Set forth below is the text of an e-mail that I sent on November 21, 2018, to Libby Emmons, who wrote an article titled Writing for Quillette Ended My Theater Project.
Libby:
My name is Rob Bennett. Your article titled “Writing for Quillette Ended My Theater Project” was much needed. People need to know that this sort of thing is going on. Thank you for having the courage to do what you have done, particularly for not being willing to apologize when there is nothing to apologize for. Inappropriate apologies give the apology concept a bad name. At least now the word is out. It’s up to the world to figure out what to do about the story you have told. You never know where the world will take things once you get the word out. It may take time but I think that it is entirely possible that your brave acts will do some good in the long run. It makes me happy to know that you gave it a shot.
I have a similar story to tell. I write about the long-discredited Buy-and-Hold investment strategy. Millions of people have their life savings riding on this strategy and have never even been told about the downside attached to it. It is maddening that it is so hard to get the word out about this. But you hit on the big problem in your article. People do not want to discuss these matters. They want to prevail and they believe that participating in an honest discussion lessens their odds of prevailing. I have in my writings used the catch-phrase that “I love my country” and that is why I refuse to keep quiet. I say that because I believe that it is a core value of our country to talk things out. I accept that I could be wrong on substantive issues. But I have a core belief that the only positive way to work out differences is through civil and respectful discussion. I am not able to give up that one. I don’t apologize for my good work, which has been recognized by many good people (although not quite enough of them just yet!).
I of course understand that this topic might not be of interest to you. If that’s the case, I understand. But if my article pulls you in and you are able to relate a tiny bit, I would be grateful if you would let me know. I have had a good number of others tell me that sort of thing from time to time. It helps me to appreciate that I am not the crazy one. My guess is that you know what I am getting at when I say those words.
Please keep doing the good work you do. I wish you the best of luck in all your future life endeavors.
Rob
I received a response from Libby on February 1, 2019, saying;
People tried to have a respectful discussion with you, but you decided that your agenda was more important. As such, there was no choice but to ban you.
My agenda is to open every discussion board and blog on the internet to honest posting re what the last 37 years of peer-reviewed research in this field teaches us all about stock investing.
If you have a problem with that, you have a problem with the laws of the United States. In the United States, we have laws against financial fraud. I follow those laws. I approve of those laws. I think those laws are good and necessary laws.
It will be interesting to see how things play out in the days following the next price crash. I have a funny hunch that the people of the United States will decide at that time there there is no choice but to place you behind prison bars, where you belong. But we of course are going to have to wait a bit to find out for sure.
I wish you the best of luck in all your future life endeavors, in any event. I hope that that helps at least a tiny bit.
Agenda-Pursuing (and Proud of It!) Rob
You used to be able to write at least one normal sounding email. When do you lose that ability?
There are so many triggers here. Since you obviously need someone to point them out, here they some of them, along with the reaction that any neurotypical person would have.
“I write about the long-discredited Buy-and-Hold investment strategy.” (What on earth has that got to do with me?)
“It is maddening that it is so hard to get the word out about this.” (Yeah, starting to see why.)
“I have in my writings used the catch-phrase that “I love my country” and that is why I refuse to keep quiet.” (Oh God, this guy is a crank. Please let him not be a stalker too.)
“I don’t apologize for my good work, which has been recognized by many good people” (Then why do you need me?)
“It helps me to appreciate that I am not the crazy one.” (Yup, that does it. Only the crazy ones say that.)
You used to be able to write at least one normal sounding email. When do you lose that ability?
In your eyes “normal sounding” means “pro Buy-and-Hold.” I was once a Buy-and-Holder myself. So, in the early days, I was pointing out the error in the Buy-and-Hold retirement studies but I was not making any generally anti-Buy-and-Hold statements. It’s now been 17 years that the Buy-and-Holders have been covering up the errors in those studies and that cover-up has done great harm to millions of people. So my opposition to the continued promotion of the Buy-and-Hold “strategy” has grown stronger. Which in your eyes means that I have grown less normal sounding. So be it. No apologies. I believe strongly that we all should be free to post our honest views. That’s how we all learn together over time.
What on earth has that got to do with me??
Here are some words from Shiller: “If, over some interval in the first decade or so of the twenty-first Century, the U.S. stock market is going to follow an uneven course down, as well it might – back, let us say, to its levels in the mid-1990s or even lower – then individuals, foundations, college endowments and other beneficiaries of the market are going to find themselves poorer, in the aggregate by trillions of dollars. The real losses could be comparable to the total destruction of all the schools in the country, or all the farms in the country, or possibly even all the homes in the country.”
If Shiller’s Nobel-prize-winning research is legitimate, it was the continued promotion of the Buy-and-Hold “strategy” after the publication of decades of peer-reviewed research showing that there is precisely zero chance that such a strategy could ever work for a single long-term investor, either in this solar system or in any other located far, far away from here, that was the primary cause of the 2008 economic crisis. The Buy-and-Hold Crisis caused tens of thousands of business failures and caused millions of middle-class people to be thrown out of their jobs.
That affected all of us. There is not one person on the planet who was not affected in a serious way by the 17-years cover-up of the errors in the Buy-and-Hold retirement studies. Not this boy, you know?
Yeah, starting to see why.
It’s a crazy story, Anonymous. In ordinary circumstances, you would expect an error in a retirement study to be corrected within 24 hours of the moment when it became common knowledge. It has indeed been a maddening experience telling a story of such obvious importance and having so many good and smart people shrug their shoulders and leave it to someone else to take on your Goons and get the story out. I don’t like it one little bit. But it is what it is. The problem isn’t going to go away by me agreeing to pretend that Greaney’s study really does contain an adjustment for the valuation level that applies on the day the retirement begins. So I do what I can do, maddening or not.
Oh God, this guy is a crank. Please let him not be a stalker too.
Wade Pfau sure didn’t think that I was a crank. Wade write me to ask me if I would be willing to work with him to develop research showing that Valuation-Informed Indexing is superior to Buy-and-Hold. He concluded after our 16 months of working together that: “Yes, Virginia, Valuation-Informed Indexing works!”
Wade holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton. You are an internet Goon who has put up posts in “defense” of Mel Lindauer and John Greaney. I think I will go by what Wade says over what you say. Call me madcap.
Then why do you need me?)
Because people are afraid of you Goons and the criminal acts you engage in when you see someone posting honestly re safe withdrawal rates and related matters. It’s great that we have laws in place making financial fraud a crime in the United States. But those laws don’t serve their purpose if they are not enforced. Things will change when we get lots of people speaking out re the 17-year cover-up. Since that cover-up has hurt all of us, we all should be speaking up in favor or putting you Goons in prison cells, where you belong.
Only the crazy ones say that.
In ordinary circumstances, that is so. But there have been numerous cases in history in which majorities who have been found to have been in error re an important matter, have tried to paint members of the minority presenting a challenge to their dominance as “crazy.” When people spoke up about the behavior of Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein, they were called “crazy.” That shut them up and marginalized them. The bad behavior continued for as long as the intimidation tactics worked.
It stopped when enough people got fed up to call out the criminal behavior for what it was. That’s how our system works. Our laws are not self-executing. We as a people determine when we want to see enforcement of our laws. In the event that Shiller’s Nobel-prize-winning research is legitimate, we should expect to see a change in people’s willingness to speak up in the days following the next price crash. That’s sure what I expect to see happen.
It will be interesting to see how things play out.
My best wishes to you.
Rob
“I think I will go by what Wade says”
Me too. But unlike you, I will go by what Wade said LAST.
“The reality is that you are causing me 1000x more career damage than the Goons ever could have”
“stop harassing me all the time.”
“You’ve violated my trust in so many countless ways and yet you still proclaim to be my friend.”
“I was not intimidated by any alleged threats, and I wasn’t lying about it.”
“just the other day you were advocating that I be sent to jail.”
Going by what Wade said LAST, you’re a real asshole.
Unlike you, I will go by what Wade said LAST. Going by what Wade said LAST, you’re a real asshole.
I am going to continue to go by what Wade said during the 16 months in which he felt free to give voice to his honest beliefs. The stuff that he said after you Goons threatened to get him fired from his job if he continued doing honest work and after Bogle signaled that is okay with your use of those intimidation tactics, don’t count for much, in my assessment. If anything, they count against Buy-and-Hold. If the Buy-and-Holders believed that it would be possible to make a strong case for their strategy in civil and reasoned debate, they would go for it. They employ intimidation tactics because they are not able to come up with any other way of “defending” the strategy, given what the last 37 years of peer-reviewed research shows us all about how stock investing works in the real world.
Asshole (Not Really!) Rob
“The stuff that he said after you Goons threatened to get him fired from his job … don’t count for much, in my assessment.”
Can you read? Wade said it never happened. So your assessment counts for nothing at all. God, it must be awful to be you. I really sympathize.
I naturally wish you all the best that this life has to offer a person, in any event.
I hope that that helps at least a tiny bit.
Rob