Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to another blog entry at this site:

Rob,

What value do you think you are offering the typical viewer? If you read all of your posts so far this year, it is about how you think you are a victim and how you think people (that you call goons) should be in prison. You really offer up nothing of value to the viewer on investing insights, etc. I am sure you think making your claims of lucky VII is the golden path, but what specific leaning, facts, etc have you really provided. Nothing. Take a look at other blogs, like Wade’s for example. Notice how he makes a point and then provides the specific data and facts to back it up. Why don’t you do that instead of spending your days crying about your hurt feelings? It is time to get over all your hate and anger.

There’s more leverage in what I am doing, Anonymous.

Say that Wade writes a good article on some aspect of stock investing. I certainly agree that that’s a limited plus. But the benefit that any one article can offer is very limited. What I am seeking to do is to open THE ENTIRE INTERNET to honest posting.

Not just on safe withdrawal rates. That’s where this started. I obviously want to see the errors in the Old School SWR studies corrected and to see the New School SWR studies promoted all across the internet. But I intend to achieve a whole big bunch more than just that one wonderful advance. I want to see honest posting on risk management. I want to see honest posting on retirement planning. I want to see honest posting on asset allocation strategies. And on and on and on and on.

Take a look at the articles at this site about the work that Wade and I did during the 16 months when he was under the impression that he could do honest work and not have the Buy-and-Hold Mafia come after him and threaten to destroy his career as his “punishment” for “crossing” them. Wade was talking about being published in the Journal of Finance, the #1 journal in the field. Wade was talking about winning the Nobel Prize in Economics for the amazing work we did together on the superiority of Valuation-Informed Indexing over Buy-and-Hold. Wade was like a kid in a candy store in those days. He was tapping into amazing new insights on a daily basis, insights he had never been exposed to during his days at Princeton. He was excited to be learning so much about how stock investing really works. And he was enjoying that amazing learning experience BECAUSE HE FELT FREE TO DO HONEST WORK, to follow the research-based insights where they led him.

You don’t see that sort of excitement in the work that Wade does today. Yes, he continues to advance the ball in tiny ways. But you don’t see Nobel Prize winning research coming from the mind of Wade Pfau today. Why? Because he is afraid of what will happen to his family if he does the work he was trained to do.

That’s sad, Anonymous.

It’s not just sad. It’s sick.

And it doesn’t just hurt Wade Pfau that he has been intimidated into giving up his right to do honest research. It hurts ALL OF US.

Wade should have called the police when you Goons threatened him. Then he should have gone to the New York Times. If he had taken those two steps, we would be living in a different world today, a world in which the same ethical standards that apply in all fields of human endeavor other than the investing advice field also apply in the investing advice field. That’s a world in which we would be able to bring this economic crisis to an end in six months. That’s a world in which we would be able to enter the greatest period of economic growth ever seen in our history. That’s a world in which we would all be able to post honestly about safe withdrawal rates at every board and blog on the internet. That’s a world in which we all would be able to reduce the risk of stock investing by 70 percent while also earning returns high enough to permit us to retire five to ten years earlier than we ever dreamed possible during the Buy-and-Hold Era.

I don’t want that just for Wade, Anonymous. I want it for every academic researcher out there. I want them ALL doing honest work. There’s no telling how many advances we will see when thousands of researchers are putting their life energies into mining new insights rather than into the tired and sick business of trying to prop up the smelly Buy-and-Hold garbage for another week or another month or another year. 33 years of propping up is more than enough! I mean, come on!

And I don’t just want to see all the academic researchers doing honest work. I want to see the “experts” in this field doing honest work too. Take my good friend Jack Bogle (PLEASE! [That’s a joke!]). What is Jack’s confidence level in Buy-and-Hold? I say that there is zero chance that it could ever work for a single long-term investor. What does Jack think? Does he think that the odds are 20 percent that it might work for some? 50 percent? 80 percent?

I don’t know the answer. Neither do you.

The difference between us is that I WANT to know. I don’t believe that Jack has zero confidence in Buy-and-Hold, as I do. But I sure don’t believe that he has 100 percent confidence (if he did, he wouldn’t be so afraid to respond to questions about his public statements). I want to know what level of confidence he possesses. You should want to know that too. Your retirement is at stake. And of course millions of middle-class investors NEED to know.

We are the luckiest generation of investors that ever lived. The Buy-and-Holders built a strong foundation for the development of the first true research-based strategy. Shiller provided the piece of the puzzle re which the Buy-and-Hold Pioneers messed up in 1981. Now we’ve got it all. Now we know (intellectually at least) what really works. We are on the one-yard line today.

There’s one thing holding us back. We are afraid of the Buy-and-Hold Mafia. We have for 12 years now seen how ruthlessly vicious they become whenever anyone dares to “cross” them by posting honestly on safe withdrawal rates or on any other critically important investment-related topic. You know what? I think the Buy-and-Hold Mafia is a paper tiger. They can destroy us one by one, as Wade well knows. But once ten of us take a vow to stick together and continue to tell the truth no matter what threats they make, their power to intimidate evaporates.

That’s where I am coming from, Anonymous. The hard part re getting ten of us to unite is that those who step forward first get the stuffing knocked out of them. I have been getting the stuffing knocked out of me for 12 years now. So I am pretty much used to it at this point. I don’t like it, of course. But it doesn’t shock me anymore. I have grown to accept that this is the way it is going to be until as a society we have made the shift from Buy-and-Hold to Valuation-Informed Indexing. That’s when all the fun starts.

I WANT THE FUN TO START, ANONYMOUS!

That’s the deal here. I LOVE posting honestly. I get an amazing kick from it. And I want to do it more and more and more and more.

So I absolutely refuse to cave in response to your intimidation tactics. I want the caving to stop. For me to cave just makes it more likely that others will cave. That’s the opposite of the direction in which I want to take things. So I believe that it is important that I not cave and that I encourage others not to cave.

I hope that makes some sense, my old friend.

My best and warmest wishes to you and yours REGARDLESS of what investing strategies you elect to pursue.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to another blog entry at this site:

Another lesson in basic, civilized behavior: Others’ opinions about asset allocation or the future are not errors.

There are responsibilities that come with being a person of Bogle’s stature, Anonymous. I have had people tell me that they find everything that I say about stock investing to be 100 percent sensible and compelling. Yet they say that there is one reason why they are not going to become Valuation-Informed Indexers. It is their retirement money at stake; they need to be careful. And they do not hear the people widely recognized as experts in this field saying the same things that I am saying. Investing experts have influence on people’s behavior!

Bogle says that there is never a need for an investor to lower his stock allocation by more than 15 percent no matter how high valuations go. The data says that a change of 60 percentage points is required to keep one’s risk profile roughly constant. The two numbers are nowhere even remotely in the same neighborhood. They cannot possibly both be right. One is right and one is wrong. We need to know which number is right and which number is wrong.

I looked at research and data to get my number.

Did Bogle?

All signs are that he did not.

Yes, you are right that an opinion is not an error. We agree. But Bogle is playing an irresponsible and dangerous game here. Bogle fills his books and speeches and articles with references to data. He promotes Buy-and-Hold as a research-based strategy. People have come to believe that, when Bogle speaks, they are being exposed to a viewpoint formed by making reference to research and data. If Bogle is not basing his statement re the 15 percent number on research and data, he is misleading millions of people about a very important matter in a very big way.

This must stop.

These sorts of misleading statements are what caused the economic crisis. People have common sense. Our common sense tells us that the sorts of gains we saw during the out-of-control bull market are not real. So people intuitively know to lower their stock allocations as valuations rise. People intuitively know to follow Valuation-Informed Indexing strategies and not Buy-and-Hold strategies.

But there are two problems.

One, while we do all have common sense, we ALSO all possess a Get Rich Quick urge. We WANT to believe that those bull-market gains are real. So we are vulnerable to any con man who comes along and tries to plant the idea in our heads that this might be the first time in history when lowering our stock allocation by only 15 percentage points during a wild bull might work out in the long run.

And, two, the Buy-and-Holders don’t distinguish when they are using data and when they are just pulling numbers out of their backsides. Bogle plants the idea in people’s heads that he is a research-based guy by citing data and research over and over and over again. But when it comes time to give advice on the most important and most practical investing question of them all — What should my stock allocation be? — all the research and the data goes out the window and he pulls a number nowhere even remotely in the same neighborhood as the research-based number out of his backside.

Is that financial fraud? Is that 500 times worse than anything Bernie Madoff ever did?

I’ll say this much for sure. Millions of middle-class investors are going to have a very different reaction to that question following the next price crash than they have today. Today, they see themselves as winners for using the number pulled out of Bogle’s backside. Following the crash, they are going to see that they destroyed their lives by thinking that loony tunes number was reasonable and they are going to be looking for someone to hang from a tree for having encouraged them to use it.

Who is Jack’s true friend? The fellow imploring him to come clean today? Or the people telling him to continue marching down the dark path he got on the first time he failed to take action re the Lindauer matter?

That 15 percent number had to come from somewhere, Anonymous. Bogle didn’t have a dream in which some Martian held up a sign with the number “15? written on it. Where the heck did that crazy number come from?

I’ll tell you what I think.

I think that Bogle once really believed in Buy-and-Hold. Before Shiller published his “revolutionary” (his word) research in 1981, there was good reason to do so. So be believed.

Then Shiller published the revolutionary research. If people were angels, Bogle would have dropped the Buy-and-Hold nonsense then. But people are not angels. People have a hard time accepting big changes. So Bogle dismissed Shiller’s breakthrough findings. He told himself that those findings didn’t really matter that much, that Buy-and-Hold worked just fine So he continued advocating it.

The long bull market encouraged him to continue living in that world of illusion. There weren’t too many people demanding changes in Buy-and-Hold. It wasn’t just in Bogle’s dream world that Buy-and-Hold was working just fine. For all appearances, Buy-and-Hold was working just fine in the real world too.

But Bogle’s conscience nagged him. It didn’t add up. We all consider price with every purchase of every other good and service we buy. It seemed so odd that with stocks it worked in just the opposite way! Bogle’s doubts caused a deep defensiveness to kick in. He didn’t like the feelings he experienced when he entertained doubts. So he made sure to associate only with True Believers. He stopped reading articles and books that cast doubt on all his wonderful insights. He grew to enjoy the abusive tactics employed by the sorts of individuals who have put up posts in “defense” of Mel Lindauer and John Greaney. Hate was good! It was through hate that you persuaded people to ignore the awful findings of the last 33 years of peer-reviewed research and persuaded them to continue following that great, proven Buy-and-Hold strategy, the one used by the truly successful people!

That’s where we are today, Anonymous.

Bogle made a mistake. There was no dishonor in that. LOTS of good and smart people made that mistake.

But now he has gone way past making a mistake. Now he is COVERING UP the mistake.

That is a dangerous business. When the tactics that have been used by the Buy-and-Holder for the past 12 years are employed, we are talking about financial fraud. Perhaps Jack will not be charged with this crime. We don’t know all the circumstances involved in his decision to work with you Goons. He will be asked questions under oath and perhaps there will be charges and perhaps there will not be charges. I think it is fair to say that as an objective matter the elements of the felony are all at least arguably present. That alone is pretty darn sick stuff. Bogle is a hero to a lot of people (Rob Bennett first among them!). To learn that there is even a hint of criminal activity associated with his name is to learn a profoundly sad reality. Yet here we are.

Why does he do this? Why does our mutual friend Jack Bogle continue to use that loony tunes 15 percent number when he knows that the research-based number is a number nowhere even remotely in the same neighborhood?

Because he is a human.

Because he hurts. Because his ego is invested in Buy-and-Hold. Because he cannot bear to think that his mistakes have caused millions of failed retirements. Because he cannot bear to accept that it was his continued promotion of the purest Get Rich Quick strategy ever concocted by the human mind that was the primary cause of our economic crisis. Because he hurt so many of his friends in so serious way.

He hurts, Anonymous. And the only way he can stop the hurting is by coming clean. And you encourage him NOT to come clean with your behavior. So you EXTEND Jack’s pain. Some friend, huh?

Everybody is entitled to an opinion. If Jack were to say “I don’t know why, I just have this funny feeling that no one should ever change his stock allocation by more than 15 percent,” that would of course be fine. But he doesn’t present the case in that way. He talks data, data, data, research, research, research and then he puts forward this loony tunes 15 percent number. And the millions of people hearing it and putting their trust in him and forming their retirement plans in accord with what Jack says are thinking that there is some sort of data or research that supports this 15 percent number. And that’s a lie. A lie that is in the process of destroying millions of middle-class lives.

This is not a joke, Anonymous. The destruction of millions of middle-class lives is a serious business.

You say that no one is a pure believer in Buy-and-Hold and that everyone accepts the reality that valuations matter. That’s to a large extent true. If Bogle had a pure belief in Buy-and-Hold, his number would be 0 percent, not 15 percent. Fama would say 0 percent. The 0 percent number at least makes sense. If the market were efficient, there would never be any need to change one’s stock allocation AT ALL. So you are right that Bogle is not a pure believer and that his advice reflects a belief that valuations matter at least a little.

But where the heck does that 15 percent number come from? Why didn’t he look at the data? Why didn’t he look at the research? Why does he just make things up?

He is trying to combine two beliefs that are impossible to reconcile. Yes, he accepts that valuations matter. He feels that he would sound like a crazy person to say otherwise. So he acknowledges that much . But he doesn’t want to give up on Buy-and-Hold. He is fighting hard to hold on to most of something he has long loved. So he gives up a little bit of his Buy-and-Hold beliefs while retaining a belief for the most part. The 15 percent number is the number used by a person who has acknowledged internally that a pure Buy-and-Hold belief cannot be justified but who is not yet willing to travel the distance one needs to travel to believe in Valuation-Informed Indexing, the model rooted in a belief in Shiller’s revolutionary findings of 1981.

It’s obviously not just Bogle that I am talking about here. I am talking about you. And I am talking about Mike Piper. And I am talking about Scott Burns. And I am talking about Wade Pfau. And on and on and on and on.

That’s where we are today as a society. Valuations matter. Pretty much all of us sign on to that one. But they don’t matter nearly as much as Rob Bennett says they do. That’s ALSO part of the currently prevailing belief. The prevailing belief is not dogmatic in saying that valuations have no effect. But it is dogmatic in saying that the effect is not as great as the data and research indicates. So we must stop people from exploring the data and the research.

That’s where things stand, Anonymous. My aim is to change things. I think change is needed. For reasons that should be obvious to any halfway reasonable person.

It hurts the feelings of Buy-and-Holders for them to hear the arguments for why they have made a terrible mistake. I get that loud and clear.

That is not an argument for not permitting discussion of the research findings of the past 33 years. It is an argument that goes in the other direction. We should all want to relieve the pain of the Buy-and-Holders. We do that not by ignoring the research but by exploring its implications in great depth.

Bogle has a right to his opinion.

He also has a RESPONSIBILITY to tell us all what that opinion is based on.

And all of his friends have a responsibility as friends of his to INSIST that he recognize that responsibility before he gets himself in even deeper trouble.

That’s my sincere take re these terribly important matters, Anonymous.

I wish you all good things.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to another blog entry at this site:

The silencing of Academic Researcher Wade Pfau caused me to give up hope that we can overcome our economic problems without bringing the corruption that has come to dominate The Stock-Selling Industry out into the open.

I know that the Buy-and-Hold advocates are smart and good people. There are people who will question this following the next crash. But I have been watching things closely for a long time and I have seen a lot of evidence supporting my belief re this matter. So I am confident that we are dealing with smart and good people. That’s Step One in the logic chain.

The Bennett/Pfau research showed that the advance that we are on our way to achieving is absolutely huge. A 10 percent reduction in risk would be a big deal. 70 percent? That is just flat off the charts. There’s never before been an advance that big.

And it’s not just Rob Bennett who sees that. Wade expressed that thought over and over in his e-mails to me. Wade is a neutral party. He started out with no bias. He liked my stuff. But he also believed in what he learned from the Ph.D. program at Princeton. His e-mails show that, after studying these issues in depth, be became 100 percent convinced that the shift from Buy-and-Hold to Valuation-Informed Indexing is the biggest advance in the history of personal finance. So we are dealing with something that is positively huge. That’s Step Two in the logic chain.

Opening the internet up to honest posting would bring on the biggest advance in our understanding of how stock investing works ever achieved in our history. And the people who determine whether the internet will be opened up or not (The Wall Street Con Men) are good and smart people. On the surface, those two realities seem to add up to only one possible conclusion — We are going to see a quick opening up of the internet to honest posting.

Yet we have not seen this happen for 12 years now.

So we are missing some piece of the puzzle. There is something going on here that is not obvious, What is it?

It is that the delay in the opening of the internet to honest posting has already gone on too long. Bogle and all the others would LOVE to make the shift to Valuation-Informed Indexing if it could be achieved without anyone incurring huge financial liabilities or going to prison. But things are already too far gone for that.

The Wall Street Con Men and their Internet Goon Squads WANT to help investors. But they can’t. Not without seeing either themselves or their friends incur huge financial liabilities or go to prison. And they just cannot accept taking the path that leads to those events. So they rationalize continuation of the cover-up.

This has obviously been going on since before I came on the scene. I certainly didn’t know it on the morning of May 13, 2002. But the reaction to my famous post revealed the reality. We saw a huge positive reaction from those who hadn’t thought things through and thus liked the idea of enjoying a learning experience. And we saw a huge negative reaction from those who sensed where permitting honest posting on a single topic would lead and who wanted no part of it.

Nothing on the substantive side can change this.

We cannot do any better than showing how to reduce investing risk by 70 percent. That’s the biggest advance in the history of personal finance. No one is ever going to top that.

So worrying about what happens on the substantive side is a little silly at this point. Anyone in this field who achieves a major advance is going to be threatened with career loss by The Buy-and-Hold Mafia. The members of The Buy-and-Hold Mafia are in so deep than they just cannot permit fully honest posting on any important topic.

They are not just engaging in a cover-up at this point. They are engaging in a cover-up of a cover-up of a cover-up of a cover-up. So they are not going to pay attention to reasoned arguments. Things have gone way past the point at which that is possible.

What’s left?

What’s left is to prosecute the financial fraud.

We can elect as a society to do that, permitting us all to move forward together to a world in which we know much more about how stock investing works than we ever have before.

Or we can go over the cliff together following the next price crash.

Those are the only options at this point.

There is no longer any need to prove anything on the substantive side of things because everything that we need to prove has been proven 10 times over.

We won’t be heard because the interests of the millions of middle-class investors and the interests of the Wall Street Con Men and their Internet Goon Squads are now viewed by the Wall Street Con Men and their Internet Goon Squads as being diametrically opposed. The Wall Street Con Men don’t want the millions of middle-class investors learning what the last 33 years of peer-reviewed research says and they are not going to tolerate efforts to get the truth out in an effective way. And that’s that.

But we have laws that we adopted to protect us in these sorts of circumstances.

When we enforce those laws, we all move forward together.

So that’s what matters at this point. We need to enforce the laws of financial fraud against those who use abusive tactics to keep the millions of middle-class investors from learning what they need to learn.

I cannot see into the future. But I remain optimistic. If Shiller is right, we will be seeing another price crash within the next year or two or three. The 2008 crash opened the door A LOT. So there is every reason to believe that the next crash will open the door a lot MORE. That will get us to where we need to go. Once we have enough people concerned enough about where our economy is headed to stand up to you Goons, we are home free. The work on the substantive side is top-notch. Once we have the courage we need to possess to move forward on the process side, it’s all downhill sledding.

I am still going to do what I can to help people understand what the research says. The substantive side is the side that really matters in an ultimate sense.

But I don’t pretend anymore that we can achieve what we need to achieve on the substantive side without first bringing the corruption that has come to dominate this field during the Buy-and-Hold Era out into the open. Things have to be done in a certain order.

We need lots of people reporting honestly what the research says for the millions of middle-class investors to gain confidence in what works. And we are not going to see lots of people speak in honest and clear and informed ways until we do something to rein in the intimidation and deception tactics of the Buy-and-Holders. These issues are confusing enough to a lot of people that they just are never going to be able to make sense of things until we decide as a society to hold the Buy-and-Holders to the same ethical standards that we hold all other people doing work in all other fields of human endeavor.

Exposing the corruption is Job #1. Lots of good stuff will follow from that. But the good stuff cannot come first. Exposing the corruption must come first. The good substantive stuff will come second, after we have reassured people like Wade Pfau that they can do honest work in this field without seeing their careers destroyed by the sorts of individuals who have put up posts in “defense” of Mel Lindauer and John Greaney (and my good friend Jack Bogle?).

That’s why I write about the themes that I write about today, Anonymous. The 12-year saga has taught me that those are the themes that matter most. The substantive stuff matters most in an ultimate sense. But the process-oriented stuff needs to be worked out for constructive discussions on the substantive stuff to begin.

We are working at cross purposes, Anonymous.

The thing that you most do NOT want to see is a discussion of the corruption issues.

That’s the stuff that I MOST want to see at this point in the proceedings. I no longer believe that we can move forward together until the corruption stuff has been publicly examined to the point necessary for us to be able to put it behind us.

I want to see everyone posting honestly. I don’t mean just Valuation-Informed Indexers. I want to see Buy-and-Holders post honestly too.

Jack Bogle doesn’t possess full confidence in Buy-and-Hold. If he did, he would have disassociated himself from the sorts of individuals who have put up posts in “defense” of Mel Linduaer a long, long time ago.

I don’t know what level of confidence in Buy-and-Hold Jack possesses. Perhaps he believes that there is an 80 percent chance that it can work. Perhaps he thinks that the odds are 50-50. Perhaps he believes that there is only a 20 percent chance that Buy-and-Hold can work. I don’t know. But I WANT to know. And I know now that Jack is not going to tell us until he comes to the conclusion that continuation of this massive act of financial fraud is a bad idea. So the focus of all of us who want to bring this to a successful conclusion has to be to bring the Ban on Honest Posting to a full and complete stop by the close of business Monday afternoon.

That’s the difference you are seeing in my posting habits. That’s why I have “gone off the deep end,” in your terminology.

I want everyone on the planet to learn how to reduce the risk of stock investing by 70 percent. The finding of the Bennett/Pfau research is the most important finding in the history of personal finance and I want to spread the word far and wide.

My many Buy-and-Hold friends don’t want that. They feel that they will be held accountable for the 12-year cover-up if the truth comes out now.

I love my Buy-and-Hold friends. I want to see them in a better place.

But I believe that continuation of the cover-up will only put them in a worse place than where they are today.

So I want to bring the cover-up to a close.

That means talking about the corruption, not avoiding the subject.

Even many people who believe in the principle of Valuation-Informed Indexing are avoiding the subject today. They care about the Buy-and-Holders as I do and they don’t want to see them hurt. I think that they are choosing a bad path. I believe that continuation of the cover-up just makes things worse and worse and worse as times goes on.

I hope that helps a bit, Anonymous.

Please take good care.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to another blog entry at this site:

What do you want Bogle to say exactly, that one might vary their allocation as certain valuation extremes? I’m sure he’d be fine with that.

Bogle says that the most that anyone should change his stock allocation at valuation extremes is 15 percent. He argues that even that much of a change is not a particularly good idea. But he says that a 15 percentage point allocation change is acceptable at the height of a massive bubble.

The most likely annualized 10-year return when stocks are priced as they were in 1982 is 15 percent real. The most likely 10-year annualized return when stocks are priced as they were in 2000 is a negative 1 percent real. An 80 percent stock allocation makes sense in the first scenario. A 20 percent stock allocation makes sense in the second scenario.

Going from an 80 percent stock allocation to a 20 percent stock allocation is a change of 60 percent, not a change of 15 percent. Bogle’s number is off the mark by 400 percent.

That’s not acceptable. It’s not a close call.

The most charitable thing that one could say about Bogle’s number is that he pulled it out of his backside, that he never even bothered to look at the data when giving that number. If that’s the case, he needs to say that. Millions of middle-class people look up to Bogle and expect him to give reasonable investing advice. He dropped the ball re this one in a major way.

And everyone in this field should have been pointing this out going back to the day he first dropped the ball, which was many years ago. Money magazine should have run a cover story pointing out how Bogle dropped the ball. There should be threads at the Bogleheads Forum on a daily basis reporting on how Bogle dropped the ball. There should be bloggers writing articles explaining how he dropped the ball and demanding that he correct the error.

Why are we not seeing that, Anonymous?

We are not seeing it because Bogle has misled millions of investors into believing that the smelly Buy-and-Hold garbage can work. Those people are scared to death of what the research shows. So they become upset when anyone reports honestly and accurately what the research shows. So those whose primary goal is to turn a buck keep it zipped re what the last 33 years of research shows. And we all continue our journey down, down, down.

I ain’t going there, Anonymous.

I never went to Investing School. I never managed a big fund. I acknowledge right up front that I have been wrong about important things before in my life and that it is entirely possible that I am wrong again. I acknowledge that, if I were, I would probably be the last to know.

But I am not going to post dishonestly re the numbers that people use to make important investing decisions. It is not going to happen. Not in 12 years, not in 12 billion years.

Bogle pulled that number out of his backside and he has hurt millions of people by failing to say so. People hear that number and they presume that there is some sort of research or data or expertise or logic behind it. And there is none. It is just a number that one of the Wall Street Con Men pulled out of his backside. Nothing more and nothing less.

I love Jack Bogle. I have learned many important things from him. I learned about the errors in the Old School SWR studies by reading his book. Valuation-Informed Indexing is a bunch of Bogle’s ideas combined with a correction of the one huge mistake he made and has refused to correct for the 33 years since it was brought to light by the peer-reviewed research. It gives me a great feeling of pride to know that I have accomplished what Bogle set out to accomplish as a young man and failed to accomplish at the time because the research he needed to pull it off had not yet been published. I look forward to the day when I can stand next to Old Saint Jack on a stage and talk honestly about what we know about how stock investing works and have him helping out and feel free to give him the credit for all the wonderful insights for which he truly is responsible.

But I want nothing to do with a massive cover-up that in all likelihood is going to end with my good friend Jack being disgraced and humiliated and possibly being sent to live his final days in a prison cell.

Find someone else, you know?

I can’t go for that.

No can do.

It’s not my particular cup of tea.

It’s not a close call.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to another blog entry at this site:

Rob,

Jack could probably care less about what you want.

We couldn’t possibly disagree more, Anonymous.

Jack Bogle made it his life project to help provide millions of middle-class people with a smart, simple and safe way to invest in stocks. He got lots of things right. He got one thing (the need for price discipline) horribly wrong. The mistake he made has caused the biggest economic crisis in U.S. history. My good friend Jack has caused millions of failed retirements. The investing advice industry has become 100 percent corrupt as a result of the lies that Buy-and-Holders today tell about what the peer-reviewed academic research says about what works for long-term investors. People like Wade Pfau don’t feel comfortable publishing honest research because they know that Buy-and-Hold Goons like yourself will try to destroy their careers if they choose to do so. And you say that Jack doesn’t care?

If Jack Bogle doesn’t care about the vast amount of human misery he has caused, then Jack Bogle is The Frank Underwoord of Personal Finance. I think he cares, Anonymous. I think he cares a great deal.

First of all, Frank Underwood is a cartoon character. I worked on Capitol Hill for years. Politics is a dirty game and dirty things go on in politics all the time. But there are very few Frank Underwoods. I met people from both parties who were tough operators. I never met a Frank Underwood. I don’t say that none exist. I say that there are few true Frank Underwoods in politics and that there are few true Frank Underwoods in the personal finance realm (and there’s a lot of dirty business going down in the personal finance realm as well).

I have been outspoken re the ways in which my good friend Jack Bogle has messed up for a good number of years now. He has a responsibility to acknowledge his mistakes. He has a responsibility to take action on The Mel Linduaer Matter. He has a responsibility to demand corrections in the Old School safe-withdrawal-rate studies. He has a responsibility to speak up in support of Wade Pfau and of his right to publish honest research showing the dangers of Buy-and-Hold investing strategies. Jack has shamed himself and he has shamed all Buy-and-Holders and really all human beings with the unethical behavior that we have seen from him in recent years.

But that is not the entire story.

Jack has been responsible for many AMAZING contributions in this field. If he is a 100 percent corrupt individual, why has he devoted so many years of his life to making the lives of millions of middle-class investors richer (in every sense of the word) than they have ever been before? Your suggestion that Jack is The Frank Underwood of Personal Finance just does not stand up to a scrutiny based on what we know about the man’s life work, Anonymous.

I gained my fame on the internet by being the person to discover the errors in the Old School safe-withdrawal-rate studies (in May 2002 — nearly 10 years before the Wall Street Journal was writing about those errors!). Guess whose book it was that I read that helped me to understand that those studies were in error? Jack Bogle’s! Jack Bogle’s book says that Reversion to the Mean is an “Iron Law” of stock investing. If that’s so, the safe withdrawal rate obviously cannot be a constant number. If Jack is really The Frank Underwood of Personal Finance, as you suggest, why did he report in his book that Reversion to the Mean is an “Iron Law” of stock investing? Your suggestion simply makes no sense.

I could go on and on. When I was working with John Walter Russell, John referred to material in Bogle’s speeches all the time. Jack Bogle has made the case for Valuation-Informed Indexing on many, many occasions. I mean no personal dig, Anonymous, but you are full of it. My good friend Jack Bogle is not The Frank Underwood of Personal Finance. The reality here is something very different from what your darkened mind suggests. I am sure.

But Jack has behaved unethically. That’s on the record. That’s in the Post Archives. What’s the story?

Jack Bogle is no saint. Those who call him one do him harm by even raising the possibility. Jack Bogle is a man. A smart man. A friendly man. A hard-workng man. A good man. And a flawed man.

Jack Bogle made a mistake. It was a doozy. He wasn’t the only one who made it. He’s in very good company. But he made one doozy of a mistake. Millions of other good and smart and hard-working people are paying the price for Jack Bogle’s Big Mistake today. The mistake needs to be fixed. It needs to be fixed by the close of business today. There can be no doubt about that one whatsoever.

But Jack feels trapped. When he acknowledges the mistake, he is acknowledging that he has caused financial ruin for millions of middle-class people. When he acknowledges the mistake, he is acknowledging that he ha brought on a drop in confidence in our political system on both the left (The Occupy Wall Street Movement) and the right (The Tea Party Movement). When he acknowledges his mistake, he is acknowledging that he failed to step forward when the individuals who have posted in “defense” of Mel Linduaer and John Greaney crossed lines that will be putting them in prison cells following the next price crash.

Do you think that it is going to be an easy thing for Jack to walk to the front of a room and acknowledge that mistake?

If you know anything whatsoever about the humans, you know that it is not going to be an easy thing.

Do you consider yourself Jack’s friend, Anonymous? I have often seen you talk the talk. I have rarely seen you walk the walk.

Those of us who care enough about our friendship with Jack to take a few hits because of it have been imploring Jack to come clean.

Everybody should be doing that, in my view. Democrats and Republican both. Young and old both. Women and men both. Blacks and whites both. Valuation-Informed Indexers and Buy-and-Holders both.

That’s love, Anonymous.

If you love Jack Bogle (I do), you want him to achieve his dreams. Valuation-Informed Indexing is Jack Bogle’s dream. The investing strategy explored at this web site is the investing strategy that Jack was seeking to create when he first started work on Buy-and-Hold. Now the dream can be made real. But it comes at a price. We cannot get there together without Jack first working up the courage to walk to the front of a room and say the words “I” and “Was” and “Wrong.” If’s when he does that that all the magic starts happening.

I love the man and I have sent him three e-mails urging that he take that step. I will send him another e-mail at the onset of the next price crash. I believe that Jack’s heart will melt when he sees what he has done to the country that has given him huge blessings over the years. When Jack agrees to say those three words, we are all off to the races. I think it is fair to say that he will feel 50 times better about himself and about the work he has done over the course of his life on that day he comes clean than he feels today.

Jack cares about what I want. Because deep down Jack wants the same things I want. As do you. As do all your Goon friends.

The hand of kindness is extended. It is not a time-sensitive offer. There is zero chance that I will ever agree to participate in the most massive act of financial fraud in the history of the United States. It hasn’t happened in 12 years and it won’t happen in 12 billion years. Anything short of that is fine. But no prison sentence for this boy. Please try to find someone else.

That’s my sincere take re this terribly important matter, in any event.

I naturally wish you all good things.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently put to another blog entry at this site.

Don’t worry. Jack, Larry, Wade and Bill aren’t afraid. They are just fine.

Their behavior tells a different tale, Anonymous.

The entire Vanguard Diehards community was moved over to the Bogleheads Forum when I announced that I would be attending the annual meeting and asking Jack some questions about the effect of valuations on long-term returns.

That happened because Jack was afraid to be in the same room with me and to try to answer the questions that he knew I would put to him.

Nothing could be more obvious.

When one of the leading figures in investing analysis is afraid to face questioning from some fellow whose only claim to expertise in this field is that he figured out how to get his words posted to the internet, there is a good bit of funny business going on.

Jack Bogle is afraid of Rob Bennett. He doesn’t believe that he can offer good answers to my questions. That’s sad. All of us who are Jack’s friends should be trying to do something about that.

My sincere take.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that one of the Goons recently put to another blog entry at this site, followed by my response.

Goon Post:

(via Bogleheads)

John Bogle’s Biography:

Education:
1952–1959 University of Pennsylvania, Evening School of Business and Finance
May 1951 Graduated from Princeton University, magna cum laude in Economics
May 1947 Graduated from Blair Academy, cum laude

Employment Positions:
2000–present Founder, The Vanguard Group and President of the Bogle Financial Markets Research Center
1996–2000 Senior Chairman, Vanguard
1974–1996 Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Vanguard
September 1974 Created The Vanguard Group
1970–1996 Chairman, Wellington Fund and associated funds
1967–January 1974 President, Wellington Management Company
1965–1967 Executive Vice President, Wellington
1962–1965 Administrative Vice President, Wellington
1955–1962 Assistant to the President, Wellington
June 1951 Hired by Walter L. Morgan, Founder and Chairman, Wellington Management Company

Directorships and Trusteeships:
1999–2007 National Constitution Center, Chairman of the Board
2000–2005 Instinet Corporation, Director
1996–2002 American Indian College Fund, Trustee
1996–2000 Chris-Craft Industries, Director
1989 Princeton University Investment Company, Director
1981–1987 The American College, Trustee
1978–1999 Mead Corporation, Director & Chairman of Finance Committee
1975–2001 The General Accident Group of Insurance Companies, (later Commercial Union) Director
1974–1999 Vanguard Group, Director, Chairman, 1974–1996
1971–present Blair Academy, Trustee, Chairman, 1986–2001
1971–1991 Meritor Financial Group, Director
1971–1991 Bryn Mawr Hospital, Director and Chairman, Finance Committee

Memberships and Committees:
2009–present Financial Crisis Advisory Group
2007–present Adirondack Roundtable Committee
2007–present Lake Placid Shore Owners Association
2006–present Dow Jones Wilshire Advisory Board
2004–present American Philosophical Society
2004–present American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2003–present Journal of Investment Management, Advisory Board
2003–present Financial Analysts Journal, Advisory Council
2002–2003 Conference Board Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprise
2002–present Phi Beta Kappa Society, Investment Committee
1997–2000 U.S. Independence Standards Board
1972–1976 National Association of Securities Dealers, Chairman, Investment Companies Committee
1972–1978 Princeton University, Economics Department Advisory Council (Chairman 1978)
1969–1974 Investment Company Institute, Board of Governors (Chairman 1969–70)

Honorary Degrees:
May 15, 2011 Villanova University, Doctor of Commercial Science
May 23, 2010 Trinity College, Doctor of Humane Letters
May 18, 2007 Georgetown University, Doctor of Humane Letters
May 31, 2005 Princeton University, Doctor of Laws
May 15, 2004 Pennsylvania State University, Doctor of Humane Letters
June 14, 2003 Drexel University, Doctor of Business Administration
May 23, 2001 New School University, Doctor of Laws
May 13, 2001 Susquehanna University, Doctor of Laws
December 15, 2000 Eastern University, Doctor of Humane Letters
June 11, 2000 University of Rochester, Doctor of Laws
October 22, 1999 University of Delaware, Doctor of Laws
October 15, 1999 Albright College, Doctor of Humanities
May 17, 1997 Widener University, Doctor of Humane Letters

Publications: Books
2013 The Man in the Arena (Written by Knut Rostad, Wiley)
2012 The Clash of the Cultures, Investment vs. Speculation(Wiley)
2011 The House that Bogle Built (Written by Lewis Braham, McGraw-Hill)
2010 Don’t Count On It (Wiley)
2009 Common Sense on Mutual Funds: Fully Updated 10th Anniversary Edition (Wiley)
2008 Enough. True Measures of Money, Business & Life (Wiley)
2007 The Little Book of Common Sense Investing (Wiley)
2005 The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism, (Yale University Press)
2002 Character Counts: The Creation and Building of The Vanguard Group (McGraw-Hill)
2000 John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 Years (McGraw-Hill)
1999 Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor(Wiley)
1996 John Bogle and the Vanguard Experiment: One Man’s Quest to Transform the Mutual Fund Industry (Written by Robert Slater, Irwin)
1993 Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor (Irwin)

Publications: Articles
2011 The Journal of Portfolio Management, The Clash of the Cultures
2009 The Journal of Portfolio Management, The Fiduciary Principle: No Man Can Serve Two Masters
2008 Financial Analysts Journal, Black Monday and Black Swans
2008 The Journal of Portfolio Management, A Question So Important That It Should Be Hard To Think About Anything Else
2005 Bold Thinking on Investment Management: The FAJ 60th Anniversary Anthology
2004 Financial Analysts Journal, The Mutual Fund Industry Sixty Years Later: For Better or Worse?
2003 CFA Magazine, Whether Markets are more Efficient or less Effective, Costs Matter
2003 Journal of Investment Management, Don’t Count on it The Perils of Numeracy
2002 The Journal of Portfolio Management, An Index Fund Fundamentalist
2002 The Corporate Board, Has Corporate Governance Let Us Down?
1998 The Journal of Portfolio Management, The Implications of Style Analysis for Mutual Fund Performance Evaluation
1995 The Journal of Portfolio Management, The 1990s at the Halfway Mark
1992 The Journal of Portfolio Management, Selecting Equity Mutual Funds
1991 The Journal of Portfolio Management, Investing in the 1990s: Remembrance of Things Past, and Things Yet to Come.
1997–2004 The Wall Street Journal, numerous op-eds
1999–2003 The New York Times, numerous op-eds

Awards:
2012 RIIA Consumer Advocate Award
2011 Salvation Army “Others” Award
2011 Tiburon Strategic Advisors CEO Summit XX Award
2010 FUSE Research Network Award for Lifetime Impact and Commitment to Investors
2010 Investment Management Consultants Assoc. Richard J. Davis Ethics Award
2009 Graham & Dodd Best Perspectives Award for “Markets in Crisis”
2009 Graham & Dodd Perspective Article Award for “Back Monday & Black Swans”
2009 Tenth Annual Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award for Outstanding Article – A Question So Important
2008 The Bonnell Award, Community College of Philadelphia
2007 Heritage Award, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania
2007 Union League Business Leadership Award
2007 National Council on Economic Education Visionary Award
2007 CFA of San Francisco Distinguished Speakers Award
2006 Center for Corporate Excellence Exemplary Leader Award
2006 Chester County Economic Development Council Hall of Fame Award
2005 Friend of the Delaware Investor Award from the Delaware Dept. of Justice
2004 Committee of Seventy, Philadelphia Good Citizenship Award
2004 Marketing Expo, Lifetime Achievement Award
2004 Institutional Investor Lifetime Achievement Award
2003 National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur of the Year
2003 Yale School of Management, Legends of Leadership
2003 Better Business Bureau, Certificate of Commendation,
2002 Union League of Philadelphia, Founders Award for Business Leadership
2002 Franklin Celebration in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin Founders Award
2000 Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce, Pennsylvania’s Business Leader of the Year
1999 Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson Award for distinguished achievement in the Nation’s service
1999 Fixed Income Analysts Society, Inc., Hall of Fame
1999 PA Partnership for Economic Education, Adam Smith Distinguished Leadership Award
1999 National Association of Personal Financial Advisers, Special Achievement Award
1999 National Investment Company Service Association, Robert L. Gould Award
1998 Temple University, Musser Excellence in Leadership Award
1997 Assoc. for Investment Management and Research, Award for Professional Excellence
1997 Leadership in Financial Services (Macmillan Press Ltd), one of the Financial Leaders of the 20th Century
1995 Advancement for Delaware Valley Independent Schools, Award for Philanthropy to Independent Education,
1993 Financial Analysts of Philadelphia, Lifetime Award of Distinction
1992 Newcomen Society, Honor for innovation

Public Recognition:
2005 FINANCIAL PLANNING Magazine, Hall of Fame
2005 TIME Magazine, “Ten Questions for John Bogle”
2004 TIME magazine, The Time 100—the world’s 100 most powerful and influential people
2002–2004 Weekly program with Tyler Mathisen on CNBC
2001 Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street Week, Hall of Fame
1999 FORTUNE magazine, One of the investment industry’s four Giants of the 20th Century.
1999 Barron’s—Investment Hall of Fame
1996 Fund Action Magazine, Fund Leader of the Year

Other Achievements:
1999–2000 Henry Kaufmann Visiting Professor of Business, New York University
1999 Leadership Speakers Series, Fox School of Business Management, Temple University

Distinguished Lectures:
2009 Columbia Business School Stanley R. Klion Forum
2008 George Washington Manual Cohen Lecture Series
2007 Princeton University, The Maclean House 2007 Lecture Series
2005 Vanderbilt University, Distinguished Speaker Series
2005 Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Distinguished Speakers Series
2004 Washington State University, The Gary M. Brinson Distinguished Lecture
2004 University of Mississippi, Otho Smith Fellows Program Distinguished Lecture
2003 Vanderbilt University, The Owen School of Management—Distinguished Speaker Series
2003 Wake Forest University, Joseph A. Jones Lecture
2003 Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Community Forum Distinguished Speaker Series
2002 Cornell University, Park Distinguished Lecture Series
2002 Princeton University, Center for Economic Policy Studies
2002 Neeley School of Business, Executive Speaker Series
2002 Blair Academy, Hollerith Lecture Series
2000 New York University, Executive Lecture Series
2000 New York University, Seymour Jones Distinguished Lecture
1999 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Lincoln Laboratories), Distinguished Lecture Series
1998 Houston Club, Distinguished Speaker Series

Rob’s Response:

And yet Rob Bennett, some fool whose only claim to expertise in this field is that he figured out how to get his words posted to the internet, called for correction of the errors in the Old School safe-withdrawal-rate studies at least 12 years sooner than Old Saint Jack.

I wonder why.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I posted recently to another blog entry at this site:

Jack is not a spring chicken anymore.

He’s not.

I respect and admire and love Jack. I rank him second on my all-time list of the best investment advisors. There obviously would be no Valuation-Informed Indexing had Jack not first built the foundation for it. It would be a thrill to work with him getting things back on track. And I very much want him to see his ideas brought to fruition. So I hope he lives long enough to see that.

If he doesn’t, maybe he will see it from heaven, you know? John Walter Russell once said that he thought these things would work out better than any of us could imagine. I detected the ring of truth to what he said. So I think we may see some twists and turns that none of us are anticipating today.

I will always consider myself a Boglehead. I will always value Jack’s many important contributions. All of that is already written in the book and so there is nothing that can happen from this point forward to change it.

If he dies before he gets to see all the wonderful stuff play out, that would make me sad. But my thought is is that, when things like that happen, there is some reason that we are not able to comprehend immediately. Maybe we figure it out a few years down the line. Maybe we figure it out when we get to the other side

How it plays out is out of my control. I try to focus on doing the right thing for Jack and for all my other Buy-and-Hold friends and for my Valuation-Informed Indexing friends and for the millions of middle-class investors and leave it at that. If I do my part, I have to believe that things will end up in a good place.

I think that Jack has made some horrible mistakes. But I also believe that there is a part of him that very much wants to do the right thing and I believe that we will see that part of him before he dies. I cannot guaranty it. But it is my belief (certainly my hope!) that we will hear some important words from him before he dies. We’ll see.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to another blog entry at this site:

Rob, have you ever met your “good friend” John Bogle? Ever corresponded with him? Do you have any indication that he, or any of the others whose names you drop, have ever heard of you or your quixotic campaign?

I’ve “met” Jack in lots of different way, Curious.

I’ve “met” him by reading his books. Do you know what it takes to write a book? I do. It takes sweating blood if you do it right. When I read Jack’s book, I could see the blood on the pages where he did the sort of work you have to do to connect with people. I learned important things from reading Jack’s book. And, yes, you can bet your last dollar that that’s a form of “meeting.” Jack put in the effort needed to connect with me in his book and he succeeded and I learned something and that’s magic. Yes, we met when I read his book. We met and we spent a good amount of quality time together. And it was magic. And I won’t ever forget that.

And of course we had other “meetings.” I saw his happiness and I saw his pain in my “interactions” with him on the boards and in our e-mail “correspondence.” You don’t think that the joy that Jack takes in the good work he has done doesn’t come through in his interactions on the Bogleheads Forum and on the Vanguard Diehards forum before that? It comes through loud and clear to me, Curious. You don’t think I can detect the pain he is going through when Rob Bennett shows up and he has to break all the normal rules he follows because this Rob Bennett fellow is a younger version of himself and this Rob Bennett fellow is a young whippersnapper that is upsetting all the old apple-carts (“How did I get so old?” Jack ask himelf) and Jack feels that he now needs to play the role of the old gray fart that he used to do battle with back in the days when he had a bit more spring in his step?

I have a chapter in my book titled “Jack Bogle Started Out As a Little Boy.” That’s the story here, Curious. Jack is not a big building that kids visit on field trips. He is not a dusty photograph. He is not an image or an idea. Heaven help us all, he is not a Goon (perhaps in part, but certainly not in whole). Jack Bogle is a freakin’ human being. You do him a great disservice when you treat him as something other than that, as this weird presence that is the first being on Planet Earth that is not capable of Making a Mistake, this Severe Authority who speaks to us from Mount Olympus and Who Must Never Be Questioned and Who Knows All and who speaks with much authority and pomposity and who possesses no sense of humor at all. Jack Bogle is not Mel Lindauer!

He’s a freakin’ human being, one of the mistake makers, Curious. Just as you are when you remember what it was like to be a little boy with dreams and worries and hopes and love in your heart and not this Powerful Goon Presence. Jack is a mistake maker. He is a mistake maker who went to the big city and who had a big impact and who got talked into getting on the bad path and who knows in his heart today that he needs to find his way back to the good place but who doesn’t have too many true friends anymore, who are the only kind who care about you enough to help you back to the good place and not quite so much about how many coins they can trick out of you with their flattery.

Jack knows who I am. Jack wouldn’t have went running to Linduaer is he didn’t know who I was. Jack wouldn’t have been afraid to stand on a stage with me if he didnt know who I was. Jack wouldn’t have been afraid to respond to Rob Arnott’s e-mail if he didn’t know who I was. Jack wouldn’t have risked huge financial liabilities and a long prison sentence if he didn’t know who I was. Give me a friggin’ break.

I am Jack’s worst nightmare. I am his younger self. I am the honest Jack, the loving Jack, the smart Jack, the Jack who Jack wishes he could be today. You are the Goon who whispers in Jack’s ear: “You can never be that young Jack again! You are corrupted. You are old. You smell. I own you today, bad Jack. You will do what I say and you won’t ask questions. Mel will tell you to jump and you will ask Mel how high and you will humiliate yourself, Old Jack. You are a Goon’s plaything today, Old Jack, and don’t ever forget if you don’t want another whipping!”

Jack knows who I am because I am the Young Jack trying to take him back to a world that he worries is lost to him forever, the world of Young Jack and the world of honestly and the world of caring for your readers and the world of intelligence and the world of learning and the world of growth and the world of disassociating yourself from Goons because of your repulsion to the smell of them.

He pines for Old Jack. And he feels that he is not up to being Young Jack ever again. And he is wrong about that. But who could blame him for his confusion when he has slobbering Goons like you whispering in his ear?

Bill Bernstein is the same. Larry Swedroe is the same. Rick Ferri is the same. Wade Pfau is the same.

They ALL want to be clean again, Curious.

That’s my secret edge here.

It’s not really a fair game, is it?

Good luck going up against all my fine human friends, smelly Goon!

Does Jack know Jack? That’s the real question here. Does old, smelly Jack remember the young, smart loving Jack? He signals me even in his most fearful acts that he does.

We’ll see.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to another blog entry at this site:

When people like this, they see two things. First, they know you are not credible because what you call “buy and hold” has been very successful and is not how your portray it. Secondly, they see you as a crackpot when you throw around threats of prison. It makes you come off like a little child having silly revenge fantasies.

People do not respond well to those sorts of statements, Anonymous. You don’t have to convince me of this. I have seen the reality play out before my eyes on thousands of occasions.

Did you see the demonstrations that were held by hundreds of students at Penn State when the truth about Joe Paterno came out? Those students LOVE Joe Paterno. And not without reason. He is one of the greatest coaches who ever lived. The bad things he did do not cancel out his many genuine accomplishments.

Do you think that people helped Paterno by covering up what was going on around him for so many years? There was a woman who worked at Penn State who asked that action be taken and she was fired for her trouble. That solved the problem TEMPORARILY. But of course in the long term it made it worse.

That woman was the true Joe Paterno fan, in my assessment. She tried to bring a quick end to something that was in the process of destroying his reputation. I am to Jack Bogle what that woman was to Joe Paterno. I love the guy. That’s why I speak up when I see financial fraud being practiced at a board with his name on it.

It takes more guts to speak up than it takes to be a yes man. Another way of saying it is to say that it takes more love to speak up than it does to be a yes man. I love Jack Bogle more than you do. You talk the talk. I walk the walk.

That woman was fired. People didn’t like what she said. But she has a clear conscience today. She is able to look at the woman in the mirror and feel good about what she sees.

I get it that telling the truth about how stock investing works is not the popular thing to do today, when we are priced for a 65 percent price crash sometime over the next year or two or three. The reality is that we are going to need someone to put the pieces together after that crash and to get the job done that person is going to need a reputation for integrity. I think it would be feel to say that the “experts” who failed to speak out about you Goons when they learned what you are up to will not be viewed as possessing the personal integrity needed to help us dig out of the hole that the Buy-and-Holders put us in. I will.

Personal integrity matters, Anonymous. It matters a lot. I never went to Investing School. I never managed a big mutual fund. But I was the first person to work up the courage to “cross” John Greaney by posting honestly on safe withdrawal rates. And I was the first person to call out Mel Lindauer on his b.s. abusive posting tactics at the Bogleheads Forum. And that makes me ten times the investing expert that Jack Bogle or Bill Bernstein or Larry Swedroe or Scott Burns can ever again claim to be now that they have failed to take prompt action re these matters.

We all are presented opportunities to act or not act. I acted. They did not. That one is now written in the books and it obviously can never be unwritten.

A new page of the book is being written today. Jack or Bill or Larry or Scott can elect to act today. If one of them does, I will be writing it up at my blog tomorrow. I will be praising that person to the skies. It will make me happy to do so once it becomes possible to do so HONESTLY.

I cannot do that today, can I? Whose fault is that? I have figured out how to get my words posted to the internet. Does Jack lack that ability? Jack Bogle hasn’t called Mel Linduaer out on his b.s. abusive posting tactics because he fears what Linduaer will do to him if he does so. That’s the most charitable explanation of Jack’s behavior that any of his friends can possibly put forward on his behalf. That reality will change when my good friend Jack works up the courage to take the steps needed to make it change. I can try to steer him in the right direction. I cannot force him to take the steps recommended.

An investing expert who is afraid to post honestly re the numbers that millions of people have used to plan their retirements is a piss-poor investing expert. People need to know that Jack Bogle is today a piss-poor investing expert. It’s a reality that affects every one of us suffering the effects of today’s economic crisis and worrying over the worsening of that economic crisis that we will experience when the next price crash sends us all down deeper into the Buy-and-Hold darkness.

My best and warmest wishes to you (and to my good friend Jack).

Rob