Malkiel was a close friend of Vanguard founder Jack Bogle and spent 28 years on the board of Vanguard.
I believe even more strongly than ever that index investing is an optimal strategy and that index funds should constitute the core of everyone's portfolio. Standard & Poor's publishes annual reports showing how actively managed funds compare with index funds. Each year about two-thirds of active managers underperform an index fund. And the one third who outperform in one year tend not to be the same as the one-third who outperform in the next.
You are a big backer of the Efficient Market Hypothesis , which says that asset prices reflect all available information. But you have pointed out this does not mean that prices are always accurate. Define EMH, what it says, and what it does not say. I like ETFs if they are broad-based index funds. I do not favor the very specialized ones that really represent active management. I believe that the leveraged ones are really gambling contracts, not investment products.
A couple years ago you wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal very critical of ESG funds, saying they were a "self-defeating strategy." Since then, they have come under even more scrutiny. Do you still feel that way? Why?
My last finance class in college was based on this book. You had to pass to graduate. Every week was a different chapter in the book. Unreal exposure to a world I barely knew anything about
So many classic stories in that book.