As an active week approached its close, and markets hung on what was touted as “the most important jobs number of the year,” Walt Bettinger, CEO of Charles Schwab Inc., spoke to CNBC’s Tyler Mathieson about whether index funds have defeated managed funds as the preferable vehicle for investors. Bettinger was non-committal in his answer, and he threw into the discussion the question of where ETFs fit in and the likelihood they will be available for use in 401(k) plans. The discussion reminded this writer of the words of John Bogle, the pioneer in no-load index funds, who has always stressed the importance of controlling costs and questioned what customers of managed funds are really paying for in light of the difficulty in repeating high performance even when it occurs. Ultimately the question is what the customer needs and what the effect of fees, some of which are hidden from the customer, will be on long-run returns.

Commentators are still talking about Fed Chairman Janet Yellen’s comment on Wednesday that the equity markets are “quite high,” made within the context of identifying potential risks to the stability of the financial system. To this writer her remarks seemed quite tepid and behind the curve, so it was refreshing to see Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, say that in fact the equity markets are “extremely overvalued” in light of the low interest rate policy of the Fed.

Moreover, Schiff added that companies are highly levered, “exposed to higher interest rates” due to “a lot of share buyback, financed by debt” could lead to collapses in the stock market and real estate market and trigger a “huge recession” that would cause the Fed to respond with QE-4 and “do everything it can to keep (stocks) from going down.”

The third clip concerns another stock whose predicament has sharply divided investors, and that is Lumber Liquidators (LL). CNBC’s Scott Cohn reported that the company is ceasing sales of the Chinese laminate flooring that was found to have elevated levels of formaldehyde and has hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh to help it design an appropriate compliance program. The stock rose on the news, but Cohn reported that Whitney Tilson, who informed a Sixty Minutes report and has shorted the stock, insists that it is still a good short, and he predicts its eventual collapse, even after losing about two-thirds of its value from a high over 90 to under 30.