Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to a blog entry at this site:
Mel is real scary – not.
We disagree, What.
Mel is scary.
Not because of anything that Mel brings to the table himself. On his own, Mel is just some internet Goon, one of thousands of social misfits who gained some temporary fame on the internet and let it go to his head.
Mel is scary because of his connection to my good friend Jack Bogle.
Bogle is a respected figure in this field. He has money. He has fame. He has power. He has connections.
I think it would be fair to say that, if Jack owned a barber shop here in Purcellville and he learned that Mel Lindauer was using his name to promote some discussion board at which the most insanely abusive practices known to Planet Internet were employed on a daily basis to keep people from posting honestly about the last 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research, Bogle would be on the phone to the Purcellville police and to his legal team within 20 minutes demanding that something be done to protect his good name.
Bogle has not made any such calls, What. That’s what scares people like Wade Pfau and Bill Bernstein and Scott Burns and and Larry Swedroe.
Wade has financial responsibility for two small children. He wants to tell the truth. He also wants to be able to make a living in this field.
Bogle’s failure to speak up about the Lindauer matter is a national scandal, one that we will be working through as a nation for many years to come in civil and criminal proceedings and in congressional hearings.
Yes, Bogle is a Hero of the First Rank to millions of middle-class investors and properly so, in my assessment. He has also let himself and all his followers down in a very, very big way.
It is a tragedy of King Lear proportions for all Buy-and-Holders and for all Valuation-Informed Indexers. For our entire society, really. Our entire society has been affected in a serious way by this economic crisis.
Rob
Evidence Based Investing says
On his own, Mel is just some internet Goon, one of thousands of social misfits who gained some temporary fame on the internet and let it go to his head.
That description could more accurately be applied to the guy who got a few “Recommend it!” clicks on an internet discussion board over ten years ago and decided that made him saving/investment/retirement guru.
Unfortunately for him almost everyone he has encountered since disagrees with his self assessment.
Rob says
Okay, Evidence.
Rob
Rob says
Evidence:
If you would like to write a full-length article critical of me, I am happy to post it unedited by me as a blog entry here. I will also take one quote that does a good job of summing up the points made in the article and post it at the “People Are Talking” section of the site with a link to the full article.
There is obviously no obligation on your part to do this. I wanted to make the offer in the event that you think it might be helpful.
Please take good care.
Rob
Anonymous says
Is that an open offer to anyone?
Rob says
If Evidence lets me know that he would like someone else to write the submission, that’s fine. I’ll leave it up to him as to who prepares the words. I will only accept one Goon submission.
Rob
Evidence Based Investing says
I wanted to make the offer in the event that you think it might be helpful.
Almost everyone who interacts with you ends up giving you the same advice which you always ignore.
So unfortunately there is no chance that any article I could write would be helpful.
The change has to come from within you Rob.
Rob says
I understand, Evidence.
Hang in there, man.
Rob