According to Eric Balchunas, ETFs function as one of the purest forms of capitalism, reflecting a highly competitive, market-driven structure for investors and traders, source: Eric Balchunas on X, Dec 5, 2025. He states that mutual funds benefit from bull market subsidies and hedge funds receive taxpayer-subsidized endowment allocations, which makes it harder for those vehicles to compete with ETFs, source: Eric Balchunas on X, Dec 5, 2025. Trading takeaway: his view highlights cost efficiency, transparency, and intraday execution flexibility as decisive advantages of ETFs over mutual funds and hedge funds, source: Eric Balchunas on X, Dec 5, 2025.

According to Eric Balchunas, ETFs and passive strategies exemplify capitalism because the ETF industry is brutally competitive and providers must earn every cent, in contrast to active mutual funds in his view (source: Eric Balchunas on X, Dec 5, 2025). For traders evaluating ETF vehicles across asset classes, his remarks highlight that cost discipline and issuer competition are central to investor outcomes and should be prioritized in selection and execution decisions (source: Eric Balchunas on X, Dec 5, 2025).