Set forth below are the texts of six comments that I recently put to a discussion thread at this blog:
There is no conspiracy.
Former Financial Analysts Journal Editor Rob Arnott copied Jack Bogle on his e-mail to me saying that my investing ideas are “sound” and sharing with me his own experiences with intimidation being employed to stop academic researchers from doing the research that we all need to see to learn how stock investing really works. Jack did not respond.
I don’t think “conspiracy” is precisely the correct word to describe what is going on here. But there is certainly some sort of funny business going on when Jack Bogle does not offer a public response to an e-mail of that nature. No?
Please explain Bogle’s failure to respond to Rob Arnott’s e-mail from your perspective that there is no “conspiracy” going on re these matters.
Rob
You are delusional.
You were one of the ones saying that on the morning of May 13, 2002, when I put up my famous post pointing out the errors in the Old School safe withdrawal rate studies.
In the past year or two, every major publication in this field has acknowledged that I was right.
Is it Rob Bennett who is delusional? Or is it the “experts” who continue to try to “defend” Buy-and-Hold in the face of 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research showing that there is precisely zero chance that this strategy can ever work for a single long-term investor?
Rob
You have been banned from a large number of boards.
And I have seen a good percentage of the site administrators who banned me write me notes APOLOGIZING for the bans and telling me that they see great value in my work.
Odd?
Rob
As to not getting responses, no one owes you anything.
Jack Bogle owes every investor who has followed a Buy-and-Hold strategy (and they number in the millions) an explanation of why he did not correct the errors he made in development of the strategy promptly following Shiller’s publication of the research showing them to be errors, Sparky.
With great influence comes great responsibility.
Rob
Name any crackpot idea and you usually find that 2 or 3% of the population will support that position. That is really not a great percentage.
No one employs death threats and board bannings and tens of thousands of acts of defamation and threats to get academic researchers fired from their jobs to “defend” their ideas from the challenges raised by crackpots, Sparky. Your own behavior tells the tale here.
Rob
you seem to be viewed as a nuisance.
I am viewed as a nuisance and a lot worse by people who are still turning a buck through the promotion of Buy-and-Hold strategies 32 years after the peer-reviewed academic research showed that there is precisely zero chance that such a strategy could ever work for even a single long-term investor. That much is certainly fair to say, Sparky.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
Posts like yours demonstrate when a nerve has been struck. Those 6 points are good summaries of your and your campaign.
There is no conspiracy – hard to have a conspiracy on this topic with the wide spread use of e Internet.
You are delusional- easy for all to see
You have been banned from so many boards – I have yet to see anyone that has been banned from all these boards like you. It is a clear sign that it is you that is the problem and not everyone else.
No one owes you anything-not hard for a NORMAL person to understand
2 to 3 % will support any crackpot- you batting average stinks, Rob.
You are a nuisance- just look at the example of Wade. He asked you to stop, yet you won’t.
Rob says
We disagree on a number of points, Pink.
That said, I certainly wish you the best of luck in all your future life endeavors.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
I know in your mind, you think everyone else is wrong and you are right.
Rob says
That’s not precisely right, Pink.
I think the Buy-and-Hold Pioneers provided us all with many amazing insights. There is no one alive on Planet Earth who has greater respect for Jack Bogle and the other pioneers than Rob Bennett.
They ran into one obstacle. They are all humans!
That means that they weren’t born knowing it all. They went by the academic research as it existed at the time. That research was based on a mistaken understanding of the core point of how prices are set. Shiller corrected the error with his peer-reviewed research.
Had we moved instantly to the new model (Valuation-Informed Indexing), we would today be enjoying the greatest period of economic growth in our history. We ALL wish we were in this wonderful place.
The trouble is — There’s a lot of money made in this field. So a good number of the “experts” don’t like acknowledging mistakes they have made. So our move to the greatest period of economic growth in our history has been delayed.
It is my job to encourage us all to move forward.
I will always praise the Buy-and-Holders for the wonderful advances they have achieved. That stuff is written in the book and can never be changed.
I will also always encourage us all to move forward. It’s in the best interests of everyone (especially the Buy-and-Holders!) for us to do that.
That’s the story, Pink.
If you change what you wrote to say “you think everyone is human, including yourself,” I’ll sign on to it.
It’s of course true that Bogle is wrong about the need to engage in long-term timing and that I certainly believe that I am right re that one.
But I don’t like to state things that way. I prefer to focus on my good friend Jack’s positive contributions, which are many.
I will continue to do so. I am highly confident that Jack will make the change following the next crash. After that, there will be no stopping any of us. We are the most blessed group of investors ever to walk Planet Earth.
Hang in there, man.
Rob
Evidence Based Investing says
I am highly confident that Jack will make the change following the next crash.
Your predictions in this area have been 100% wrong for the last 10 years.
Rob says
Nobody wins them all, Evidence.
Jack did not intend to cause the Second Great Depression. There is zero evidence pointing in that direction. If he had been working a con going back to the first day, why would he have included the language in his book that helped me understand why the Old School safe withdrawal rate studies got the numbers wrong?
The guy made a mistake. Lots of smart people did. So the heck what?
He has not been willing to acknowledge the mistake. That’s bad. That’s where he is subject to legitimate criticism.
But I see no reason to believe that his heart will not melt when he sees the vast human misery that will come with our fall into the Second Great Depression.
I expect to be working with Jack Bogle very closely and for a long time and accomplishing things with him that neither he nor I could have dreamed of accomplishing on our own. I have been Jack’s true friend for these entire 11 years. I have told him not what he wanted to hear but what he NEEDED to hear. I intend to continue doing just that.
I wish you all good things, old friend.
Rob
Evidence Based Investing says
Nobody wins them all, Evidence.
But you don’t win any.
Rob says
We disagree, Evidence.
If you had told me back when I was a boy growing up in Northeast Philadelphia that there would be a day when I would publish peer-revieweed research showing millions of middle-class people how to reduce the risk of stock investing by 70 percent, I would have said that you were out of your cotton-pickin’ mind.
And yet here we are.
Don’t let the bad guys get you down, Evidence.
Rob
Evidence Based Investing says
I would publish peer-revieweed research
Do you have a link for that. I would love to read it.
Rob says
http://arichlife.passionsaving.com/the-buy-and-hold-crisis/academic-researcher-silenced-by-threats-to-get-him-fired-from-his-job-after-reporting-on-dangers-of-buy-and-hold-investing-strategies-teaser-version/
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob said: “I expect to be working with Jack Bogle very closely and for a long time and accomplishing things with him that neither he nor I could have dreamed of accomplishing on our own. I have been Jack’s true friend for these entire 11 years. I have told him not what he wanted to hear but what he NEEDED to hear. I intend to continue doing just that.”
That is hilarious post Rob when you previously stated that Jack wont even respond to your emails. You might as well have said that you and the Pope are good buddies and he will be consulting with you on how to fix the Vatican banking system.
Rob says
We don’t agree, Pink.
My work has taken Jack’s work to places he never dreamed it would go.
The initial draft of a research-based strategy doesn’t work. As of today, Jack has nothing of value.
But take out the Get Rich Quick element, as I propose, and Buy-and-Hold 2.0 (Valuation-Informed Indexing) takes us to the moon.
Jack is a smart guy. He’s hurting today. His unwillingness to deal with the Lindauer matter is deeply shameful stuff, perhaps even criminal stuff. But it is also 100 percent out of tune with what my good friend Jack has directed his life to achieving for many, many years now.
So, yes, I do believe that Jack will come around. I am HIGHLY confident of this.
You are correct to say that he has not responded to four e-mails from me. That’s very, very, very sad.
What do you say we should do?
YOU should send some e-mails to Jack, Pink. That could help.
I don’t see how it helps for me to send more than four. My job is to get MORE and MORE people sending those e-mails demanding that Jack take action and that Jack learn how to pronounce those oh-so-powerful words “I” and “Was” and “Wrong.”
Hang in there.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
It looks like Jack and the Pope are both doing very well and don’t need your help.
Rob says
We couldn’t possibly disagree more, Pink.
Jack Bogle is one of my heroes.
But it is a stone cold reality that his promotion of the Buy-and-Hold investing strategy was the primary cause of the economic crisis. This can be demonstrated with numbers. And not just with any old numbers. It can be demonstrated with numbers that Jack himself has cited in his public speeches and writings.
That is TRAGIC.
This guy is the second most important investing analyst in history (in my personal assessment — a reasonable case can be made that he ranks first) and he stands to lose the respect and affection that he has very much earned over a long career filled with important accomplishments BECAUSE HE CANNOT BRING HIMSELF TO PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGE THE ERROR THAT IS IN THE PROCESS OF CAUSING IT ALL TO TUMBLE TO THE GROUND.
This is friggin’ King Lear stuff, you know?
My offer to work with Jack to bring us from the horrible place where we all are today to the magically wonderful place where we all deep in our hearts long to be tomorrow is NOT a time-senstive offer. When Jack is ready to accept the extended hand of friendship from Rob Bennett, Rob Bennett’s hand will remain outstretched.
I can do no more and I can do no less.
I naturally wish you all good things.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
Jack Bogle needs your help like LeBron James needs help from a third string JV team.
Rob says
He’s never make a mistake in his entire life, Pink.
He’s the first man born of woman who is perfect in every way.
A true friend is someone who respects you enough to work up the courage to tell you when you are in the wrong.
My sincere take here is that I am 50 times the loyal Boglehead that you are.
Please take good care.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
You are 50 times more delusional than the average mental patient. Jack is just fine and doesn’t need your help.
Rob says
I seem to recall one or two people saying similar things when I put forward my May 13, 2002, post pointing out the errors in the Old School safe withdrawal rate studies, Pink.
I wonder why.
Rob
The Pink Unicorn says
I seem to recall similar patterns as yours prior to people entering the care of a mental institutions.
Rob- put your name into a google search and look at what you get. It isn’t pretty.
Rob says
Here’s a link to the results of a Google search for “Rob Bennett”:
[The link messed up formatting, so I removed it — People can enter the words into the Google search box on their own.]
You Goons have obviously been working like crazy for years now to get as much defamatory stuff into the Google results as you possibly can.
But you Goons do not control the world. There’s good stuff in there too.
1) Result #2 is “Rob Bennett on Twitter.” All kinds of great links are available at my Twitter feed
2) Result #3 is an important comment that I put to the Consumer Commentary blog about “The Wisdom of Crowds”
3) Result #5 is my Linked In Profile — I am the first “Rob Bennett” (of 25) listed
4) Result #8 is an article from this site titled “What Is It About This Rob Bennett Guy Anyway?”
5) Below that is a photo of me.
The defamatory stuff is a dead end.
You Goons have blocked millions of people from learning what they need to learn about the last 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research in this field for 11 years now. I give you that one.
What has it gotten you? HUGE financial liabilities and LONG prison sentences.
That’s a win? Huh?
I am going to continue posting honestly on safe withdrawal rates and many other critically important investment-related topics, Pink. I’ve done it for 11 years now. I will do it for 11 billion if it comes to that.
My best wishes to you.
Rob