Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for another blog entry at this site:
The top 10% own 90% of all assets, including stocks. The problem is that most people cannot afford to own enough stock because they haven’t save enough (just like you). If you think stocks are valued too high, don’t buy it. Don’t expect people to sell you their assets for cheap. If some guy is selling his house for $1 million, why should he sell it to someone only willing to pay $100,000 just because he thinks it is too expensive?
If you want something, be prepared to save up the money and pay what someone is asking for it. Otherwise, you are out of luck.
I completely agree that people should sell their stocks for what they think they are worth. That’s how market prices are set. Where we differ is that I say that people shoulde have access to all of the information they need to determine what their stocks are worth. There is now 41 years of peer-reviewed research showing that valuations affect long-term returns. We should be discussing the how-to implications of that research at every site. That would permit people to set the price of their stocks properly. It would permit the price to return to real-value levels from the crazy levels we have seen apply during the Buy-and-Hold Era.
The market can never be 100 percent efficient so long as we all carry a Get Rich Quick/Buy-and-Hold impulse within us. But I believe that we can bring the market much closer to efficieny than it has been in recent decades by opening every site to honest posting. People need information to form proper assessments. The last 41 years of peer-reviewed research is important information. We should be permitting discussions of it everywhere.
That’s my sincere take re this terribly important matter, in any event.
Rob
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