Asset Management

How Vanguard’s Jack Bogle changed investing

The investment legend was called a 'facist' in his own office but, in reality, his index fund was as American as apple pie

John C. Bogle, better known as Jack
John C. Bogle, better known as Jack Photo: Getty Images

The superstitious have called it the devil’s invention. Fools, a communist threat. I call it the most efficient profit extraction machine ever evented.

Regardless what you call it, one thing is certain— Jack Bogle’s creation, the index fund, is here to stay. There’s more than $13tn invested in index or passively-run mutual and exchange traded funds worldwide, more than half of that at Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street alone.

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