[scarletham]

Yeah, definitely good points. Even with a department looking after voting, they're not nearly as "vested" in the results of their voting as something like an actively managed long value fund is.

[repsilat]

They also have large conflicts of interest -- they don't just own a big chunk of a company, they own a big chunk of its competitors too.

[ahartmetz]

Index funds are agents of their certificate owners, so no principal-agent problem. Seems fine to me.

[repsilat]

It's not principal agent problem, it's a competition problem. Maybe Sprint can't buy T-Mobile, but if Vanguard owns both it amounts to the same thing.