Reviews

Bogle, chairman and CEO of the $110 billion Vanguard Group of mutual funds, thoroughly discusses the risks and rewards of investing in mutual funds. He explains how to select among the four basic categories of funds: common stock, bond, money market, and balanced. He argues convincingly that a passively managed ``index fund'' costs less and is more reliable than a fund managed by someone making weighted bets on individual securities, sectors, and the economy. This message is similar to that found in Burton Malkiel's classic The Random Walk Down Wall Street ( LJ 6/1/90). Bogle, long the mutual fund industry's loudest critic, denounces its misleading advertising, mediocre performance, and selfishness. Sprinkled throughout the text are ``caveat emptor'' boxes that warn readers of the hidden pitfalls of mutual fund investing. Strongly recommended for public library collections.-- Robert Kruthoffer, Lane P.L., Hamilton, Ohio

" Bogle is rattling the status quo among the mutual fund titans." -- "Fortune"

In this awesome overview of investment company products and services, Bogle, founder and CEO of the $110-billion Vanguard group of funds, demonstrates that ``the abundance of information available about mutual funds is . . . overwhelming.'' Among the minute details included, Bogle tells not only how to improve your backhand, as it were, but how to get the best grass or clay for the tennis court. Fund categories past and present--index, international, income, growth, industry-specialized (electronic, health), long- and short-term bond (U.S., corporate, ``junk''), along with sales charges pro and con (Vanguard has none), high-low expense ratios, management track records and tax considerations--all are dissected to the ultimate percentile in relation to investor objectives and an inconstant economic climate. There is certainly something here for everyone, but in the aggregate the author reaches beyond the needs (and possibly the comprehension) of readers not engaged in the investment business. 70,000 first printing; first serial to Money; Fortune Book Club main selecton. (Oct.)