk, and fund boards must be reshaped to serve the interests of shareholders. He advances in all seriousness Warren Buffett's once-joking idea for a high tax on short-term trading gains and calls for a federal commission to examine the way pension funds are managed, as well as the state of our retirement systems in general. While other recent books, such as David Swensen's Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment
      , marry similar criticisms with more advice for individual investors, Bogle—a rock-ribbed Republican businessman—still deserves attention in the precincts of power.

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  • English

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