October 8, 2010
To the Veterans and Principals:
I’m attaching a fun speech I gave last evening at the JFK Library in Boston at the 50th aIll1iversary of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation. (It’s a long story!) Entitled “How Calvin Coolidge Could Guide Us Today,” it includes a number of historical references that I think you’ll enjoy.
Also attached is an article from Bloomberg Business Week on Vanguard’s becoming the largest firm in our industry, essentially a summary of a much more extensive article on Bloomberg.com. Since this article is laced with some wonderful quotes from independent sources that I’m sure you’ll enjoy, I’ve included it as well.
Not to be too picky, but the story substantially underscores our advantage in asset size, stated as Vanguard $1.31 trillion, Fidelity $1.24 trillion. In fact, the totals are Vanguard $1.39 trillion, Fidelity $1.17 trillion-an edge of $220 billion. Excluding money market funds and counting only stock and bond funds, the totals are: Vanguard $1.22 trillion, Fidelity $730 billion, a staggering edge of almost $500 billion.
Numbers are mere numbers, and size is only size. (And don’t ever forget that “the bigger they are the harder they fall.”) What remains important are the basic human values and the simple investment strategies established at our founding, which–despite the challenges engendered by our electrifying growth to industry preeminence-remain the primary basis for the enormous trust that investors have placed in all of us.
Best always,
Jack