Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for one of my columns at the Value Walk site:
i guess the delete button isn’t working for you, Rob.
It’s not, Sammy.
But the common sense button is working. The people reading these words possess common sense and they are able to figure out what is going on. They don’t know all the details. But they get the drift.
We know how stock investing works today. Prior to 1981, we did not know. We knew a lot but we were missing one critically important piece. Shiller supplied us with that critically important piece in 1981. It turns out that short-term timing really doesn’t work; we have the Buy-and-Holders to thank for showing us that. But it also turns out that long-term timing is price discipline and that price discipline ALWAYS works and is always 100 percent required. Now we just need to combine what we learned in 1981 with what we knew from the research done before then and we are all off to the races. We all get to live better lives from the point that we grant ourselves permission to explore the far-reaching implications of that powerful insight forward.
I think we are going to grant ourselves permission to live better lives. I’ve bet 13 years of my life on that belief. You haven’t yet let in how important this is and you cannot bear to accept that you made a mistake in earlier days. So you hate the idea that I direct my human energies to telling people about this. That’s where it stands. That’s where it has stood for 13 years now.
I guess we will see how it turns out following the next price crash. I think that enough people will be scared by what happens to them in the next crash that we will be able to break this standoff and get the word out to every investor alive as to what Shiller’s “revolutionary” (his word) finding means re how ordinary people should invest their retirement money. But I of course don’t know everything. I could be wrong. I am going to act on my belief. We will have to see how it all turns out.
You’ve gotten me banned from lots of places with your abusive behavior. It might be that you will be able to get me banned from one more place. I have seen too much to rule out the possibility. But there are always lots of other web sites. There are millions of people who need to know about the practical implications of Shiller’s revolutionary findings. I’ve had thousands of people tel me that they want to learn from me. And, given the tiny percentage of the population that I have personally spoken with over the 13 years, that shows me that there are millions with an interest in accessing the information.
I think those people are going to get what they need no matter what you do. But I do acknowledge that there is at least a chance that I will be proven wrong. All that I can do is all that I can do. I am going to give it my best shot. And I really do wish you all the best that this life has to offer a person.
I obviously hope you fail re the abusive stuff. But I have no reason not to extend my best wishes to you. There is zero that is personal about this from my end of things. I think that I would be hurting myself if I made it personal in any way. I love what the Buy-and-Holders did and I love how Shiller revealed their one big mistake and I love how our system of government permits us to get the word out to everyone and I love how we all will be living richer lives once the word get outs. I have seen lots of bad stuff from your end. But the good stuff that I have seen from others (and in some cases even from you Goons!) overwhelms the bad stuff by a factor of 50.
I can live with that, you know? I wish that I didn’t have to. I don’t believe that I should have to live with ANY bad stuff re this matter given how much it helps people for us all to learn how Shiller’s revolutionary finding changed the world in a positive way. But things are what they are. There has been bad stuff and all signs are that there will continue to be bad stuff until we see the next price crash. I have to accept that reality whether I like the idea or not. But I also need to keep my eye on the good stuff, which overwhelms the bad stuff by a factor of 50.
That’s the job. That’s how these things are done. That’s how a society advances from one understanding of how stock investing works to a new and better and truly research-based understanding.
All best wishes.
Rob
feed twitter twitter facebook