From the Financial Times's global finance correspondent the incredible true story of the
iconoclastic geeks who defied conventional wisdom and endured Wall Street's scorn to launch the
index fund revolution democratizing investing and saving hundreds of billions of dollars in
fees that would have otherwise lined fat cats' pockets. Fifty years ago the Manhattan Project
of money management was quietly assembled in the financial industry's backwaters unified by
the heretical idea that even many of the world's finest investors couldn't beat the market in
the long run. The motley crew of nerds-including economist wunderkind Gene Fama humiliated
industry executive Jack Bogle bull-headed and computer-obsessive John McQuown and avuncular
former WWII submariner Nate Most-succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Passive investing now
accounts for more than $20 trillion equal to the entire gross domestic product of the US and
is today a force reshaping markets finance and even capitalism itself in myriad subtle but
pivotal ways. Yet even some fans of index funds and ETFs are growing perturbed that their
swelling heft is destabilizing markets wrecking the investment industry and leading to an
unwelcome concentration of power in fewer and fewer hands. In Trillions Financial Times
journalist Robin Wigglesworth unveils the vivid secret history of an invention Wall Street
wishes was never created bringing to life the characters behind its birth growth and
evolution into a world-conquering phenomenon. This engrossing narrative is essential reading
for anyone who wants to understand modern finance-and one of the most pressing financial
uncertainties of our time.
