Here’s the real secret of John Bogle’s success

[Bloomberg]( Today’s Agenda - [Humility]( was the key to John Bogle’s [massive influence](. - [Industrial]( and [tech]( bellwethers are still warning of a slowdown. - Maybe federal employees can [end the shutdown](. - It’s a good time to [do something about drug prices](. - Let’s not [let big tech regulate itself](. John Bogle, the Lonely Prophet Unusually for a giant of the financial (or any other) industry, John Bogle’s success was built on humility. Bogle, who died yesterday at 89, turned the Vanguard Group of Investment Funds into a $5 trillion behemoth largely by preaching the humble gospel that individual investors will never consistently beat the market and are better off simply buying a little fund representing it instead. He added another layer of humility by telling investors they didn’t need to pay him huge fees for such a service. As if that weren’t enough self-abnegation, as Joe Nocera notes, Bogle [preached this gospel for decades to an uninterested, often hostile crowd](. Finally, though, the rest of the world caught up with him; before long, Bogle had transformed an industry. One of Bogle’s revolutionary insights, in a list compiled by Barry Ritholtz, was simply putting customers’ interests ahead of his own. This included wringing costs out of the investing process: Bogle might have single-handedly [saved investors $1 trillion in fees](, by one estimate, which includes the cost-cutting the industry eventually did to keep up with Bogle, Barry writes. Bogle’s most important lesson in humility goes well beyond investing strategy. As Nir Kaissar notes, Bogle could have been a billionaire many times over, but he [chose instead to spread the wealth]( to investors, employees and charity. So a man who built a $5 trillion empire ended up with a relatively tiny net worth of $80 million: Bogle expressed “deep skepticism about ceaseless accumulation of wealth,” Nir writes — a rare attitude in a time of swelling inequality, when too much value is placed on becoming and remaining cartoonishly wealthy. Maybe the world will eventually catch up to Bogle on this one, too. Further Bogle reading: Bogle didn’t become the Bogle we know [until he got fired]( in the 1970s. – Justin Fox Signs of a Slowdown Are Still Out There You may not be super-familiar with Fastenal Co., a Minnesota factory supplier, but it is a bellwether of the industrial sector, points out Brooke Sutherland. A disappointing Fastenal earnings report last year warned of trouble for behemoths such as 3M Co. and Caterpillar Inc. Unfortunately, its latest results show [things are still going in the wrong direction](, Brooke notes. That suggests the 12 percent bounce in industrial stocks off their December bottom was premature, Brooke writes. (Note:  There’s still time to join the exclusive and well-informed club that gets Brooke’s Friday-afternoon newsletter on the industrial sector; just email her at bsutherland7@bloomberg.net.) Another less-than-household name is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., but it too is a bellwether — in this case, of the global tech industry, writes Tim Culpan. Its ominous problem last year was a buildup in inventories due to sagging global demand. As with Fastenal, [this trend has continued to worsen](, Tim writes. You wouldn’t know of these worries by watching the broad market indexes (which [rose again]( today, partly on wishful thinking after a report the Trump administration might lower China tariffs). In fact, the market may ignore how [companies keep missing earnings forecasts]( even after they were helpfully lowered, Stephen Gandel writes. And profit forecasts may still be too rosy, particularly when you strip out the effects of the GOP tax cuts, he writes. Further tea-leaf reading: Wall Street [junk-bond forecasts]( might as well be written on Etch-a-Sketches. – Brian Chappatta Trapped in the No-End Shutdown On Day 27 of the record government shutdown, President Donald Trump got revenge on Nancy Pelosi for postponing his State of the Union address by [postponing some overseas trips]( she had scheduled. So negotiations aren’t going so hot. Tyler Cowen, citing game theory, suggests this mess will only end when increasingly stressed-out federal employees [decide to use their power to end it](. One complicating factor for politicians in this fight is that people tell pollsters they want parties to work together, gosh darn it — but then [often don’t really mean it](, writes Jonathan Bernstein. Anyway, no matter what happens, we really should take this opportunity to [end the terrible and pointless State of the Union]( address, writes Stephen Mihm. Thomas Jefferson killed it, and it stayed dead until Woodrow Wilson revived it. Jefferson had it right. Fight High Drug Prices, Not Each Other One subject on which there is a sliver of bipartisan agreement in these nightmare days is drug prices — as in, we mostly agree they are too high. Assuming we get Congress working again, there’s a real opportunity here to [do something meaningful]( to curb runaway prices, Bloomberg’s editorial board writes. Encouraging competition, drug importation and tying some prices to those overseas are just a few of the big ideas with significant bipartisan support. Read the [whole thing](. Further drug reading: A tiny Roche Holding AG licensing deal could be [a big deal for new cancer treatments](. – Max Nisen Technology Problems Technology: You can’t live with it, you can’t live without it, am I right? First there is that annoying thing where some iPhone apps — say, those of Netflix Inc. or Spotify Technology SA — won’t let you subscribe on the app. Instead, you have to sign up on the dumb website first, which nobody tells you. This, Shira Ovide writes, is the result of phone makers Apple Inc. and (to a lesser extent) Google trying to milk fees out of app makers and meeting resistance. Shockingly, [nobody seems to think much of how the customers feel](. A somewhat (OK, very much) larger problem is how tech companies are often careless with their customers’ private data. Governments have been too slow to address this problem, so companies are starting to self-regulate, writes European Parliament member Marietje Schaake. This is great and all, but it’s really [a job better left to impartial government regulators](, she writes. Further tech reading: U.S. officials going after Huawei for technological theft is a [potentially more impactful deal]( than going after it for sanctions violations or spying. – Tim Culpan Telltale Charts After leaving in already-well-paid disgrace, Les Moonves [sure has a lot of nerve]( fighting CBS Corp. for $120 million in severance, writes Tara Lachapelle. One thing helping stocks is that the Fed seems to have put the brakes on its rate-hiking campaign — and with good reason, writes Gary Shiller, who notes [inflation is in global retreat](. But this doesn’t make stocks a good buy; disinflation is a sign of an impending recession. Further Reading Remember the Mitt Romney who warned us about Russia? Or the one who said he would stand up to Trump? In a recent Senate vote on Russian sanctions, [that Romney was nowhere to be found](. – Eli Lake The judge who ruled the Trump administration couldn’t include a citizenship question in the 2020 census gave a [master class in building an opinion]( like an armored Humvee to survive attacks. – Noah Feldman The PG&E Corp. bankruptcy is a golden opportunity for California to [bolster its electric grid]( to withstand climate change. – Liam Denning Emmanuel Macron’s support for Carlos Ghosn was [increasingly a political headache](. – Lionel Laurent The EU’s Intellectual Property Office isn’t convinced McDonald’s Corp. [actually sells a product]( called the “Big Mac.” – Leonid Bershidsky The line between [cutting-edge physics and imagination]( is fuzzy. – Faye Flam ICYMI Jeremy Grantham has a plan to [fight climate change](. The hot new asset class is [Lego sets](. Kickers Most [wild coffee species]( are at risk of extinction. [Breathe your way]( to better health. We still really don’t know [how much screen time is too much]( for kids. No wonder Marie Kondo is so big: [Hoarding disorder is on the rise](. A stroke turned a 63-year-old doctor [into a rap legend](. Are two [Fyre Festival documentaries]( too many? No, not at all. Note: Please send suggestions and kicker ideas to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. New to Bloomberg Opinion Today? [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]( [Twitter Share]( SEND TO A FRIEND [Share with a friend] You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022