Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for another blog entry at this site:
Here is a similar thread on Bogleheads:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=269041
Notice that no one calls it a threat. Financial boards are a community and everyday topics are covered, yet no one makes up silly stories like you. This is yet another example of your bad behavior and why you are banned.
The purpose of the gun thread at the Motley Fool board was to intimidate people who were trying to work up the courage to stand up to Greaney. I had pointed out the error in the Greaney study and he had flipped his lid and everyone could see that he was losing control. And then this thread appears talking about guns and bullets and how to put them to us solving problems you face.
Why hasn’t the study been corrected? That’s the question that any reasonable person would be asking. That’s the substance question that should be the focus on any discussion of this matter.
And of course the gun safety thread was not the only time Greaney advanced a death threat. There was another thread where Galeno (Greaney’s right-hand man) said that he was going to come to my house with a baseball bat. “Let loose the dogs of war,” Galeno said. Some of the more ethical members of the community announced at that time that they would be leaving the board because they no longer felt right about participating in a corrupt enterprise. Greaney heartily endorsed the threats. He thought it was funny. That’s what we are dealing with here. And of course there were the threats made to silence Wade Pfau that were made at a later time. Wade and I performed that research to help millions of people. We should be able to reach those millions of people with it. There should be no “controversy” over that.
If Greaney truly believed that he had included a valuation adjustment in his study, he would have welcomed questioning of it. There never would have been any freak-out.
Rob
We have discussed the made up death threats story and your error on Greaney’s work. Why keep repeating it.
The thing that we should be talking about is the amazing how-to implications of Shiller’s Nobel-prize-winning research findings. We should be talking about that on every internet site every day.
The intimidtion stuff comes up because the reality is that we are NOT talking about the how-to implications of Shiller’s research at every site. I noted that Greaney’s retirement study lacks a valuation adjustment and the Buy-and-Holders freaked out. Lots of people wanted to talk about the point that I had raised. We had hundreds of people saying: “Thanks, Rob, you have started the most important discussion in the history of the board!”. But some of the more dogmatic Buy-and-Holders were not so thrilled. They saw that, if as a community we acknowledged that the Greaney study was in error, the entire Buy-and-Hold house of cards would come tumbling to the ground. So they advanced all sorts of intimidation stuff to suppress this very important discussion.
What we have had for 20 years is not the Great Debate proper. What we have has is a Debate About Having a Debate. I believe that in the days following the next Buy-and-Hold Crisis, we will develop the courage as a nation of people to move on to the debate proper. From that point forward, we will all live better lives in scores of different ways.
Does the retirement study posted at John Greaney’s web site contain an adjustment for the valuation level that applies on the day the retirement begins or does it not? I believe that it does not. That is my sincere take re this terribkly important matter.
My best and warmest wishes to you, Anonymous.
Rob
When is th3 last time you had an actual discussion with anyone from the investment community?
People in the investment community are having conversations with themselves every day, We have seen over and over again that the experts in the field would love to be able to do honest, research-based work. It all comes down to whether a few of them work up the courage to stand up to you Goons in the days following the nedt Buy-and-Hold Crisis.
Rob
The entire world’s economy is on the brink of disaster and can only be saved if every board in the world allows Rob Bennett to post what he wants. Yes,, that’s right. Only Rob Bennett can save the world………………..bbbbwwwwwwaaaaaahahahahahahahahaha
Rob Bennett and the thousands of people who have expressed a desire that honest posting re the last 41 years of peer-reviewed research be permitted at every site.
And the millions more who as of today have not expressed that desire but who would express that desire if they could learn from reading the boards of their mistake and then adjust their understanding of how stock investing works to conform to what the peer-reviewed research shows is the reality.
Which is all of us. The reason why we have as a nation of people enacted laws against use of the tactics employed by you Goon to suppres honest discussion is what we know how much it can harm us for us to leave ourselves no way to come to terms with mistakes we have made and to correct them. The ban on honest posting is foreign to our way of life. I do not believe that it can survice another Buy-and-Hold Crisis.
We’ll see.
Rob
All would be what you say if:
– You had thousands of supporters
– Proof of death threats and criminal acts
– successful outcomes with market timing
– buy and hold failures
– Shiller supporting timing with CAPE
– Your own successful retirement portfolio
Yet you don’t have any of this and you tell us we have to wait to see how it all turns out
Shiller was awarded a Nobel prize for a reason. He pointed us all to a better way. We will all be able to live better lives on a going forward basis once we have opened every internet site to honest posting re the past 41 years of peer-reviewed research. There’s no other way to get there. For so long as most of us are afraid to stand up to the Buy-and-Hold Goon Squads, the majofrity will not possess a strong understand of the dangers of Buy-and-Hold and we will continue to wreck our economy by letting irrational exuberance get out of control (no market timing now!).
The three words “I” and “Was” and :Wrong” possess great powers to change the world in a positive way. Those are magical words.
My sincere take.
Rob
“ The three words “I” and “Was” and :Wrong” possess great powers to change the world in a positive way. Those are magical words.”
And nothing will change for you until you say those words.
Okay, Anonymous.
I do wish you all good things, in any event.
Rob
Shiller wants you to say those words. Wade Pfau wants you to say those words. Your wife wants you to say those words. Your priest wants you to say this words.
Shiller would like to be able to write a sequel to his book in which he explores all of the amazing implications of his Nobel-prize-winning research without having to worry that the lives of his loved ones will be threatened as a result or that his career will be threatened as a result.
Wade would love to be able to return to doing completely honest work in this field again. He wrote to me on numerous occasions to tell me how excited he was when he researched my ideas and found that they all checked out. He told me that there were times when he couldn’t sleep at night for his excitemement. He wasn’t kidding around when he declared: “Yes, Virginia, Valuation-Informed Indexing works!”
My wife wanted to have money coming in, which you Goons made impossible. But she never once expressed any support for the tactics that you employed to suppress discussion of the last 41 years of peer-reviewed research. She never said that she thought I was wrong to believe that the Greaney retirement study lacks a valuation adjustment.
The same was true of my priest. He was concerned about the effect that the abusive and on some occasions criminal behavior of you Goons was having on my family. He never expressed a view that I was wrong on any of the substantive issues. In the event that stocks continue to perfrom in the future even a tiny bit as they always have in the paat. I am 100 percent confident that he will be distressed by the harm done to millions of lives as the result of the continued relentless promotion of the pure Get Rich Quick/Buy-and-Hold investment strategy.
My best and warmest wishes to you.
Rob
Can you provide a link to the proof of any of your claims? Of course not. We only have your comments.
The Greaney retirement study is available via an internet search, Anonymous. Anyone who cares to can determine for himself in 10 minutes whether or not it contains an adjustment for the valuation level that applies on the day the retirement begins.
Rob
So what you are saying is your error on Greaney’s work has also caused your disagreements with Shiller, Pfau, your wife and your priest. Got it.
What I say is that Greaney should have corrected the error in his study within 24 hours of the moment that it was brought to his attention. There were people who used that study to help construct retirement plans.
Rob
Not a single expert agrees with you about Greaney, including Shiller and Pfau. It’s clear your wife and priest don’t agree with you as well as they told you to get a job.
Everyone who has commented over the course of 20 years. Evidence is a general in Greaney’s Goon Army. And he has offered the strongest statement of agreement possible. Evidence said that “nobody” truly belieces that Greaney included a valuation adjustment in his study, including Greaney himself.
Once I have opened every site on the internet to honest posting re the last 41 years of peer-reviewed research in ths field, no one will ever again have to worry about what will happen to them if they work up the courage to post honestly re the past 41 years of research. Doing that is the most important job there is in the United States today. We all need access to honest, research-based reports on how stock investing works.
Rob
The evidence we have is that YOU made a threat and by your own logic, it is because you knew you were and are wrong about Greaney.
The internet has always been open to the entire history of peer reviewed research, but not to continued lies by you.
Okay, Anonymous.
I do wish you all the best that this life has to offer a person, in any event.
Rob
Here is the core of your problem. You have made claims for 2 decades, yet have never backed them up. This extends to commitments you have made about finishing your book and getting a job. No one can take your word on anything.
The behavior of you Goons backs up my claim. If Greaney truly believed that he had included a valuation adjustment in his study, he would have pointed to the page in his study containing the valuation adjustment 20 years ago. None of the abusive stuff or the intimidation stuff ever would have happened. That behavior only happens in a world in which Buy-and-Hold/Get Rich Quick has been discredited by 41 yeara of peer-reviewed research and yet remains the dominant strategy.
Rob
The Greaney crap is just a diversion and has been answered thousands of times. Market timing has never worked. Your predictions never worked. Your retirement plan never worked. You won’t finish a book and you won’t get a job. None of this impacts anyone else but you and your family. People like us have a heart for your family. We don’t want to see them struggling, but we can’t do one thing about it. All we can do is try to push you to live up to your own obligations and be a provider.
Thanks for caring, Anonymous.
Rob
Understand now?
You are like the guy running around the neighborhood telling everyone that their house will catch on fire someday. Meanwhile, your own house not only caught in fire, but has burnt to the ground and you haven’t put a plan in motion to buy a new house. Instead, you hope a new one will be given to you one day since you warned people about house fires, yet did nothing to prevent or put out the fire on your own home.
The peer-reviewed research that I co-authored with Wade Pfau shows that we all can begin living better lives once we open every site to honest posting re the last 41 years of peer-reviewed research. I remember how excited Wade got when it hit him how much we were going to improve millions of lives with that research. It made me happy to think where we all will be when it’s not just Wade Pfau doing honest research, but thousands of people who spent years in school learning how to do just that. I see it as a win/win/win/win/win. Call me madcap, you know?
Rob
So a guy who has depleted his savings wants to tell another guy who has well over $6 million how to successfully invest for retirement. Really?
The peer-reviewed research has not depleted its savings, Anonymous.
The peer-reviewed research reflects the realities. You can get as angry as you want at the messge of the peer-reviewed research and the realities are not going to change. You can ban Rob Bennett and anyone else who posts about the amazing how-to implications of Shiller’s Nobel-prize-winning research. But you can’t ban the realities of stock investing. They will continue to apply. In the event that Shiller’s research is legitimate research, they will bring on another economic crisis, which will hurt us all in very serious ways.
I believe that we will as a nation work up the courage to stand up to you Goons in the days following the next Buy-and-Hold Crisis. We’ll see.
Rob
“ The peer-reviewed research has not depleted its savings, Anonymous.”
We disagree as to the universe of what makes up the entire content of peer reviewed research. Your plan and interpretation didn’t work. You depleted your savings while mine grew to over $6 million. If I followed your advice, I would have significantly less money. Those are just the facts as we are talking about outcomes. You know that and have said so in the past. Your typical response for the last 2 decades is that “we have to wait to see how things turned out”. We have already seen more than enough. It’s too late once you are in your 60’s.
If you had a system that made more money, I am many others would follow it. You don’t. It didn’t work for you or anyone else. Stop trying to package it as something that it’s not.
We disagree as to the universe of what makes up the entire content of peer reviewed research. Your plan and interpretation didn’t work. You depleted your savings while mine grew to over $6 million. If I followed your advice, I would have significantly less money. Those are just the facts as we are talking about outcomes. You know that and have said so in the past. Your typical response for the last 2 decades is that “we have to wait to see how things turned out”. We have already seen more than enough. It’s too late once you are in your 60’s.
The entire point of the Bennett/Pfau research is that investors who engage in market timing end up with far higher returns while taking on greatly reduced risk. Investor heaven!
You’re counting irrational exuberance as if it were something real. That’s what throwing you off. That’s the classic Buy-and-Hold mistake.
Rob
If you had a system that made more money, I am many others would follow it. You don’t. It didn’t work for you or anyone else. Stop trying to package it as something that it’s not.
If you didn’t think that Valuation-Informed Indexing would take over the world if you permitted honest posting, you never would have advanced a single abusive post, much less any of the criiminal stuff. You saw the same reaction in 10 percent of the various board communities as I saw.
Rob
If there was any abusive postings or criminal acts, you would post links as proof. Pointing out your errors is not abusive posting.
The Greaney retirement study has not been corrected to this day, Anonymous.
Rob
“ The Greaney retirement study has not been corrected to this day, Anonymous.
Rob”
My Tesla still doesn’t have a microwave either. Greaney didn’t need it. My Tesla didn’t need it.
Okay, Anonymous.
I say that, in a world in which valuations affect long-term returns (the world we live in, according to Shiller’s Nobel-prize-winning research), it is a logical impossibility that the safe withdrawal rate is the same number at all valuation levels.
Rob