Interview With Vanguard Founder John Bogle

Recs

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In the wake of the collapse of companies like AIG (NYSE: AIG), Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM), Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE), and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), and with unemployment rising and the markets dropping, are we on the verge of another Great Depression? Should long-term investors still be bullish on the stock market or is Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett's optimism misplaced? What should investors expect over the next decade?

In this 19-minute audio interview, Motley Fool retirement expert Robert Brokamp puts these questions to Vanguard founder Jack Bogle, author of Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life. For the text version of this interview, click here.

(Please note: This interview is not downloadable.)

 

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Robert Brokamp is the advisor for the Fool's Rule Your Retirement service. Give it a 30-day free trial by clicking here. Robert owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway, which is a Motley Fool Inside Value and Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation. The Fool also owns shares of Berkshire. The Motley Fool is investors writing for investors.

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

  • Report this Comment On December 21, 2008, at 10:23 PM, pgoel6uc wrote:

    nice interview. Thank you!

  • Report this Comment On December 22, 2008, at 10:06 AM, LooseWithCramer wrote:

    Bogle needs to rethink his position for the following reasons.

    1. An index fund is like betting on a horse who is slated to finish in the middle of the race and has lost the jockey. They don't identify winning sectors and are unmanged accounts not geared to total returns.That is why you hire a manager. Of course they out perform thier benchmark, that's like saying I passed a class with a "C".

    2. When investors buy stock in mutual funds they relinquish thier input to managment and do not participate in board decisions. If you don't like the companies management you have no power to change it.

    3. If you want to run your own soft hedge fund and employ leverage you need to buy Zero Cupon bonds( not now wait until yields move up) and sector funds , my REIT funds, over the last 20 years thay have provided my best returns- I sold them in Feb 07.

    4. The stock market is after all a Ponzi scheme, Markets move up with volume increases, and if we were really betting on inflation to increase share price we would not allow markets to be shorted. Short selling should not be allowed.

  • Report this Comment On December 30, 2008, at 9:19 PM, JET9EX wrote:

    The country and the stock market are seeing the results of immoral folks running our companies to the ground. The boards of directors of most public companies are nothing more than a collection of money hungry folks with little to no interest in the company other than their free corporate jet ride’s and their paycheck for doing next to nothing. How does a company like GM find itself in such a position? The Board of Director’s are supposed to keep a firm grip on the morals and direction of a company to ensure value for the shareholders (owners). The CEO’s of most of these companies such as GM, AIG etc… have failed the company, employees and most important the owners!

    There is not much incentive to run a company with moral’s, the attorney’s have written a contract for the CEO that all but guarantee positive cash flow to them no matter what! So why work hard when you don’t have to?

    The investors are in-line waiting to invest in a corporation with a moral team in position….

    I vote for Mr. Bogle to run GM!

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