How a Band of Wall Street Renegades Invented the Index Fund and Changed Finance Forever

Trillions

Best books of 2021, Financial Times 
 
'Grab some popcorn and take a front row seat, because Robin Wigglesworth has an astonishing story to tell you' Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add Up 
 
'A fascinating account of an investment revolution' Ian Fraser, Literary Review 
 
'A magisterial, delightfully written history offering up portraits of the academic scribblers and entrepreneurial practitioners who created the index-fund revolution' The Wall Street Journal 
 
'Wigglesworth has written an important book' Patrick Hosking, Financial Editor, The Times 
 
'A terrific read' Gregory Zuckerman, author of The Man Who Solved the Market 
 
'A fascinating journey and a crucial book for anyone trying to understand the financial markets' Bradley Hope, author of Billion Dollar Whale 
 
 
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In Trillions, Financial Times journalist Robin Wigglesworth unveils the vivid secret history of index funds, bringing to life the colourful characters behind their birth, growth and evolution into a world-conquering phenomenon. It is the untold story behind one of the most pressing financial uncertainties of our time. 
 
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'An easy-to-understand and fun read, full of lively characters and little-known details of how finance really works today' Gillian Tett, author of Anthro-Vision

The simplest, humblest ideas are sometimes the ones that turn the world upside down. Grab some popcorn and take a front row seat, because Robin Wigglesworth has an astonishing story to tell you

Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add Up

Trillions is both entertaining and educational. Wigglesworth explores one of the most important modern-day financial innovations and explains its broad impact on financial markets, investors, global economies and even capitalism. A terrific read and a topic that will become more important as passive investments increasingly dominate markets. Wigglesworth brings what could be a dull topic to full life

Gregory Zuckerman, special writer at the Wall Street Journal and author of The Man Who Solved the Market

As only the incomparable Robin Wigglesworth could do, in Trillions he turns the often obscured history of the investment industry into a rollicking great yarn, replete with admirable heroes, political infighting, fascinating diversions and unexpected triumphs

William Cohan, special correspondent at Vanity Fair and author of The Last Tycoons

Very few writers can tell a great story and help us understand a big idea. Robin Wigglesworth is one of those rare journalists who can. His history of the index fund is required reading for anyone who wants to know where the financial markets have come, and where they are going. It's also just a wonderfully engaging romp through the last half century of market news

Rana Foroohar, global business columnist at the Financial Times and author of Don't Be Evil

This is a tour de force. Passive investing has become a bedrock of finance but very few investors understand where and how this practice emerged from and how it is changing markets in a way that impacts us all. Wigglesworth has turned this arcane tale into an easy-to-understand and fun read, full of lively characters and little known details of how finance really works today. Anyone who wants to understand modern investing should read it

Gillian Tett, chair of the editorial board and US editor-at-large at the Financial Times and author of Fool's Gold

A real tour de force, this engaging and thought-provoking book brings together several historical threads - from Warren Buffett's famous hedge fund bet to the 'Manhattan Project of financial economics' - to show how passive investing and index funds have evolved into an ETF phenomenon that has 'humble[d] the investment industry ... reshape[d] finance forever,' and now poses risks for future financial stability and economic wellbeing

Mohamed El Erian, Chief Economic Adviser of Allianz and author of When Markets Collide

The greatest change in investing in the last 100 years is brought to life like never before. A page turner!

Fred Grauer, former CEO of Wells Fargo Investment Advisors

Robin Wigglesworth is one of the most lucid and exciting journalists writing about finance today. Trillions tackles the enormous changes that have swept the investing world through the stories of its charismatic innovators. It's a fascinating journey and a crucial book for anyone trying to understand the financial markets

Bradley Hope, writer at Project Brazen and author of Billion Dollar Whale

A fascinating account of an investment revolution. Trillions should be read not just by millionaires, billionaires and trillionaires, but by anyone who has a pension plan, individual savings account or money invested, directly or indirectly, in the stock market

A magisterial, delightfully written history offering up portraits of the academic scribblers and entrepreneurial practitioners who created the index-fund revolution. It also contains common-sense wisdom that will benefit all investors.

Wigglesworth has written an important book. Passive has mostly been a boon, but its impact in future may not be so benevolent. Investors, companies and regulators need to apprehend the water they are swimming in

Patrick Hosking, Financial Editor of The Times

Paul Volcker once quipped that the greatest innovation in finance in recent decades was the humble ATM. Not so, argues the FT global finance correspondent who makes the case for the index fund as the instrument that democratised investing, upended established structures and changed capitalism. Told through the stories of the group of radical nerds who made it all happen

Robin Wigglesworth is the author of Trillions and editor of the Financial Times’ finance blog Alphaville. He writes about the biggest trends reshaping markets, investing, finance and economics across the world. Before joining the Financial Times, he worked at Bloomberg News.

Index funds are perhaps the most widely influential investment vehicles available. They have revolutionised investing, saving millions of people untold billions of dollars in fees that would otherwise have gone to fund managers. It is no exaggeration to say that the rise of passive investing is probably one of the most consequential financial inventions of the past half-century. It is rewiring markets and reshaping the finance industry. 
 
Yet some detractors say that index investing is an insidious disease and with their rapid expansion, and grip on the financial market, index funds may have cataclysmic consequences that we aren't even aware of yet. What might the socio-economic risks of wide-spread passive investing be? What are the longer-term consequences to capitalism? And what does the future look like for the investment landscape? 
 
Through exclusive interviews with key industry giants, Robin Wigglesworth, the Financial Times' New York-based markets editor, reveals the thrilling and untold history of the revolutionists behind the invention of index funds and investigates one of the most pressing financial uncertainties of our time.

Robin Wigglesworth

Stocks get all the glory, but bonds rule the world. A Fabulous Debt is a compelling history of a powerful idea.

Robin Wigglesworth's deft treatment of fear and greed in bonds will entertain and educate you - and just might save your bacon as well.

WILLIAM J. BERNSTEIN, author of A SPLENDID EXCHANGE

A delightful romp through 850 years of western history. And for once, a financial instrument is cast as the hero of the tale.

SEBASTIAN MALLABY, author of THE INFINITY MACHINE

Crucial reading to understand the global economy of the 2020s and how we got here.

DUNCAN WELDON, author of BLOOD & TREASURE

In this rip-roaring book, Robin Wigglesworth takes us from the bonds that funded Hamilton’s vision for America to Britain’s rise as a global power. Told with wit, colour, and insight, A Fabulous Debt is more than a finance book: it’s the story of how the modern world was built.

ALEX EDMANS, Finance Professor, London Business School and author of THE MADNESS OF MARKETS

At last, thanks to Robin Wigglesworth, we have an engaging and colorful history of the bond market and the innovative financiers who launched, shaped, and improved it from its origins in the Middle Ages to the 21st century. This is a major contribution to financial history.

RICHARD SYLLA, author of A HISTORY OF INTEREST RATES

Wigglesworth brings to life the unlikely cast of visionaries, rogues, and nation-builders who shaped the bond market over eight centuries. The result is a riveting history of the financial instrument that funded empires, defeated Napoleon, and quietly underwrites the modern world.

WILLIAM GOETZMANN, Yale University, author of MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING

I love the bond market for the many secrets it reveals on a daily basis about our global economy and the many, many individual components of it. But it also an enigmatic, mysterious and poorly understood phenomenon. Wigglesworth's important work pulls the curtain back on the wonders and the risks inherent in a world awash in some $340 trillion of debt. "Whether we like it or not," he writes, "we now live in a world where the bond market can truly intimidate everyone." A Fabulous Debt correctly asks the important question of whether we, collectively, have the guts to deal with that reality.

WILLIAM COHAN, author of POWER FAILURE, THE LAST TYCOONS and HOUSE OF CARDS

A readable, wise and panoramic history of the bond markets from their inception in Venice in 1172 through to the current day. And, given the imminent threat of yet another sovereign debt crisis, most timely.

EDWARD CHANCELLOR author of THE PRICE OF TIME: THE REAL STORY OF INTEREST

A sweeping history of a force-multiplying, time-travelling, fraud-enabling, civilisation-building invention. Erudite, educational and a lot of fun.

TIM HARFORD, author of HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD ADD UP

Robin hasn't just written a brilliant chronicle of the bond market, but has managed to explain how these financial tools built the world as we know it. Bonds have been deployed as weapons of war and empire-building, and as the instruments of idealists who dreamed of a united America (and a united Europe); they have also fueled destructive greed and financial mania. A scintillating read for anyone who wants to understand not just how bonds shaped our history, but how they might shape where we're going.

From twelfth century Venice to the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond, a lively account of the instrument that lies at the heart of the global financial system.

JOHN CASSIDY, New Yorker writer and author of CAPITALISM AND ITS CRITICS

“In A Fabulous Debt, Robin Wigglesworth rescues the bond market from its reputation for dullness and restores it to its rightful place at the center of world history — the instrument that was the foundation of Medieval Venice's trading wealth, that kept Britain solvent through the Napoleonic Wars and financed the Union through the American Civil War, that funded the great railroad booms of the 19th century and now underwrites the AI data center. It made modern states possible and, by allowing them to borrow too much, has occasionally destroyed them. In Wigglesworth's hands this is narrative financial history at its best: erudite without being arid, ambitious in scope but never losing sight of the human beings who built this extraordinary machine.”

In case you're ever tempted to think bonds are boring, Wigglesworth has written a powerful book proving they are absolutely not. Instead, they should be viewed as one of the great modern innovations of our age that urgently needs better understanding. In a sweeping, magisterial account, he explains how bonds first emerged in medieval Europe. They then played a vital role in powering the Renaissance and the emergence of European economic and political strength. Subsequently, bonds were central to the rise of London as a financial centre, and the dramatic emergence of American finance in the 20th century. The account is highly readable and accessible to anyone, featuring lively characters and stories. But it also provides a thoroughly expert analysis of markets, that is very insight for any student or practitioners of finance. A must read for anyone interested in history, finance, money - or simply the nature of innovation

Gillian Tett, Financial Times columnist and author of 'Anthro-Vision'

The Epic Story of How Bonds Built the Modern World

"A COMPELLING HISTORY OF A POWERFUL IDEA" - Jacob Goldstein, author of Money 
 
From veteran Financial Times journalist Robin Wigglesworth, an epic history of the debt that built the modern world. 
 
Long considered the "boring" corner of finance, bonds are anything but. They are bigger than the stock market and rival even the global banking system in influence. But they are also misunderstood – treated as mere debt, when in fact their impact is radically different. 
 
From medieval Venice to modern Wall Street, Robin Wigglesworth uncovers the sweeping, unveiling story of the bond market. With clarity and wit, this is a people’s history of finance: rich in drama, full of colourful characters, and bursting with insights. 
 
Bonds have funded everything from the Crusades to climate tech, Netflix series to AI data centres. Pooling capital from citizens and merchants at an unmatched scale, they have been the hidden force behind some of humanity’s highest achievements and greatest calamities. This isn’t just a book about the past. It’s a guide to the future of finance, and a love letter to the engine that keeps it running.

Robin Wigglesworth

Praise for A Fabulous Debt

Stocks get all the glory, but bonds rule the world. A Fabulous Debt is a compelling history of a powerful idea.

Robin Wigglesworth's deft treatment of fear and greed in bonds will entertain and educate you - and just might save your bacon as well.

A delightful romp through 850 years of western history. And for once, a financial instrument is cast as the hero of the tale.

Stocks get all the glory, but bonds rule the world. A Fabulous Debt is a compelling history of a powerful idea.

Robin Wigglesworth's deft treatment of fear and greed in bonds will entertain and educate you - and just might save your bacon as well.

A delightful romp through 850 years of western history. And for once, a financial instrument is cast as the hero of the tale.

Stocks get all the glory, but bonds rule the world. A Fabulous Debt is a compelling history of a powerful idea.

Robin Wigglesworth's deft treatment of fear and greed in bonds will entertain and educate you - and just might save your bacon as well.

A delightful romp through 850 years of western history. And for once, a financial instrument is cast as the hero of the tale.

Books by Robin Wigglesworth

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