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:
Rob,
Quit trying to blame someone else for your failures. You are not even fit to tie Jack’s shoes, let alone even try to discussing investing strategies with some as accomplished as Jack.
I love the man and I admire the man. But all of us are affected by the mistake that he made. So it is my view that we are all fit to ask him questions about how the strategy he advocates has been discredited by the last 35 years of peer-reviewed research in this field.
Shiller describes his 1981 finding that valuations affect long-term timing as “revolutionary” in impact. He was awarded a Nobel prize for his work. So that finding was a very, very big deal.
Can you please tell us how Bogle changed Buy-and-Hold as a result of what he learned from Shiller’s research? I have been studying this stuff for years. I have not been able to identify a single change that he has made. Does that sound right to you, Sammy?
Do you think that those who hold themselves out as experts in this field have a responsibility to stay on top of developments in the peer-reviewed research and to correct any errors in their strategies that they discover as a result of new findings? I believe that they do.
Millions of people have suffered as a result of Bogle’s failure to come clean for 35 years now. This is not a joke. A failed retirement is a serious life setback. I believe that we all need to pull together to make sure that honest and accurate investing advice is available to every investor alive today. Do you agree? Or do you disagree?
Do you believe that ANY of the millions of investors who have been hurt by the 35-year cover-up have a right to tie Bogle’s shoes? I believe that Bogle has a responsibility to these people to try to get it right. And I believe that all of us who are aware of what the research says have a responsibility to push Bogle along a bit so that he sets things right sooner rather than later.
If Bogle is the man that I think he is, he would want that of us. I think that it would be fair to say that you hold a much lower opinion of this man than I do. It might be you who are not fit to tie his shoes rather than me. Fair enough?
Rob
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