The most-read article from NYTimes.com over the past week was all about indexing.

I was reading through the NYTimes.com over the weekend and noticed that the No. 1 most popular article on the entire site was entitled: Your Money: Five Basics for Building a Solid Financial Future. (You can read it by clicking on that link. Free registration is required.) It's a classic top-five list personal financial article. And what is No. 1 on the list? "Investing Is Simple: Index (mostly). Save a ton. Reallocate infrequently."

Well what else would it be?

I think the fact that this article is the most read on NYTimes.com (though a Thomas Friedman entry "Obama and the Jews" had moved it to No. 2 as of Monday morning) is indicative of how hungry people are for information; ANY information that is easy to get their hands around and might help them organize their finances and investments.

The biggest problem is the lack of sound and independent information. There's no lack of financial media out there, but by and large it is bought and paid for by the most overpriced, overbudgeted marketing push of actively managed fund managers and other products of dubious value for investors. These days, reading Money or Fortune or a host of online entrants is somewhat akin to picking up an Elle or a Vogue ... you're blitzed by advertising that practically buries the content, and content that looks a lot like a text version of the ads.

Everyone's got an agenda and wants to sell you something. And the most insistent of them are almost by definition going to be some of the worst for your bottom line. As with good literature, you almost need to work the fringes these days to get good reporting, particularly on finance. We like existing out here. It's an environment that gives us a great opportunity to fill an obvious need.