Index Funds, ETFs, & the Passive Investing Revolution | Robin Wigglesworth
Hidden Forces
Demetri Kofinas
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2021
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 216 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Robin Wigglesworth, the Financial Times global finance correspondent and author of "Trillions," a book which chronicles the origins, history, and future of the index fund, arguably the most disruptive financial innovation of the last 50 years.
Robin and Demetri spend the first half of their conversation exploring the history of passive investing and its evolution into what some argue has become a market-distorting phenomenon that is making markets less efficient by inhibiting price discovery and concentrating power in the hands of an increasingly smaller number of index fund managers and purveyors of indices.
In the overtime, the two switch gears to discuss some of the timelier stories concerning investors, including inflation, whether or not it is transitory, and what central banks are able and prepared to do in order to curb it. Robin and Demetri also discuss the ongoing trading scandals at the Federal Reserve and what they say about the extent of corruption in government, the loss of faith in public institutions on the part of investors, and how that loss of faith is reflected in the casinofication of markets and the speculative manias we've seen in meme stocks and cryptocurrencies. It's a phenomenal, hour-long overtime that you will not want to miss.
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Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
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Episode Recorded on 10/18/2021
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What's up everybody? My name is Dmitri Kaffinas and you're listening to Hidden Forces, |
| 0:06.0 | a podcast that inspires investors, entrepreneurs and everyday citizens to challenge consensus narratives |
| 0:14.0 | and to learn how to think critically about the systems of power shaping our world. |
| 0:19.0 | My guest in this week's episode is Robin Wigglesworth, the Financial Times Global Finance Correspondent |
| 0:25.0 | and author of a new book titled Trillions, which chronicles the origins, history and future of the index fund, |
| 0:33.0 | arguably the most disruptive financial innovation of the last 50 years. |
| 0:38.0 | We spent the entire first half of our conversation on the book itself, |
| 0:42.0 | exploring the history of passive investing and its evolution into what some argue has become a market distorting phenomenon |
| 0:49.0 | that is making markets less efficient by inhibiting price discovery and concentrating power |
| 0:55.0 | in the hands of an increasingly smaller number of index fund managers and purveyors of indices. |
| 1:01.0 | In the over time, we switched gears to discuss some of the time-learn stories concerning investors, |
| 1:07.0 | including inflation, whether or not it's transitory, and what central banks are able and prepared to do in order to curb it. |
| 1:15.0 | Robin and I also discussed the ongoing trading scandals of the Federal Reserve and what they say about the extent of corruption in government, |
| 1:22.0 | the loss of faith in public institutions on the part of investors, and how that loss of faith is reflected in the cacenification of markets |
| 1:30.0 | and the speculative manias we've seen in meme stocks and cryptocurrencies. |
| 1:34.0 | It's a phenomenal hour-long overtime that you will not want to miss. |
| 1:39.0 | If you enjoy the free content that we produce every week, |
| 1:43.0 | I encourage you to take the leap and become a premium subscriber if you haven't already. |
| 1:49.0 | There's no commitment you can cancel at any time, and the entire library of subscriber content going all the way back to episode one |
| 1:57.0 | becomes instantly available to you, including the over times, afterthoughts, transcripts, and rundowns depending on your tier. |
| 2:05.0 | So without any further ado, please enjoy this week's episode with my guest, Robin Wigglesworth. |
| 2:15.0 | Robin Wigglesworth, welcome to Hidden Forces. |
... |
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