I have been sending numerous e-mails to people, letting them know about my article reporting on The Silencing of Academic Researcher Wade Pfau by The Buy-and-Hold Mafia.
Yesterday’s blog entry reported on my correspondence with Joachim Klement, Chief Investment Officer at Wellershoff & Partners, Inc. Set forth below is the text of the e-mail that Joachim sent to me in response to the e-mail of mine described in the earlier blog entry:
Joachim:
I presume that there are lists of financial planners available, lists of people who belong to various professional organizations and this sort of thing. Say that I sent an e-mail to each person whose name is on such a list and asked whether, like you, they would be willing to occasionally contribute at a discussion board established for the daily exchange of ideas among financial planners who believe that investors should adjust their stock allocations in response to big shifts in valuation levels.>
Based on your knowledge of the profession, does it seem to you that this concept would get off the ground?
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Are you able to say what list it would be best to work from? Any idea what percentage of planners would give a positive response? Would people be reluctant to share freely or are these ideas popular enough today that people would speak freely and frankly? Wade Pfau recently posted a comment to my blog saying: “in the last Financial Planning Association survey, something like 30% of planners say that they consider valuations when advising clients on an appropriate withdrawal rate.” Is that encouraging news? I personally find it shocking that the percentage is only 30 percent. But 30 percent would be a big enough number to get something going if a significant percentage of the 30 percent were open to becoming even a little bit active.
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My question is — Do you think the time is ripe for something like this, based on what you know about your peers? I am a journalist. I ALWAYS want to move forward to exploration of the new. Professionals in this field tend to be a lot more cautious. But perhaps things have moved enough in recent years for something like this to get off the ground.
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Are you able to offer any assessment of the practical possibilities here? Please do not tell me what I want to hear just because I want to hear it. If people in the field are not ready for this, I would be banging my head against a wall to push at this time. If the time is ripe, I believe that putting together a community of like-minded financial planners would make all in this group feel less isolated and would help them learn of more effective ways to promote the ideas and to advance their practices.
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Rob
Evidence Based Investing says
I think Ray Kinsella said it best in Field of Dreams.
“If you build it they will come.”
Rob says
I’ve built it, Evidence.
This site has it all. Documentation of the Campaign of Terror against our board and blog communities. The most important research done in this field in the past 30 years, plus reports on the 16 months of e-mail exchanges that produced it. Five powerful calculators not available anywhere else on the internet. 200 RobCasts exploring every aspect of the first truly research-based investing strategy from every possible angle. And on and on.
They haven’t come yet.
I have hopes that they will come following the next price crash.
Wish me luck!
Rob the Builder
Evidence Based Investing says
J.D. Roth started his Get Rich Slowly blog in April 2006
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/archives/
At first there was almost no traffic. Most blog posts had no comments. But he continued to provide quality content and over time his audience grew. The income he received from his blog enabled him to cut back his regular job and then give it up completely.
Over time he grew the blog to a point where he could sell it for what seems to have been a large sum of money.
The message is clear. Provide a quality product and you will build an audience.
Your blog seems to have started around the same time.
http://arichlife.passionsaving.com/2005/10/
But you have never grown your audience.
Rob says
J.D. didn’t have the Buy-and-Hold Mafia working full time trying to hold him back, Evidence.
He didn’t have people directing death threats at him and at any of his fellow bloggers who happened to link to him. He didn’t have people demanding that he be banned from any sites at which he posted comments or guest blog entries. He didn’t have people advancing tens of thousands of acts of defamation against him. He didn’t have people threatening any academic researchers who produced wonderful research with him that they would be fired from their jobs if they ever again dared to do honest work.
In short — J.D. never told the truth about what the last 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research says about what works in stock investing. Thus, he never earned the undying hate of The Buy-and-Hold Mafia. I have. In spades.
J.D. has achieved a lot of success. Do you know what it means following the next price crash, when our economy falls into the Second Great Depression?
It means zero. J.D.’s money won’t be worth anything if our economic system collapses and then our political system collapses.
My success is a lasting success.
All I need is for a few patriotic people in this field to join together to protect each other from you Goons and I will have the #1 site on the internet.
I’m looking for lasting success, not a quick buck that disappears with the next price crash.
‘
I like J.D. very much and I think he has done wonderful work. But I think he made a mistake when he did not stand up to you Goons.
I think he will see that following the next crash. But at that time millions of middle-class investors will have seen their hopes of someday being able to retire disappear. That makes me very sad.
I love J.D. and I love his site.
But I wouldn’t trade what I have built here for 50 sites of the quality of J.D.’s site.
The most important issue before us all today is the economic crisis. My site shows us how to overcome the crisis and enter the greatest period of economic growth ever seen in our history. Countless good things follow when we do that. Nothing good follows if we fail to do it.
And we cannot do it without working up the courage to stand up to you Goons and your Wall Street Con Men friends.
I wish you well, Evidence.
Rob, the J.D. Roth Fan (But the Even Bigger Fan of the Idea of Ending the Economic Crisis and Moving to the Greatest Period of Economic Growth Ever Seen in Our History)
Rob says
The short version —
Bernie Madoff made millions with his fraudulent fund.
What good does all that money do him in his prison cell?
I’d rather have a temporarily unsuccessful site without agreeing to commit financial fraud than a wildly successful site whose success came about because of my willingness to commit financial fraud.
My warmest regards.
Rob, the Fellow with Zero Interest in Following the Path to Riches Laid Out by Bernie Madoff and Other Con Men
The Pink Unicorn says
Rob,
Here are just a few reason why your website is no successful:
You can’t back up your statements with facts (linking to your own comments are not facts)
When faced with facts that are documented by others that you do not agree with, you ignore them or delete the posts.
Your communication is often abrasive and your behavior is horrible.
You make silly unfounded threats, such as lawsuits and prison time, which make people conclude that you are a crackpot.
You make outrageous claims as to what you say you have accomplished, despite contrary evidence and then compare yourself to well known historical figures.
Everything to you is a made up conspiracy theory, when the fact remains that you have been shunned due to your behavior. There are people posting everyday that have disagreements and banning does not take place. Your behavior led people to have no other choice but to ban you.
You lack any personal success or track record.
You make long winded replies repeating the same nonsense over and over again, yet ignore any response.
You have caused extensive harm to many people, but most notably, Wade. You lack any morals or ethics in which your personal campaign trumps the ability of Wade to have a normal life on the Internet.
Rob says
I think it’s the death threats and board bannings and ten of thousands of acts of defamation and the threats to get academic researchers fired from their jobs, Pink.
I intend to bring lawsuits against those who have permitted those posting in “defense” of Mel Lindauer or John Greaney to post at their sites as well as against those posting in “defense” of those two. So I expect to make back the financial losses I have suffered as a result of the 11-year Campaign of Terror against our board and blog communities.
I believe that news of your prison sentence will go viral. Once people see that acts of financial fraud will be prosecuted when they cause an economic crisis, all our troubles are over. The paper that Wade and I prepared shows millions of middle-class investors how to reduce the risk of stock investing by 70 percent. So I think it is fair to say that I will have the most popular financial site on the internet once your prison sentence has been announced.
The fact that a friend of mine is going to prison obviously makes me sad. But I think it’s fair to say that, the shorter your prison sentence is, the better. So I am doing all I can to get academics and economists and investing experts and journalists and bloggers to speak up and demand that your prison sentence begin as soon as possible. I send 50 e-mails per day reporting on the Wade Pfau matter. After the Special Project is completed, I expect to return to sending 200 per day, or at least 100 per day (200 was always a bit of a push).
Is there anything else that you can come up with that I might do to help you out, Pink?
If you think of anything that does not involve me committing financial fraud myself, I would certainly be grateful if you would let me know.
Don’t let the bad guys get you down, old friend.
Rob the True and Lasting Friend
Rob says
There are people posting everyday that have disagreements and banning does not take place.
Did any of those people discover the errors in the Old School safe withdrawal rate studies, Pink?
My famous post pointing out those errors was advanced on the morning of May 13, 2002.
For someone else to make a credible claim that he discovered the errors, he would have to show that he pointed out the errors in public prior to the morning of May 13, 2002.
My best wishes.
Rob, the Fellow Who Discovered the Errors in the Old School Safe Withdrawal Rate Studies (A Very, Very, Very Bad Thing in the Eyes of the Buy-and-Hold Mafia)
Rob says
your behavior is horrible.
For 11 years now I have been absolutely unbending in my refusal to commit financial fraud (a felony), no matter how greats the pressures exerted on me to do so by the LindauerHeads and the Greaney Goons. I think that much is certainly fair to say.
I would be grateful for anything you might be able to do to spread the word far and wide on Planet Internet. Every little bit counts.
I wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors, my long-time Goon friend.
Rob the Unbending
Rob says
Your behavior led people to have no other choice but to ban you.
It’s either that or permit honest posting on safe withdrawal rates and scores of other critically important investment-related topics.
You’ve never heard me say otherwise, Pink.
I post honestly or I post not.
Non-negotiable.
100 percent non-negotiable.
And I mean it!
Rob the Clear Speaking
The Pink Unicorn says
Your last two posts just prove the points I just listed.
You are wrong on everything you posted on this thread.
My mistake is that I left off one important comment, which is this:
Your posting often cause observers to conclude that you have significant mental issues and that the only fix is for you to seek qualified medical assistance. this comment is made in all seriousness.
Rob says
You lack any morals or ethics in which your personal campaign trumps the ability of Wade to have a normal life on the Internet.
Forget Wade and forget the internet.
Not one of the thousands of people caught up in this drama will be able to have a normal life anywhere on Planet Earth once we fall into the Second Great Depression, Pink.
Surviving the Economic Crisis is Job #1.
For Wade Pfau.
For Jack Bogle.
For Rob Bennett.
for Bill Bernstein.
For Rob Arnott.
For Mel Lindauer.
For John Greaney.
For every last one of us.
We’re all in the same boat, my old friend.
There’s a reason why we have laws making your crimes felonies.
As a society, we made a decision that some crimes cause so much human suffering that the prison sentences that apply for those who commit those crimes must be lengthy.
We were smart to adopt those laws, in my assessment.
I naturally wish you all the best that this life has to offer a person.
Rob the Supporter of Our Legal System
Rob says
Your posting often cause observers to conclude that you have significant mental issues and that the only fix is for you to seek qualified medical assistance. this comment is made in all seriousness.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Pink.
I wish you health, wealth and happiness.
Rob the Kind Well-Wisher
The Pink Unicorn says
Once again, the totality of your posts prove my point.
Rob- remember what Eistein said was the definition of insanity. If you don’t know, look it up.
Rob says
That one cuts both ways, Pink.
We have tried Buy-and-Hold four times in U.S. history. It has caused a financial wipeout for every investor who bought into the idea on each of those four occasions. That’s doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.
Fortunately, we have something going for us this time that we didn’t have on the three earlier occasions. This time we have 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research showing us WHY Buy-and-Hold can never work for a single long-term investor and what does.
It doesn’t just benefit Rob Bennett for us all to learn about what works by exploring what the last 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research says in depth. It benefits every single person involved in this drama. It benefits Bogle. It benefits Pink. Everyone.
We can never go back to Buy-and-Hold. Our economy has grown too large for us to survive these massive crashes. We will move forward to discussion of what the academic research says or we will die. All of us. Together.
I won’t vote for a suicide pact, Pink. I love life too much. And I have a funny hunch that buried deep down inside is a part of you that likes life at least a little bit too.
You Goons have some say re WHEN we all move forward to the other side of the Big Black Mountain.
But there is no going backwards.
And every single one of us does better if we move forward at the close of business today.
The second best option for every single one of us is to move forward at the close of business tomorrow.
I’ll say a prayer that you give some consideration to starting to make choices that are in your own best interest.
And I will of course continues to wish you every blessing that can come to a person.
Rob, the Fellow Who Was Ready to Move Forward on the Morning of May 13, 2002
The Pink Unicorn says
You will never learn, Rob and will suffer as a result.
Rob says
Thanks for those kind words, Pink.
I think!
Rob, the Fellow Who Wishes Enough for Good Things (For Himself and All His Friends, Including His Goon Friends) to Dare to Post Honestly on Safe Withdrawal Rates and Scores of Other Critically Important Investment-Related Topics
The Pink Unicorn says
Quick question, Rob. In your land of make believe, how many people will be going to jail? I haven’t been around long enough to track the full extent of your threats.
Rob says
I cannot say how many will go to prison, Pink.
The vast majority of people who believe in Buy-and-Hold are suffering from cognitive dissonance. I could hardly say otherwise. I was a Buy-and-Holder myself on the morning of May 13, 2002. So was John Walter Russell. So was Wade Pfau when I first connected with him.
For the behavior of a Buy-and-Holder to become a criminal act of financial fraud, it has to involve some sort of outrageous act that our society is not willing to say is justified by the confusion suffered by those experiencing cognitive dissonance. Putting forward death threats or supporting people who put forward death threats obviously fit the bill. Putting forward tens of thousands of acts of defamation obviously fits the bill. Demanding that someone be banned from a board solely because he posted honestly on SWRs obviously fits the bill. Banning someone from a site because he exposes the flaws of your investment advice fits the bill. Threatening an academic researcher fits the bill.
Not every person who is guilty of financial fraud in an objective sense is going to be prosecuted. Prosecutors need to make judgment calls. They will listen to public opinion in doing so. This is why I stress the importance of you Goons coming clean prior to the next price crash. People will be very angry following the next crash. Behavior that would be viewed as acceptable prior to the next crash will not be viewed as acceptable following the next crash.
There is no way to say precisely what is going to happen. We have never experienced anything like this before. We are in entirely uncharted waters re this matter.
My job is to keep the country from tearing itself apart. That’s one of the reasons why I want to keep the prison sentences as limited as possible. Our focus should be on the good news. We are the luckiest generation of investors who ever walked the face of Planet Earth. When people see how lucky we are, their anger will dissipate. The more we all focus on the good stuff, the better off we all are.
This is why I need to do everything I can to see that the prison sentences are announced as soon as possible. The prison sentences that will be announced if Bogle gives his speech today will obviously be many fewer and much shorter in duration than the prison sentences that will be announced if Bogle gives his speech following the next price crash. So we all need to be working together to see that Bogle gives his speech as soon as is humanly possible. Jack will obviously feel compelled to say some words once the prison sentences are announced. So getting some prison sentences announced quickly would be a huge plus for every single person caught up in these matters (and that’s everyone alive on Planet Earth today).
I guess that the one thing that I can say with certainty is that the number of prison sentences there will be increases with each day that as a society we delay correction of the Old School safe withdrawal rate studies.
I hope that helps a bit, Pink.
Rob, the Fellow Rooting for Prompt Announcement of the Prison Sentences (and for a Quick Shift in Focus From Prison Sentences to All the Wonderful Stuff We Have Learned About How Stock Investing Works Over the Past 11 Years)