Mind-Bogle-ing Changes at Vanguard

Memo to Vanguard: Have you lost your minds? You can't kick John Bogle off the board like he's just some sort of old guy that needs to be sent to the mutual fund pasture. Tell me this is all a big practical joke, some sort of publicity stunt ... a surprise for Jack's 70th birthday, maybe?

Bogle's my hero. I have said it to him, I have said it to my dad and I am saying it to you. (We are all from Philadelphia, where Bogle is revered as a sort of Lou Gehrig figure.) Bogle stands for one thing: value for shareholders. He is anti-fee. He is pro-consumer. He is the Diogenes of our business. He is the only person willing to speak freely about how mutual funds routinely overcharge people and don't give you value vs. the index funds.

(Disclosure: A little while back, Bogle's book publisher asked me for a blurb for his new book about the power of index funds, Common Sense on Mutual Funds. I said I had to read it first because I couldn't check off on something I hadn't read. ...