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“Jack Bogle's passionate cry of Enough! contains a thought-provoking litany of life lessons regarding our individual roles in commerce and society. Employing a seamless mix of personal anecdotes, hard evidence and all-too-often-underrated subjective admonitions, Bogle challenges each of us to aspire to become better members of our families, our professions and our communities.  Rarely do so few pages provoke so much thought.  Read this book.”

—David F. Swensen, Chief Investment Officer, Yale University

 

ENOUGH. True Measures of Money, Business, and Life

Financial legend John C. Bogle offers perspective and wisdom on success, integrity, and character on Wall Street

 

How did we get here – a massive government bailout plan, bankrupt investment banks, investor confidence shattered, a dried up credit market and a swooning stock market? We are on the brink of a world-wide recession, and while people are assigning blame and pointing fingers, one man saw the writing on the wall. Vanguard Founder John C. Bogle claims unparalleled greed, Wall Street excesses, overleveraged risk, and speculators have caused the current crisis and laments that the financial services industry has only detracted value from society. Almost prophetically, Bogle saw the warning signs that have led to the current global financial crisis.

 

The new book, ENOUGH. True Measures of Money, Business, and Life (John Wiley & Sons; November 2008; $24.95; Hardcover), comes out just in time to address the tough questions and provide answers on how to fix the problems that have caused the current financial crisis. John Bogle has often railed against bloated executives salaries and bonuses, and undeserved CEO severance packages, but ENOUGH is not a book focused on placing blame or saying “I told you so!” Rather, the book is a call for a return to core values – “the old-fashioned liberal humanitarianism that was the hallmark of the Age of Reason," says Bogle. As the title implies, ENOUGH has a double meaning – “enough” as in fed up, and “enough” as a reflection on what we value and how we define success and satisfaction by in our lives.

 

ENOUGH objectively examines the rise – and subsequent failures – of the modern financial industry model, lamenting the industry’s sea-change from a focus on stewardship to a focus on salesmanship. Wall Street’s embrace of innovation at any cost, the widespread greed we’ve witnessed, and the substitution of moral relativism for moral absolutism in their business conduct, Bogle notes, contained the seeds of their demise. The world of finance, he argues, is marked by too much cost, and not enough value; too much speculation, and not enough investment; too much complexity, and not enough simplicity. Similarly, our business world is focused too much on counting and salesmanship, and not enough on trust and stewardship; and our society at large, too obsessed with charisma and wealth, and not enough with character and wisdom.

 

Throughout these astute and sometimes troubling observations, John Bogle weaves in his personal story – from growing up in the Depression Era to earning a Princeton University scholarship to founding the Vanguard Group, one of the world’s most prestigious investment companies. Bogle’s personal history provides a backdrop that illuminates the philosophies of work and life that he’s developed, and that he shares with readers.

 

Inspired by his 2007 Georgetown University commencement address he gave, ENOUGH examines the attributes of a life well-lived and warns of the risks inherent in an economy dominated by a financial system that by definition subtracts value from our society. As the credit crisis has wrought havoc through much of the economy in 2007 and 2008, Mr. Bogle’s warnings haven proven to be visionary. The book expands on this theme, challenging readers to examine and answer the question “What is enough?” in their own lives. Bogle also considers what "enough" means for him personally, offering an intimate insight into the mind and soul of one of the masterminds of modern finance.

 

John Bogle’s story and point of view is compelling, his no-holds-barred delivery riveting, and yet his message ultimately optimistic – surmising that in a world increasingly focused on status and score-keeping, you can find your way and take comfort in the knowledge that you can indeed have "enough" – a radical and refreshing concept in light of capitalism's relentless pressure for MORE.

 

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ABOUT THE BOOK

ENOUGH: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life

By John C. Bogle

Wiley; November 2008; $24.95; Hardcover

ISBN: 978-0470398517

For more information go to: www.johnboglemedia.com

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John C. Bogle, 79, is the Founder of The Vanguard Group, Inc., and President of the Bogle Financial Markets Research Center. He created Vanguard in 1974 and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until 1996 and Senior Chairman until 2000. In 2004, TIME magazine named Mr. Bogle as one of the world’s 100 most powerful and influential people. Mr. Bogle is a best-selling author beginning with Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor (1993); Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor (1999); John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 Years (2000); Character Counts: The Creation and Building of The Vanguard Group (2002); Battle for the Soul of Capitalism (2005); and The Little Book of Common Sense Investing (2007). He now resides in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Eve. They are the parents of six children and the grandparents of twelve.