Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to another blog entry at this site:
Having a great idea does not mean money just shows up on your doorstep. You have offered nothing that anyone is willing to pay any money for.
The way that it works is that a determination is made as to how much money I would have made from the idea had it not been for the death threats and the board bannings and the tens of thousands of acts of defamation and the threats to get academic researchers fired from their jobs.
That amount is obviously far, far in excess of $500 million, What. I chose a lowball number for the purpose of providing an incentive to the Wall Street Con Men to bring the ugly side of this to a close prior to the next stock crash. That’s obviously to everyone’s (very much including the Wall Street Con Men) benefit.
Anyone who has any doubts as to whether I would have earned far in excess of $500 million from the Valuation-Informed Indexing concept needs only to look at the reactions that Wade Pfau had when he learned for the first time how stock investing really works. Wade holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University. He was AMAZED at what he learned. None of the realities of what we have learned from the past 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research had been taught to him at Princeton.
Once the peer-reviewed research paper that Wade and I prepared was written up on the front page of the New York Times, every researcher in this field would know the realities. Are you honestly saying that I would not make far, far in excess of $500 million educating every academic researcher in this field to the realities of stock investing? There are scores of textbooks that need to be rewritten. There are thousands of calculators that need to be prepared. There are tens of thousands of old books that need to be corrected and new books that need to be published. There are new courses that need to be developed at every school in this country.
I am the leader of that effort. And it doesn’t bring me a number far, far in excess of $500 million? Huh?
Just look at the reaction of the Wall Street Con Men. They sent in their Goons to threaten Wade so that honest and accurate information on how stock investing works could not get out to the millions of middle-class investors who need to hear it. Why do you think they did that? I think it would be fair to say that the Wall Street Con Men have made profits far, far in excess of $500 million pushing their discredited Get Rich Quick garbage. And they see my idea of posting honestly on what the peer-reviewed academic research says as a threat to that empire of profits.
Well, it obviously follows that I would be making far, far more than $500 million by letting people know the true story, does it not, What?
The question of whether the work I have done is worth far, far in excess of $500 million is obviously a silly one.
There’s been one and only one truly serious question raised in the entire 11 years of discussions — Is the market efficient or do valuations affect long-term returns?
If the market is efficient, Buy-and-Hold is the ideal strategy and nothing I have put forward is worth 10 cents.
If valuations affect long-term returns, Buy-and-Hold is the purest and most dangerous Get Rich Quick scheme ever concocted by the human mind and all materials based on the discredited model need to be replaced by materials explaining the Valuation-Informed Indexing model by the close of business today. That means that my payday will be far, far in excess of $500 million.
There is now 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research showing that the market is not efficient and that valuations affect long-tern returns.
There was never even a tiny sliver of data supporting the Buy-and-Hold Model. The idea that stocks are the only thing we buy re which we can ignore price when making purchase decisions has been revealed by the last three decades of peer-reviewed academic research to have been the worst mistake ever made in the history of personal finance (and there is no other failed idea in a close second place).
That’s the story here, What.
And I know that you know it as well as I do.
How do I know?
You reveal your true beliefs in every rage-filled post you put to this blog.
You are focusing on the wrong thing. Of course I am going to collect $500 million or a number far in excess of that if a settlement is not reached prior to the next price crash. And of course that’s a good thing for every single person involved, including you. The bigger my payday, the more people we will have promoting Valuation-Informed Indexing and pointing out the dangers of Buy-and-Hold. And the more people we have promoting Valuation-Informed Indexing and pointing out the dangers of Buy-and-Hold, the sooner we will overcome this economic crisis and head off to the greatest period of economic growth ever seen in our history.
THAT’S what matters, What.
If you want to earn a big payday for yourself, you need to get on the Valuation-Informed Indexing bandwagon yourself. I can guarantee you that you will be given a warm welcome regardless of any tall tales you have told in “defense” of Buy-and-Hold in earlier days.
There’s a lot of work to be done. It is truly exciting stuff.
Buy-and-Hold is the past. Valuation-Informed Indexing is the future.
Get with it, man!
I wish you the very best of luck with it, my old friend.
Rob the Entrepreneur
laugh says
Reactions don’t mean dollars.
I am sure if you ran around naked you would get some reactions also. And no money also.
Rob says
Wade’s reactions were the reactions of a kid at a water-slide park who was seeing for the first time how wonderful a thing life can be when it is done right.
Wade isn’t the only person in this field who deep in his heart wants to do good for other people, Laugh.
My good friend Jack Bogle wants to do that.
My good friend Bill Bernstein wants to do that.
My good friend Larry Swedroe wants to do that.
My good friend Scott Burns want to do that.
Hundreds of my blogger friends want to do that.
And on and on and on.
I’ll let you in on a little secret that I think just may blow your Goon mind.
Somewhere deep in his heart my good friend Laugh wants to do that.
Oh, my!
Are you going to ban yourself from talking to yourself, Laugh?
At some point the gooniest of goons has to give it up. Humans cannot survive on a diet of pure hate. They just weren’t built that way.
In any event, I certainly wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors.
Rob