The Long View

Today’s guest on The Long View is Robin Wigglesworth. Robin is the editor of the Financial Times finance blog, Alphaville. He’s also the author of Trillions, which is the definitive book on the past, present, and future of passive investing. Robin’s joining us today to discuss his latest book, A Fabulous Debt, which is a history of the bond market. The history of the bond market is marked by war, peace, market mania featuring a very colorful cast of characters, and so much more. Robin is such a brilliant writer that he really brings every aspect of a history to life. One of the highlights of the show was when he was talking about the huge amount of capital spending we’re seeing in artificial intelligence and how it parallels the railroad boom in the 19th century. He made the point that debt-fueled capital spending sprees tend to end quite badly, although the scale of capital investment in AI this time around is still quite a bit smaller. As Robin points out, history rarely repeats, but often rhymes, and we might be living through one of those rhyming moments today.
Episode Highlights
00:00:00 Why the History of Bond Market Matters
00:09:38 Venice and the Birth of Bonds
00:16:34 How Britain Shaped America’s Financial System
00:24:48 The Poyais Bond Scam
00:30:13 Railroad Capex and AI Spending
00:37:08 Jay Cooke and The Father of Junk Bonds
00:41:55 The Rise of Credit Ratings
00:47:07 How Bond Markets Replaced Banks
00:57:11 How Much Debt Can the US Carry?
More From The Long View
Wade Pfau: Higher Bond Yields Are a Plus for Retirees
Ben Carlson: Exploring Risk and Reward
Jeremy Grantham: ‘Almost Everything Looks More Attractive Than the US Equity Market’
If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at TheLongView@Morningstar.com.
Follow Christine Benz (@christine_benz) and Ben Johnson (@MstarBenJohnson) on X, and Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson on LinkedIn. Visit Morningstar.com for new research and insights from Christine, Ben, and Amy. Subscribe to Christine’s weekly newsletter, Improving Your Finances.
If you want more Morningstar podcasts, check out The Morning Filter and Investing Insights.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our guest on the podcast today is Elliott Appel. He’s a financial planner and the founder of Kindness Financial Planning. He’s also an author. His latest book is called How to Help Your Parents As They Age: A Financial Planner’s Guide to Caregiving, which chronicles his father’s last years and the key lessons he learned along the way. He’s also co-host of his own podcast called the ME and Money Podcast. We really loved this conversation because Elliott provided so many tangible tips that people can use to help their parents, and his personal story really provides a lot of color.
We’d love to hear what you think about The Long View podcast. Please take a moment to share your feedback—thanks for listening!
Episode Highlights
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:23 Financial Planning Through Life Transitions
00:03:22 Appel’s Journey Planning for His Father
00:08:45 How an Eldercare Consultant Can Help
00:13:03 Estate Planning and Choosing the Right Power of Attorney
00:17:05 Guardrails for Aging Parents’ Finances
00:24:43 Put Parents on Your Cellphone Plan
00:27:17 Navigating Healthcare, Housing, and Care Transitions
00:33:59 Managing Caregiver Stress and Burnout
00:43:31 Rethinking Aging and Death in the US
More From The Long View
Beth Pinsker: Lessons From ‘My Mother’s Money’
Kathleen Rehl: Helping Widows and the Advisors Who Serve Them
Sally Balch Hurme: Getting Your Affairs in Order as You Get Older
If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at TheLongView@Morningstar.com.
Follow Christine Benz (@christine_benz) and Ben Johnson (@MstarBenJohnson) on X, and Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson on LinkedIn. Visit Morningstar.com for new research and insights from Christine, Ben, and Amy. Subscribe to Christine’s weekly newsletter, Improving Your Finances.
If you want more Morningstar podcasts, check out The Morning Filter and Investing Insights.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our guest on the podcast today is Jeff Ptak. He’s a longtime Morningstar employee and currently serves as managing director for Morningstar Research Services. He originally joined Morningstar back in 2002 as a senior mutual fund analyst. Jeff was one of the original two co-hosts of this podcast and regularly posts his thoughts on Morningstar.com, Substack, X, and LinkedIn. Ptak’s work really focuses on investor outcomes. One of the highlights from the podcast today was when Ptak talked about how such a small number of stocks tend to generate a disproportionate amount of the market returns and what that means for diversified actively managed funds. He also discusses what target-date funds get right for investors, as well as what some of them may be missing.
We’d love to hear what you think about The Long View podcast. Please take a moment to share your feedback—thanks for listening!
Episode Highlights
00:00:00 Mind the Gap and Investor Behavior
00:08:15 Crypto ETFs and Timing Mistakes
00:11:44 Active Funds and Letting Winners Run
00:23:11 Improving Investor Outcomes Through Lower Costs
00:30:20 Private Markets, SpaceX, and 401(k) Risks
00:34:26 Thematic ETFs, Speculation, and Fun Money
00:38:51 Market Timing Myths and Portfolio Construction
00:42:27 Is Tech’s Dominance Sustainable?
More From Morningstar
Read: Mind the Gap 2026
Leyla Kunimoto: Why Investors in Private Markets Need a Louder Voice
Will Danoff: ‘Be Very Careful of Unprofitable Companies’
Don Phillips: Encouraging Better Outcomes for Investors
If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at TheLongView@Morningstar.com.
Follow Christine Benz (@christine_benz) and Ben Johnson (@MstarBenJohnson) on X, and Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson on LinkedIn. Visit Morningstar.com for new research and insights from Christine, Ben, and Amy. Subscribe to Christine’s weekly newsletter, Improving Your Finances.
If you want more Morningstar podcasts, check out The Morning Filter and Investing Insights.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today on the podcast, we welcome back Jean Chatzky. Jean is the author of a new book about retirement planning called The Forever Paycheck: The New Retirement Strategy to Spend More, Worry Less, and Never Run Out of Money. In addition, she has written several other New York Times bestselling books about money and investing. She’s also CEO of HerMoney.com and host of the podcast Her Money with Jean Chatzky. She served as the financial editor of NBC Today for 25 years and is the financial ambassador for AARP. She appeared frequently on CNN and MSNBC, and was a recurring guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
We’d love to hear what you think about The Long View podcast. Please take a moment to share your feedback—thanks for listening!
Episode Highlights
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:00 Why Retirees Struggle to Spend
00:05:18 Creating a Retirement Paycheck
00:09:25 Choosing Annuities and Financial Advice
00:20:40 Bridging the Social Security Gap
00:23:40 Managing Sequence-of-Returns Risk
00:28:42 Retirement Planning for Couples and Working Longer
00:37:17 Protecting Against Financial Fraud
00:40:39 How Jean Chatzky Reimagined Retirement
More from The Long View
Brett Arends: Worried About Outliving Your Money? There’s an Answer
Dana Anspach: Don’t Let Fear Ruin Your Retirement
Stefan Sharkansky: The Retirement Rule That Leaves Too Much Money Behind
If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at TheLongView@Morningstar.com.
Follow Christine Benz (@christine_benz) and Ben Johnson (@MstarBenJohnson) on X, and Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson on LinkedIn. Visit Morningstar.com for new research and insights from Christine, Ben, and Amy. Subscribe to Christine’s weekly newsletter, Improving Your Finances.
If you want more Morningstar podcasts, check out The Morning Filter and Investing Insights.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today’s guest on The Long View is David Booth. David is a repeat guest, the founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors, and has just released a new book titled Stay Calm: Learn to Embrace Uncertainty in Investing and Life. One of the interesting through lines on the episode really centered on data. David explained that without data, people are just arguing beliefs. There was so much time within the industry where investors really were in a data desert. That foundational layer was critical to everything that David, his colleagues at Dimensional, and so many others around the broader investing industry have ultimately brought to bear for the benefit of so many investors over the years. Plus, David explained that having access to a more complete dataset can really help provide a sense of calmness and reassurance for investors, even in an uncertain environment.

Episode Highlights

00:00:00 Introduction

00:03:21 How Market Data Revolutionized Investing

00:09:22 Learning From Eugene Fama

00:16:16 Communicating Financial Science

00:20:40 What is the Efficient-Market Hypothesis?

00:24:11 Diversification and the Limits of Indexing

00:32:37 Is Dimensional Active or Passive?

00:34:24 The Science Behind Factor Investing

00:40:29 Trusting Markets and Embracing Uncertainty

More From Morningstar

David Booth: ‘Usually the Great Ideas Start Out as Small Ideas and Then You Build on Them’

Don Phillips: Encouraging Better Outcomes for Investors

Charley Ellis: Indexing Is a Marvelous Gift

If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at TheLongView@Morningstar.com.

Follow Christine Benz (@christine_benz) and Ben Johnson (@MstarBenJohnson) on X, and Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson on LinkedIn. Visit Morningstar.com for new research and insights from Christine, Ben, and Amy. Subscribe to Christine’s weekly newsletter, Improving Your Finances.

If you want more Morningstar podcasts, check out The Morning Filter and Investing Insights.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.