Fidelity's World, Henriques - C

                                         When I read the Madoff book earlier this year, I noted that the author had written a book about Fidelity, so I ordered it from Amazon. I did not pay much attention to the description of the author as an "investigative reporter", the fact that the book was published in 1995, or the subtitle, 'The Secret Life and Public Power of the Mutual Fund Giant'.  "The lady doth protest too much" kept running through my mind and eventually led to me skimming the last half of the book.  Clearly, from a century ago when "robber barons" "front ran", to today's insider trading scandals, Wall Street  has often been a sink of criminality.  Yet, at the same time it has been the capital allocator throughout this country's extraordinary success and growth.  This book attempts to tie  the Boston mutual fund business, and specifically Fidelity, to every financial misdeed that has ever happened.  Yes,  Ed Johnson ran the company when mutual fund salesmen were certainly sleazy. Yes, his son Ned has run the company since the sixties and his first bond/money fund guru was sentenced to two months in jail (after she left Fidelity) for accepting some extra-legal compensation both at and after she left Fidelity. But so what?
                                       The mutual fund industry was started in Boston as a result of "the prudent man rule" promulgated by the Massachusetts Supreme Court.  That rule led to the private trusteeship of wealth, and in turn, to three investment trusts in the '20's.  Ed Johnson, a young lawyer from Ropes and Gray moved over to the investment side and worked at Incorporated Investors before he purchased a small mutual fund management company.  His son Ned grew Fidelity into one of the largest money managers in the world. Ned went along with Vanguard's Bogle and changed Fidelity's offerings to no-load in 1979. Both Vanguard and Fidelity have completely democratized investing around the world. Ned dreamed up check-writing for money market funds and along the way has become very, very rich and wants to maintain his family's control of the company. I'm quite comfortable with complimenting someone who has built wealth for millions, as well as for his employees and family.