Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for another blog entry at this site:
Rob says:”The hard part is saying the words “I” and “Was” and “Wrong.”
Yes, Rob, that is your problem. You haven’t said those words and you refuse to face reality.
No, I haven’t said those words. I don’t believe that I was wrong. So it would be dishonest of me to say them.
I HAVE said the words “I COULD be wrong.” That’s a big deal. When people say “I COULD be wrong,” it becomes possible for them to engage in civil and reasoned discussions with others holding different views.
Jack Bogle has not said “I could be wrong.” Mel Lindauer has not said “I could be wrong.” John Greaney has not said “I could be wrong.”
I believe that, in the days following the next price crash, all three of them will say those words (I presume that Bogle will say them first). Then we will be off to the races. From that point forward, it will be good stuff piled on top of good stuff piled on top of good stuff for all of us. I wish that those three had said those words years ago. I wish that Bogle had said those words on the day in 1981 when Nobel-prize-winning economist Robert Shiller published his “revolutionary” (Shiller’s word) peer-reviewed research showing that valuations affect long-term returns.
Even if Bogle fails to say the words “I COULD be wrong” until after the next crash, we all end up being better off than we once imagined possible soon after he says them. The good stuff that we have seen over the past 16 years is 50 times more good than the bad stuff that we have seen over the past 16 years is bad. So we are just going to have to sit tight and wait to see how things play out in the days following the crash.
I naturally wish you the best in all your future life endeavors, dear friend. And I am 100 percent sure than I AIN’T WRONG re that one!
Take good care, man.
Possibly (But Not at All LIkely!) Wrong Rob
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