Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to another blog entry at this site:
Your problem is with Shiller. Take it up with him. Maybe if you threaten him with prison, it might make him do what you want since that threat has worked so well for you in the past.
My problem isn’t with Shiller, Anonymous. My problem is with financial fraud. It’s a violation of the laws of the United States. It’s a felony. That means prison time. Going to prison is not on my bucket list. So I am 100 percent unwilling even to consider going there. Do you see?
I like your second sentence A LOT. That one is right on point.
Shiller doesn’t want to go to prison. Neither does Bogle. Neither does Pfau. Neither do you. But all these people have committed financial fraud by failing to speak up against the 13-year cover-up. I get it that they don’t want to go to prison. I don’t either. So I sympathize 100 percent. What the heck am I supposed to do about it?
If there were a way to get this done without people going to prison, I would be all for it. We could adopt an amnesty. That makes some sense in these circumstances. I don’t oppose that. If Bogle comes to me with an offer where everyone who has posted in defense of Linduaer and Greaney and Bogle gets off in return for an opening of the entire internet to honest posting re the last 34 years of peer-reviewed research, I would sign that deal in ten seconds. Why the heck wouldn’t I? What possible motivation would I have not to sign?
The problem is that I don’t have the power to bind the millions of middle-class investors whose lives have been destroyed by the 13-year cover-up. I don’t have the authority to sign that piece of paper and have it stick. So what do you want from me?
This situation is a big mess. The Buy-and-Holders tried to do something very good. They did indeed achieve a good number of amazing breakthroughs. They got one point wrong for perfectly understandable reasons. When the error was discovered, they went into a state of shock. They couldn’t believe that they messed up. Part of the reason why it shocked them so much is that their intent was to do good and it horrified them to think that they had hurt people they were trying to help. So they went into cover-up mode. The longer the cover-up continued, the harder it became to come clean. Things eventually reached a point where their mountain of lies caused the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. Now they really don’t want to come clean.
I feel bad for them. I LOVE the Buy-and-Holders. I have respect for them. I have affection for them. I am grateful for all that I have learned from them. I obviously could not have even begun to do all the important work that I have done over the past 13 years without first having learned all the wonderful stuff that I learned from my Buy-and-Hold friends.
Now –
What the heck do you want from me?
If you want me to endorse an amnesty, I will do it. But guess what? My endorsement is not going to have much effect because you have for 13 years threatened to destroy anyone who associates with me and the result is that there won’t be many people spreading the word about my call for an amnesty. You have placed yourself in this crazy situation where you will be going to prison for a long time following the next price crash. I have been fighting you every step of the way. I have been fighting HARD.
Please tell me what you want from me.
I have offered to put forward some words aimed at getting your prison sentence reduced a bit.
Is there something else?
Rob
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