Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to another post at this blog:
On what basis do you think there will be Congressional hearings over your disagreements with the Bogleheads? Other types of investors such as the Graham disciples have been able to espouse their views openly and without the sort of harassment that you allege.
NO ONE is speaking with 100 percent honesty on stock investing matters today, Goon. NO ONE.
I even apply that statement to myself. I TRY to say what I truly believe. I try very hard. But I know from experience that I do not always manage to pull it off.
We ALL are affected by what our peers say about us. And the Buy-and-Holders are so vicious and ruthless in their hateful comments about those who recommend research-based strategies that there is not one person alive today who has demonstrated a willingness to take them on.
That includes Robert Shiller, the Yale Economics Professor who published the research discrediting the Buy-and-Hold strategy 32 YEARS AGO. Shiller pulls his punches ALL THE TIME.
I am the person who discovered the errors in the Old School SWR studies over 11 years ago. That was one of the most important discoveries in the history of personal finance. Millions of middle-class retirements are at stake. NOT ONE OF THE DISCREDITED STUDIES HAS BEEN CORRECTED to this day.
Academic Researcher Wade Pfau worked with me for 16 months to correct this problem. He saw the need for the studies to be corrected. He wrote to the authors of one of the studies. The response of the Buy-and-Hold Mafia was to threaten to get Wade fired from his job. NO ACADEMIC RESEARCHER SHOULD EVER BE INTIMIDATED IN THAT WAY. We are talking about the biggest case of financial fraud in the history of the United States.
My job is to see to it that as few people as possible go to prison. The key to that task is getting some of the leading figures in this field (people like my good friend Jack Bogle) to come clean. When Bogle speaks out about the 11-year cover-up of the errors in the retirement studies, it is all over. The next day, we will see articles in every major newspaper letting people know that informed people in this field have known for YEARS now that Buy-and-Hold is a big pile of smelly garbage.
But Bogle is very afraid to speak out. He worries that, if he does tell the truth, the same sort of tactics that were used against Wade Pfau will be used against him. We are in a Catch-22. We are ALL afraid to post honestly. But we will all remain afraid to post honestly only so long as we all remain afraid to post honestly. Once a small number of us work up the courage to tell the truth about what the last 32 years of peer-reviewed academic research says, NONE OF US WILL BE AFRAID ANY LONGER. Because we all will see that the Buy-and-Hold Mafia cannot do a thing to a group. Their power to intimidate us comes to an end when a group of us vow to stick together and protect each other when the Buy-and-Holders attack us.
The Graham disciples don’t think that death threats are appropriate in discussions of stock investing. They don’t think that board bannings not justified by the published rules of the investing sites are appropriate. They don’t think that tens of thousands of acts of defamation are appropriate. They don’t think that threats to get academic researchers fired from their jobs are appropriate.
Do you hear the Graham disciples speaking out on those important issues?
Neither do I.
The Graham disciples are afraid to take on the Buy-and-Hold Mafia and all its power and wealth and connections.
All of us are.
But we cannot bring the economic crisis to an end without working up the courage to do so.
Please do all you can to help us all work up the courage.
Take care, my old (Goon) friend.
Rob, the Graham Disciple
The hateful comments are coming from you Rob. Who else is out there telling people they are going to prison and will have to pay millions from lawsuits.
No one else is saying these things, Anonymous. We are in agreement re that factual point.
We are not even in a tiny bit of agreement re the claim you make that it is “hateful” of me to draw attention to the huge civil lawsuits and to the prison sentences that we will be seeing following the next price crash.
I didn’t write those laws, Anonymous. You have nothing to fear from me. The thing you have to fear is the laws of the United States.
I am trying to help out.
I believe that there is a part of you that wants to learn how to invest effectively for the long run and that wants to help others learn how to invest effectively for the long run. Why not start listening to that positive part of your human nature rather than the nasty part that has gotten you in so much trouble over the past 11 years?
We are the luckiest generation of investors ever to walk Planet Earth. Do you ever take time to reflect on that amazing reality and to be thankful for the blessings that have been bestowed on us?
I have a funny feeling that, if we all were to start making use of the benefits that should naturally flow from being the luckiest group of investors who ever walked Planet Earth, we would find that each and every last one of us would quickly find himself or herself in a better place than he or she is in today. It’s just one of those crazy hunches that I have been known to experience from time to time. But there is something about the idea that feels right, no?
It’s a question of love vs. hate. If as a society we go with love, we all end up enjoying the greatest period of economic growth in our history. If as a society we go with hate, we all end up in the Second Great Depression.
I know which way I am voting, Anonymous.
I naturally wish you all the best things that this life has to offer a person.
Rob
Looks like another hateful post from you, Rob. You speak of laws, yet we see no charges. Bringing up the topic means that you wish for it to happen (regardless of how you phrase it). And that particular desire exposes your hate. It is just like any other fantasy of retribution.
You haven’t seen charges yet because we have not yet reached the bottom of this bear market, Anonymous. Bernie Madoff was engaged in financial fraud LONG before he was charged. People LIKE Get Rich Quick schemes until the bottom falls out. That’s just the way it works.
People who promote Get Rich Quick schemes are exploiting a weakness of human nature. That’s one of the reasons why I am so outspoken about the dangers of Buy-and-Hold. It’s TOO LATE to tell people that it doesn’t work after they have lost most of their money. The time to tell people is when they can still do something to protect themselves. That doesn’t make you the most popular guy in town. But it is the right thing to do. It helps you sleep at night, you know?
I DO want to see the prison sentences announced as soon as possible. Not because of some sort of desire for retribution. I want to see the prison sentences announced because the announcement of the prison sentences will go viral and that will cause lots and lots of people who otherwise would have been sucked in to putting up posts in “defense” of Linduaer and Greaney to avoid doing so and thereby to AVOID prison sentences.
Also, the sooner the prison sentences are announced, the shorter they will be. People will be very, very angry at the people who caused them to suffer such devastating losses following the next crash. You will do a LOT better if your prison sentence is announced today, Anonymous, when the level of public anger is nothing comparable to what it will be following the next crash.
It is my belief that seeking retribution is a MISTAKE. That’s giving in to feelings of hate. If we go there, we become somewhat goonish ourselves. I do indeed worry that there are going to be lots of people seeking retribution following the next crash. But I am not going to be doing anything to encourage those feelings. The reality is just the opposite. I see it as my job to DISCOURAGE the temptation that many will feel to give in to those sorts of feelings. One of the reasons why I would like to see the prison sentences announced TODAY is that I strongly believe that a far smaller number of people would give in to feelings of retribution if the prison sentences were announced today.
No one is doing any of the Goons any favors by stretching this out.
I am sure.
Hang in there, my old friend.
Rob