Set forth below are the texts of two comments that I recently posted to another blog entry at this site:
Actually what X said does make perfect sense. It is actual mathematical proof that you have made zero progress and your time, even by your own accounts, is absolutely worthless.
So all efforts to achieve civil rights were of zero value except for President Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act?
I don’t buy it, Anonymous.
You never get to the point where a President is signing a Civil Rights Act unless people in earlier days work up the courage to object to racism.
These things have to be done in a certain order.
If men were angels, Jack Bogle would have given a speech back in 1981 noting that Shiller’s research shows that there is precisely zero chance that a Buy-and-Hold strategy could ever work for a single investor. Then the Trinity study would never have been published. Then Greaney would never have gotten the numbers wrong in his retirement study. Then he would never have experienced embarrassment when I pointed out his errors. Then there never would have been any death threats. And on and on.
Men are not angels. Bogle went into cover-up mode when the flaws in his strategy were pointed out to him. These things happen. They happened here.
We don’t get to perfection in a single step.
People need to lay the groundwork.
I have laid a lot of groundwork at this site.
People are afraid that the Wall Street Con Men will destroy their careers if they post honestly. It’s a lot harder for the Wall Street Con men to do that now that I have documented the 12-year cover-up of the errors in the Old School SWR studies at this site.
If the Wall Street Con Men try to bring a lawsuit against someone for posting honestly, that person can use the material at this site to protect themselves. The Wall Street Con Men very much do not want the material at this site being publicized. So they are less likely today to bring such a lawsuit.
That helps us. The less likely the Con Men are to bring a lawsuit, the more likely people are to post honestly.
There will come a day when people will look back and say: “Of course Buy-and-Hold can never work. That’s so obvious. How is it that there was ever any controversy on this point?”
There was once controversy because the Buy-and-Holders once possessed great power and were able to use it to punish those who tried to post honestly. Every day that power gets weakened a little bit more because of the efforts of the thousands of us who have posted honestly at some point over the course of the past 12 years.
I have made amazing progress, more progress than I could possibly have imagined it was possible for any one person to make in the course of only 12 years. All signs are that I will be making a whole big bunch more progress following the next price crash.
You need to be physically in a prison cell to feel that any progress has been made.
So be it. I cannot change you.
When you are placed in your prison cell, you will see how we have been making progress for many years now, little by little, bit by bit.
I certainly wish you all the best that this life has to offer a person.
Rob
I’ll give a shorter response to the same comment.
I enjoy posting honestly.
I hate posting dishonestly.
If I had been posting dishonestly for the past 12 years, I would have hated every moment of my life for the past 12 years.
Since I was posting honestly for the past 12 years, I have enjoyed every moment of my life for the past 12 years.
I think I will elect to continue posting honestly. Call me madcap.
My best wishes to you and yours.
Rob
“You never get to the point where a President is signing a Civil Rights Act unless people in earlier days work up the courage to object to racism.”
But those people didn’t stop really trying after a certain point. To illustrate, today is the five year anniversary of this (other) famous post:
“In each of the earlier three occasions when we went to insanely dangerous levels of overvaluation, prices eventually dropped to one-half of fair value. That’s a price drop of about 65 percent from where we are today. I heard a lot of Buy-and-Holders get very nervous during the last crash. I believe that another 65 percent price drop is going to take those people out.”
http://www.getrichslowly.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4882&start=45
That thread was a marvelous example of Rob in his prime, mixing it up in a public forum. Sadly those days are long gone.
Different times call for different tactics, Pop.
It’s important to remember that we are all in this together. We are all on the same side.
Those earlier statements needed to be advanced. They are all on the record. Anyone who wants to learn the history can look at my site and see what went down in earlier times or look at scores of other sites and see what went down.
If I thought that I could put up a post at some forum today and bring an end to the Buy-and-Hold Crisis, I would do that. I don’t believe that today.
I believe that we are not going to see the internet opened to honest posting until we see the next price crash. That’s what I am preparing for.
There are lots of things going on. Some you see, some you do not. You will understand how everything fits together following the next crash.
I believe that we are going to make it. I believe that we are not only going to survive but to thrive.
I am not God. I could be wrong. But that’s what I truly believe.
We are just going to have to wait and see.
Rob
Rob aren’t you afraid of the buy and hold mafia ruining your career too? Oh wait thats right you are just an internet troll nevermind carry on….
Rob,
Please tell us. What do the goons need to do to avoid your wrath and not go to prison?
Rob aren’t you afraid of the buy and hold mafia ruining your career too? Oh wait thats right you are just an internet troll nevermind carry on….
One of my primary goals is to save the careers of as many of my Buy-and-Hold friends as possible, Anonymous. Just about all of them want to come clean. People forget that I learned about the errors in the Old School retirement studies from reading Jack Bogle’s book. And he is obviously not the only one who understands that Buy-and-Hold is a big pile of smelly garbage. Bernstein has shown that he sees that. So has Swedroe. So has Burns. So has Richards. So has Schultheis. So has Kitces. So has Pfau. So has Ferri. So has Tresidder. So has Piper. And on and on and on.
They all feel trapped. The money that comes with pushing a pure Get Rich Quick strategy was just too good to pass up. But what do you do when the market collapse you brought on actually takes place and you have caused millions of people to lose most of their retirement money? Saying “oopsie, I guess I should have stayed more up to date re the peer-reviewed research” doesn’t cut it in the eyes of the millions of people who have seen their hopes for a decent retirement crushed by you, does it?
Given that we all have to come clean sooner or later, it seems to me that it makes all the sense in the world to do it sooner. That way the prison sentences are shorter and the financial liabilities are smaller. It’s a win/win/win/win/win.
This site gives people the ammunition they need to fight back when the Buy-and-Hold Mafia goes after them. There are billions to be made giving accurate and honest and research-backed investment advice. There are thousands and thousands of people in this field who would like to get in on that gravy train. Now they have a site that they can use to protect themselves from the tactics of the Buy-and-Holders. I think that it would be fair to say that the Wall Street Con Men don’t want the materials at this site getting any publicity.
I acknowledge that I possess no particular expertise in this field. My take is that that ended up being my biggest edge. Those who have been in on the corruption for years have had to rationalize their failure to speak out and have come to believe those rationalizations on at least one layer of consciousness. I never had to rationalize anything because I never have made a penny doing work in this field. You Goons can threaten me from morning until night. But you can’t get me fired from my job in the way that you threatened to get Wade Pfau fired from his, right? That’s my edge. That’s been my edge going back to the first day.
In the end, all of us who aren’t in prison will be working together. The Buy-and-Holders have to win every day just to stay alive to push their smelly Get Rich Quick garbage one more day. Those of us advocating the first true research-based strategy only need to win once to win forever. There have been lots of people who have made the switch from Buy-and-Hold to Valuation-Informed Indexing. There has never been one person who has switched from Valuation-Informed Indexing to Buy-and-Hold. I think it would be fair to say that there never will be one any more than there ever has been anyone seeking to sign up with the Madoff fund once that con was exposed.
The good news here is 50 times more good than the bad news is bad. The history books are not going to write about you Goons except perhaps in footnotes. What matters is the hundreds of research-backed insights that we have developed over the course of the first 13 years of Our Debate About Having a Debate. Once we enter the debate proper, look out world! We live in a great country. The Buy-and-Holders were right in the days when they were saying that it is a good idea to be willing to look at the peer-reviewed research. This stuff gets better and better and better with each passing day. I sure don’t see any reason to think that that will ever change.
Hang in there, my long-time Goon friend. It gets better. A LOT better.
Rob
What do the goons need to do to avoid your wrath and not go to prison?
Prosecutors will decide how many of you Goons to charge following the next price crash based on the reactions of the millions of middle-class investors whose lives you have destroyed, Anonymous.
The length of your prison sentences will be determined by the members of your jury.
I will testify honestly. But I have no role to play beyond that.
I am just some fellow on the internet trying to help you get your prison sentence reduced a bit. I cannot promise you more than that because I am not able to deliver more than that.
If you were smart, you would forget about me and start taking the steps that are in your own best interests.
Or at least so Rob Bennett sincerely believes.
I could be wrong. It’s been known to happen. If it were happening again, I would probably be the last to know.
My best and warmest wishes to you and yours.
Rob
“If you were smart, you would forget about me and start taking the steps that are in your own best interests.”
What would those steps be?
If I were in your shoes, I think I might get a t-shirt made up that featured the words “I’m With Stupid!” along the top and then a photo of Greaney filling up the bottom. I would be sure to wear it every time I took a stroll on the boardwalk this Summer.
Couldn’t hurt.
Rob
If you want my help, I’m here for you, Anonymous.
If you don’t want my help, we’ll see how things go following the next price crash.
Is there anything else?
Rob