“Michael Kitces and Wade Pfau Do Wonderful Work. And Their Work Is Of Course PARTLY Honest. But Fully Honest? No Way, No How. Both Michael and Wade Know About You Goons. Why Don’t They TELL People About These Things?”

I don’t agree with you, Trebor.

Both Michael and Wade of course do wonderful work. And their work is of course PARTLY honest.

But fully honest?

No way, no how. Not a close call.

Both Michael and Wade know about you Goons. They know about the death threats. They know about the board bannings. They know about the tens of thousands of acts of defamation. They know about the threats to get academic researchers fired from their jobs.

Why don’t they TELL people about these things?

These are the things that people need to know about for us all to join together and bury the smelly Buy-and-Hold garbage 30 feet in the ground, where it can do no further harm to humans and other living things.

When we have done that, we will have THOUSANDS of academic researchers producing good work on hundreds and hundreds of important topics that we are not seeing today because they are afraid to step forward.

Acts of financial fraud are news, Trebor. The fact that the Buy-and-Holders feel that there is no way to “defend” their strategy without engaging in acts of financial fraud tells us all something about the level of confidence that the Buy-and-Holders themselves have in their ideas.

I applaud Michael and Wade for the good work they do. But I believe that the work that I am doing is far more important. We need to bring the Campaign of Terror to an end. We need to bring the Ban on Honest Posting to an end. We need to launch a national debate on what really works in stock investing. We need to bring the economic crisis to an end. We need to bring on the greatest period of economic growth in our history.

To the extent that the work that Michael and Wade are doing causes people to question Buy-and-Hold, it is of course valuable work. But we will make MUCH quicker time once EVERYONE feels free to do honest work on ALL investing-related topics. I want to hear my good friend Jack Bogle tell us what he really believes today about how stock investing works. I want to hear the same from Bill Bernstein and Larry Swedroe and Scott Burns and lots and lots of others. The paper you point to is not going to get us there. The paper you point to does not go to the most important issue — the need for all of us working in this field to demand recognition of our right to behave in a manner fitting people of integrity.

Integrity trumps everything else, Trebor. That’s why the first 11 years of our discussions have been so contentious. We are not really talking about whether Greaney should correct his study or not. Everyone knows that he should have corrected it within 24 hours of the time he learned of the errors he made in it. What we have been talking about is whether we are going to as a society insist that the same ethical standards that apply in every field other than the investing advice field apply in the investing advice field as well.

We are going to conclude that they must.

As humans, we are not capable of coming to any other conclusion and continuing to survive. Humans are flawed creatures. But they have something within them that can be temporarily but never permanently denied that compels them to at least try to behave in an ethical manner.

We have been denying that important something within us for 11 years now. To our great financial misfortune. But we all know inside that we cannot permanently deny what we are. So we will one day open the internet to honest posting on safe withdrawal rates and many other critically important investment-related topics.

That will be a wonderful day for all of us. For Michael. For Wade. For Jack. For Bill. For Larry. For Scott. For Rob. Even for you Goons (your prison sentences are a small concern in the grand scheme of things — you are far better off being in prison in a society that is flourishing than being free in a society that is collapsing).

We’re getting there, Trebor. It’s been a wild ride. But we are getting there slowly but surely.

Please hang in there, my long-time abusive posting friend.

Rob the Optimist