David Winters: Are The Big Index Shops Too Kind To U.S. CEOs?

Are The Big Index Shops Too Kind to U.S. CEOs? by David Winters and Liz Cohernour originally posted Barron’s

The rush of money into index equity funds has officially ballooned into a market mania. Trillions of ordinary investors’ dollars are now committed to a mechanistic strategy that simply buys stocks without a thought for their actual value.

Students of market history know that index mania – like other market fads before it – will end badly. But investors continue to pour dollars into index funds in the gravely mistaken belief they’re enjoying a virtually “free lunch.”

The sad reality is that index funds have turned ordinary investors into the pawns in a game that undermines the integrity of American markets and...