Most Italians point instead to the overweening power of the baroni (barons), or tenured professors with the power of academic life and death.

ECONOMIST: Universities desperately need reform��yet resist change

Academic studies discussed in The Power of Passive Investing find that portfolios holding only index funds beat portfolios holding actively-managed funds 95 percent of the time over a 10-year period.

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Patient power brokers assemble teams of academic scientists to help identify the best medicines to fund.

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This spry former academic is seen as the architect of Turkey's soft power, which blends realpolitik with a fierce pride.

ECONOMIST: Turkish foreign policy

My upcoming book, The Power of Passive Investing, provides summaries of exhaustive academic studies covering the active versus passive debate going back many decades.

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