Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to another blog entry at this site:
So Rob is there any chance you are going to take his advice and start behaving and communicating like an adult? It seems he is about the 100th person to tell you that you need to modulate your behavior.
You are correct that many people have offered me similar advice, Trebor.
No, there is zero chance that I am going to change the tone I use.
Please read carefully what Robert says. He refers to my “Sensational/scandalist” tone. He says that does not win people over.
He is right.
So why do I stick with that tone?
To understand the answer, you have to ask yourself WHY such a tone does not win people over.
It doesn’t win people over because most people know from experience that those using a sensational/scandalist tone are not shooting straight.
I am shooting straight.
The problem here is not my tone, which suggests a massive cover-up. The problem here is the massive cover-up.
We are looking at criminal acts of financial fraud.
We are looking at the most massive case of financial fraud ever experienced in our nation’s history.
I am speaking out AGAINST it. I am saying that responsible people should have begun taking steps back on May 13, 2002, or, at the very latest, on August 27, 2002, when Greaney made his first death threats.
I will continue posting honestly.
I will also of course continue incorporating charity and compassion and kindness in all my posts.
The rule that I follow is to be as honest as possible without crossing the line and becoming uncharitable while also being as charitable as possible without crossing the line and becoming dishonest.
I hope that helps a bit, my old friend.
Rob the Charitable (And Honest!)
No, there is zero chance that I am going to change the tone I use.
And therefore there is zero chance that you will win people over.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Evidence.
My best wishes to you.
Rob the Doomed (According to Evidence)
Rob the Doomed (According to Evidence)
You have an eleven year track record of failing to win people over.
For every day of those eleven years, I’ve given it my absolute best shot, Evidence.
I will continue to do so until they put me six feet in the ground (Don’t get any funny ideas, John Greaney!).
I can do no more and I can do no less.
I naturally wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors, my old friend.
Rob, the Fellow Giving It His Absolute Best Shot Regardless of the Skepticism of His Good Friend Evidence
For every day of those eleven years, I’ve given it my absolute best shot, Evidence.
And therein lies the problem. Your best shot hasn’t been good enough. But you keep trying the same thing. And it keeps failing. And numerous people have given you advice about how you could improve your chances of getting your message across. And you choose to ignore them all.
Effort without results is futility, and you have eleven years of uninterrupted futility. Eleven totally wasted years. Anyone else would regret that. You revel in it. This is what is odd about you.
I see that as a fair statement of the realities, Evidence.
Please take good care.
Rob, the Fellow Who Keeps Doing What He Believes to Be Right No Matter How Many Times It Has Failed to Bear Good Fruit
Eleven totally wasted years.
Eleven totally wasted years in which I just happened to co-author the most important peer-reviewed academic research published in this field in over 30 years.
You revel in it.
That’s why.
This is what is odd about you.
There is no other field of human endeavor in which wishing to hold onto one’s personal integrity is viewed as “odd.”
That’s what is wrong with the investing advice field today, in my assessment. It is 100 percent corrupt.
When personal integrity is viewed as a plus in this field, we will be well on our way out of this economic crisis and on to the greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history.
Could it be that we will never see that magic day? Given what I have witnessed over the past 11 years, I suppose that anything is possible. If that’s the way it is, we all go down together. At least I will have the small comfort of knowing that I gave it my best possible shot.
Don’t let the bad guys get you down, Sanity.
Rob
Eleven totally wasted years in which I just happened to co-author the most important peer-reviewed academic research published in this field in over 30 years.
So say you, and literally no one else. Results are not subjective. They either exist or they don’t. If yours existed, others would acknowledge them. But no one does. Futility.
11 years of Rob wasting his life and being wrong on almost everything I can think of.
Except, if we count getting kicked off all those popular financial boards as accomplishments, then I guess Rob did do something.
What a record!!!
So say you, and literally no one else.
The sooner that changes, the better for every last one of us, Sanity.
Results are not subjective.
We agree.
They either exist or they don’t.
We agree.
If yours existed, others would acknowledge them. But no one does.
If it were not for The Buy-and-Hold Mafia, everyone would.
We need to work together to bring an end to The Buy-and-Hold Mafia.
That’s the answer for everyone. Including everyone in The Buy-and-Hold Mafia.
I wish you well.
Rob
if we count getting kicked off all those popular financial boards as accomplishments, then I guess Rob did do something.
Yes, I did. I stood up to the Buy-and-Hold Mafia.
Not even Shiller did that to the extent I did.
Shiller gave us the theory. But he never explored the practical how-to implications of his “revolutionary” (his word) findings.
I did. That changes everything.
Things can never go back to what they were on the morning of May 13, 2002. Those days are over.
We are moving forward.
Because the Rosa Parks of Personal Finance refused to go to the back of the bus.
I naturally wish you all the best that this life has to offer a person.
Rob
What a record!!!
What a wonderful country.
So long as we follow its laws.
And hold those who fail to do so accountable for the harm they do to us.
Rob
“So long as we follow its laws.”
Rob,
You talk about fraud and prison sentences. Please give us a list of charges that have been filed and those that have been charged.
Also, with respect to lawsuits, give us a list of those that have suits filed against them as well as the allegations.
You do have this list, don’t you? Because you wouldn’t want to be dishonest and perhaps defaming anyone without facts to back it up.
It’s the Buy-and-Hold Mafia that has taken this down a path in which people end up in prison cells, Pink.
I will not be intimidated into silence by your threats.
Not in 11 years. Not in 11 billion years.
I have not for two seconds given consideration to posting dishonestly on safe withdrawal rates or on any other critically important investment-related topic.
Knowing that, you and your Wall Street Con Men pals know how to proceed re this matter.
My warmest wishes to you and yours.
Rob
I’m embarrassed even to participate in this exchange but I will depart with one question. Try just for a moment to be objective. Which is more likely: a) the existence of a “buy-and-hold mafia” that is known only to you, or b) that your ideas have no value.
Occam’s Razor provides an obvious answer, but here is an extra hint: a) is impossible.
I’ve spoken to many people who have told me that they would like to feel free to tell the truth about stock investing but that they are afraid to do so.
Jack Bogle knows about Mel Lindauer and John Greaney. Rob Arnott is a personal friend of Jack’s and he copied Jack on his e-mails to me.
There is a Buy-and-Hold Mafia and it will be exposed and people will go to prison.
Then the rest of us will all move forward to a far better future.
My best wishes.
Rob