> Is Intel unique or is it common? Does Novick have this position due to pension funds specifically, or index funds in general?

I'm not a market guru, just happen to know about Intel because I worked there between 2009 and 2015 and it was sad for me personally to witness the downfall. The company started to rot around 2012, but the stock prices shot up and kept rising for 8 years. The strategy was "higher CPU price, less R&D, less people budget, no risky bets like mobile", this drove the earnings up to the pleasure of shareholders. You can't even call this strategy "shortsighted", it's "medium-sighted" because of the huge momentum that took years to dissipate, but the company's fate was sealed then. I don't know details of what happened to Boeing but suspect it was something similar.

> AIUI index funds own large stakes in many public companies so if this is true, they are all effectively run by Blackrock and Vanguard (or should be).

They almost never have the majority so control is determined by the presence of other figures which smaller investors could follow during the vote. A founder even with a partial control is often enough to steer it. When there's no one left but the funds they run the show.

> As opposed to other investors? Outside of founder-owners you've described 99% of retail and institutional investors.

Well first of all in this thread we are discussing precisely the question of how to redistribute the shares of the founder. OP says that the "policy" should have taken them away. "And who to give them?" I ask.

Second, I don't think 99% of investors (measured by volume of investment) have no strategy.

> Why do you believe pension funds specifically lack "talent"?

Because they're not backed by anyone in particular. Talent is always risky, systems that try to please millions of stakeholders are inherently risk-averse.

> I've long believed that's the only way to make the welfare state numbers (in any country) work in the long run.

I do realize many people think like that and that's why it's so scary for me. I don't believe this system could work.