John Bogle to be interviewed by Bill Moyers

[kevink]

Just saw this is the lead story for tonight's edition of Bill Moyer's Journal:

Bill Moyers Journal . John Bogle | PBS

Should be great.

[dreamn2retir]

Thanks for the heads up--I'll be watching.

[Danny]

Thanks..like both those guys.

[Retire Soon]

kevink, thanks for letting me know. I'll be sure and watch it. John Bogle is my hero.

[walkinwood]

If you missed it live, you can see it on Bill Moyer's site linked above.
Thanks for letting us know about this webcast

[twaddle]

I liked that webcast, but I didn't realize Bogle was such a bear. He basically says that these are the final days of the US Empire.

[samclem]

A good interview. I thought Bogle's contrast of the "financial economy" with the "production economy" was very useful.

"Thanks for the link, kevink."

[twaddle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem I thought Bogle's contrast of the "financial economy" with the "production economy" was very useful.

It was useful to me in that I felt I should weight the financial sector more highly in my stock allocation.

This issue has bugged me for a long time. Why should I be productive if others are making more money by gaming the system? Why should I invest in production if investments in financial shenanigans will provide higher returns?

I know one guy worth a couple hundred million bucks. I don't think he's ever contributed anything to the economy. But he's made a killing by diluting share holder value and putting the difference in his pocket.

If economic self interests drive our capitalistic nation, then this guy should be a hero, I guess.

[gindie]

Bogle was very interesting (as usual). And, as an added bonus, we didn't have to hear much from Moyers.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

thanx for the headsup kevink. just caught the show. i like this guy very much. pleased i am already with vanguard. was good to hear him speak in the vernacular about some pretty complex issues.

i don't think he suggested an end to the american empire. what i heard was that he sees this system as inevitably self-correcting. that democracy will eventually reign in capitalism which has run amok with financial managers derailing a system by reducing value of what used to be productivity instead of riding a system which actually provides goods and services which adds value and rewarding that.

what he seems to warn is that should capitalism continue unchecked, that democracy might make this correction with violence. i assume i'll be living overseas or in a gated community by then.

[chinaco]

The man makes sense. Talk about the need fro a government role... Government may not be efficient, but some greedy @$$h0!3 that is bent on depriving citizens of the intended services is in need of a severe adjustment. Like prison. Those people are just making a system that was setup to do good a national tragedy.

[A854321]

He scared me.

Where do we run to now?

[haha]

Bogle is very impressive, and Moyers, of course, is very concerned as always. Bogle touched on several problems, interrelated but different in emphasis. To me, a key statement he made was:

What we've done is have you know, what I call in the book, a pathological mutation of capitalism from that old traditional owners' capitalism to a new form of capitalism, which is manager's capitalism. The evidence is quite compelling that today corporations are run in a very important way to maximize the returns of its managers at the expense of its stockholders.

BILL MOYERS: Its CEOs.

JOHN BOGLE: Its CEOs, well, the upper level of five or six top officers. And they get enormous amounts of pay for actually doing very little.

Ha

[clifp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gindie Bogle was very interesting (as usual). And, as an added bonus, we didn't have to hear much from Moyers.

I agree normally Bill Moyer's NOW makes Fox News look really "fair and balanced" I liked how Bogle was careful to always qualify his criticisms of our current capitalism system despite Moyer's leading questions.

There is a huge middle ground between extreme left "Corporations and their robber baron CEO's are destroying America and ruining the earth" and the libertarian and corporate cheerleaders who believe that unfetter free market capitalism is the solution to all problems.

I like when business leaders like Bogle and Buffett talk about the problems we have with our current economic system in a balanced way.

[mickeyd]

Another Bogle classic. I love to hear that man talk!

My favorite quote (as I recall):

The average stock was retained by MF companies for about 7 years in the 50's when he began in the business.

The average stock owned by mutual funds is now sold in about one year.

[chinaco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickeyd Another Bogle classic. I love to hear that man talk! My favorite quote (as I recall): The average stock was retained by MF companies for about 7 years in the 50's when he began in the business. The average stock owned by mutual funds is now sold in about one year.

The goal today (of many large investors and investment firms) is to shake as much as one can, as quickly as they can, from the company piggy bank and throw it aside... Regardless of the consequences. I think Bogle made that point beautifully when talking about LBO and certain private equity companies... In my opinion, there is something that is a little unhealthy about the practice. I am not for protecting businesses per se... but the pillage approach seems to have too many negative consequences.

As opposed to Private Equity as incubators for new start-up entrepreneurial companies. The only problem there is the over-hype on the IPO.... caveat emptor.

[FinanceDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickeyd Another Bogle classic. I love to hear that man talk! My favorite quote (as I recall): The average stock was retained by MF companies for about 7 years in the 50's when he began in the business. The average stock owned by mutual funds is now sold in about one year.

Remember 1999? A year was a LIFETIME to hold Yahoo..........

[robls]

Joe Bageant: So rich he wants to start his own country

This relates to Bill Moyers show where John Bogle was a guest.
A little taste from the letter and response from the above link.

***
Brent,
Last week I was working with Swiss Public Television doing a documentary on "Joe Bageant's Winchester." During the process I ran into a man from one of the wealthy local families who works in global finance abroad, has some murky US State Department connection with his work, and owns a brokerage in New York. We yakked bit, he agreed that there is a worldwide financial collapse coming, then he asked what I was doing back in town. I explained we were filming my people, the people born on the wrong side of the tracks. The working grunts. "Well when they find out what has been done to them and that it can never be fixed I don't want to be in this country." I thought such a bold faced admission of our condition was pretty bad.
***