Are ETFs doomed?

This might sound very cynical but dont you find it a bit weird that everyone talks about ETFs and investing in ETFs. Conspiracy alert but is there some bigger agenda thats being pushed by the powers above us? Perhaps they want to guarantee their retirement money when they do decide to stop working and get us to hold the bag?

Is there any alternatives to ETFs? I like the reasoning for it esp for middle class people like us. 

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Let's think about public markets in general. The number of publicly traded companies has declined by half over the last 30 years in the United States, so public markets are much less diverse than what they were before. Increased compliance costs, SarbOx, the rise of private equity, and the short-term thinking of the public markets have driven a lot of companies away, particularly in small-cap. Separately, we now have levels of market cap concentration that meet or exceed the level of the Dotcom Bubble. The very large companies make up a substantial proportion of overall market cap. These two trends together have substantially undiversified the portfolios of the American people.

Shiller PE is at 37x, which is very high. It implies a current yield of around 3%. Compare this to commercial real estate, which has yields of 6-8% in most parts of the country, private credit in the teens, and business ownership which can be 20%+. All of this implies that public equities are overvalued and that earnings should be reinvested in other categories.

 

No.  It's a better legal structure than a standard mutual fund.  The simple fact that I can wash out cap gains with customs makes it far superior to any other structure in the US.

The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.
 
Sequoia

No -- I'd echo poster above. They are here to stay and VERY good compared to mutual funds both in fees and taxes

low cost isn't an inherrent benefit.  I can charge 3% on an ETF just as easily as a mutual fund. I do push closer to 1% for some esoteric strategies.

The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.
 

Whatever1984

Sequoia

No -- I'd echo poster above. They are here to stay and VERY good compared to mutual funds both in fees and taxes

low cost isn't an inherrent benefit.  I can charge 3% on an ETF just as easily as a mutual fund. I do push closer to 1% for some esoteric strategies.

we charge 20 bps on something that makes more than you've ever seen.  On a few hundred billion that's nice money.

The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.
 

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The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.

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