Index Funds, ETFs, & the Passive Investing Revolution | Robin Wigglesworth

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.

You can access the second hour of this week's episode, as well as the transcript and rundown through the Hidden Forces Patreon Page. All subscribers gain access to our premium feed, which can be easily added to your favorite podcast application.

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Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

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Episode Recorded on 10/18/2021