Recommended Reading by Warren Buffet in his March 2013 Letter to
Shareholders
**
How speculation has come to dominate investment--a hard-hitting look
from the creator of the first index fund.**
Over the course of his sixty-year career in the mutual fund industry,
Vanguard Group founder John C. Bogle has witnessed a massive shift in
the culture of the financial sector. The prudent, value-adding culture
of long-term investment has been crowded out by an aggressive,
value-destroying culture of short-term speculation. Mr. Bogle has not
been merely an eye-witness to these changes, but one of the financial
sector's most active participants. In The Clash of the Cultures, he
urges a return to the common sense principles of long-term investing.
Provocative and refreshingly candid, this book discusses Mr. Bogle's
views on the changing culture in the mutual fund industry, how
speculation has invaded our national retirement system, the failure of
our institutional money managers to effectively participate in corporate
governance, and the need for a federal standard of fiduciary duty.
Mr. Bogle recounts the history of the index mutual fund, how he created
it, and how exchange-traded index funds have altered its original
concept of long-term investing. He also presents a first-hand history of
Wellington Fund, a real-world case study on the success of investment
and the failure of speculation. The book concludes with ten simple rules
that will help investors meet their financial goals. Here, he presents a
common sense strategy that "may not be the best strategy ever devised.
But the number of strategies that are worse is infinite."
The Clash of the Cultures: Investment vs. Speculation completes the
trilogy of best-selling books, beginning with Bogle on Investing: The
First 50 Years (2001) and Don't Count on It! (2011)
