Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Posted 5:39 PM by Gene

And speaking of con-SER-va-tives, there's a new ENEMY on their LIST, and his name is -- JOHN BOGLE:

SM: In the book you make comparisons between today's executive compensation excesses and the age of the robber barons.

JB: I talk about the compensation for chief executives. In the book I say the top earners have 430 times the compensation of the average worker. It's like a second Gilded Age.

COMMUNIST!!!!!

Although we cannot imagine how more so than the ONE-COMPANY-STATERS of con-SER-va-tism:

SM: Why is the increasing concentration of stock ownership such an insidious development?

JB: The problem is that we have profound conflicts of interest as agents. Money managers — nearly all of them — are managing both mutual funds and pension funds. So there's not much of a distinction out there from an investment standpoint. The 100 largest institutions own about 58% of all corporate U.S. stocks. That's an amazing concentration. They're managing 401(k) plans and pension plans. They don't want to lose their clients. The managers don't want to offend their clients; and they don't want to offend two types of clients — actual and potential. They don't want to offend anybody.

In my time in this business, investment management has gone from a profession with elements of a business to a business with elements of a profession. Now the dominant form of management is the giant financial conglomerate. Companies, in effect, own themselves.

Maybe the ONE-COMPANY STATE is closer than I thought.