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

Actually, Rob, you would have to push for criminal charges, because no one else is. As for the civil part, you would need to file the lawsuits. It is all in your hands.

Steve Jobs had a net worth of over $10 Billion and Bill Gates has a net worth over $80 Billion. Shouldn’t you adjust your expectations?

You’re making my point, Anonymous. $500 million is a mountain of money. But given what we are talking about here, it is a 100 percent reasonable number.

If you truly didn’t believe that anyone was going to be bringing criminal charges when this gets written up on the front page of the New York Times, you have nothing to worry about. I hereby promise NOT to take any action whatsoever to bring criminal charges or to encourage others to bring criminal charges.

I’ll tell the truth about what happened, to be sure. But if no one else pushes for criminal charges, there will be no criminal charges. I talk about criminal charges because I want to bring the nasty side of this to a full and complete stop before the lengths of the sentences grow even greater. That’s my part in this. I would be 100 percent happy if there were no prison sentences. I don’t believe that it is going to play out that way. But it is fine with me if it does.

Rob

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

No one supportsyour position. Got it.

Ever hear of the phrase “pissing in the wind”?

I didn’t say that no one supports my position, Anonymous. I said that as of today no one has worked up the courage to SAY PUBLICLY that they support my position.

That’s what we need to change. When we reach a point where everyone in this field is openly talking about the massive act of financial fraud that brought on the economic crisis, we all move to a far better place than where we are, a place where deep in our hearts each and every one of us would prefer to be.

We will all be presented with new opportunities to show our love for our country following the next price crash. It is my strongly held view that we are all going to make it safely to the other side of The Big Black Mountain and that, once we do, not one among us will ever look back to the Buy-and-Hold Era with any feelings of regret.

But we are just going to have to wait to see how it all plays out to know for sure.

I long to see EVERYONE using words and terms like “Goons” and “financial fraud” and “prison sentences” on a daily basis. You don’t bring a massive act of financial fraud to a complete and total stop by covering it up. You bring a massive act of financial fraud to a complete and total stop by EXPOSING it. This is just common sense. This is how it is done in every field of human endeavor other than investing analysis and this is how it will have to be done in the investing analysis field as well.

These are my sincere thoughts re these terribly important matters, in any event.

My best and warmest wishes to you and yours.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for one of my columns at the Value Walk site:

Instead of going out and getting a job, Rob is over at his website posting nutty nonsense like this:

“I long to see EVERYONE using words and terms like “Goons” and “financial fraud” and “prison sentences” on a daily basis. You don’t bring a massive act of financial fraud to a complete and total stop by covering it up. You bring a massive act of financial fraud to a complete and total stop by EXPOSING it. This is just common sense. This is how it is done in every field of human endeavor other than investing analysis and this is how it will have to be done in the investing analysis field as well.”

I definitely stand by those words, Sammy.

Today’s economic crisis has its roots in the fact that too many of us have for too long been too reluctant to use words like “Goons” and “financial fraud” and “prison sentences.” That’s really the entire deal. Everything follows from that. Once a good number of us work up the courage to say those words often and clearly and everywhere, we put all the ugly, nasty stuff behind us and move on to enjoying all of the hundreds of amazing insights into how stock investing works in the real world that were opened up to us through the publication of Robert Shiller’s “revolutionary” (his word) research findings.

Bogle should have come clean on the day in 1981 when Shiller showed with peer-reviewed research that valuations affect long-term returns. If that’s so, then risk is not static but variable and every investor has to be willing to adjust his stock allocation in response to big shifts in valuations to have any hope whatsoever of keeping his risk profile roughly stable. Shiller changed our understanding of how stock investing works in a fundamental way and Bogle’s decision to engage in a cover-up rather than to come clean about his mistake in thinking that the market is efficient made everyone who has come after him feel awkward about pointing out the mistake.

When someone fails to own up to so important a mistake, it gets harder and harder over time to do so. Had Bogle come clean three decades ago, we would have seen a rewriting of all the textbooks in the days since and we would have seen hundreds and hundreds of exciting investing insights developed in the days since and we would have seen hundreds of accurate and helpful calculators developed in the days since. It is by owning up to our mistakes that we open ourselves up to new learning experiences. When we fail to own up to mistakes, we lose out on those opportunities and we can easily find ourselves over time traveling to some very dark places indeed.

It can never get better for the Buy-and-Holders for so long as the cover-up continues. It can only get worse and worse and worse. I do believe that the vast majority of Buy-and-Holders follow Buy-and-Hold strategies themselves. So there is an important sense in which they believe in the strategy that they are promoting to others. So I certainly think that they should say that they believe. The Valuation-Informed Indexers need to hear challenges to their understanding of how stock investing works as much as the Buy-and-Holders need to hear challenges to their understanding of how stock investing works.

But overlooking acts of financial fraud takes the spirit of tolerance of other “ideas” too far. A death threat is not an argument, it is an act of intimidation. There is no place for death threats in discussions of what the peer-reviewed research tells us about how stock investing works in the real world. Nor is there any place for demands for unjustified board bannings. Nor is there any place for tens of thousands of acts of defamation. Nor is there any place for threats to get academic researchers fired from their jobs. That sort of behavior constitutes financial fraud. That sort of behavior constitutes a felony. That sort of behavior leads to a prison sentence. Yuck!

That sort of behavior reflects poorly not only on the Buy-and-Holders who directly engage in it but also on the Buy-and-Holders who tolerate it by failing to speak up in opposition to it when they see the sorts of individuals who have put up posts in “defense” of Mel Lindauer and John Greaney making appearances at discussion boards and blogs that they frequent. I have a zero tolerance policy re those sort of thing. The Great Buy-and-Hold Con is in the process of destroying millions of middle-class lives. I have made it a practice to speak up in opposition to the criminal behavior of you Goons wherever and whenever I see it (while naturally inviting and encouraging and showing gratitude for the contributions of my many Buy-and-Hold friends who stay within the norms of civil human behavior when making points in favor of Buy-and-Hold that have convinced them and that we all need to consider).

These are my sincere thoughts re these terribly important matters in any event, my long-time Goon friend. I naturally wish you the best of luck in all your future life endeavors.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I posted to the discussion thread for one of my columns at the Value Walk site:

Rob,

It is not helping anyone. Instead, it is just hurting your family. Why do you go to such lengths to create a make-believe world, all to avoid having to work a job? Even a part time job paying minimum wage would at least be doing something.

Why do you go to such lengths to try to persuade me to live my life as if I believed what you believe? I live my life according to what I believe.

In the days when I was posting at the Motley Fool retirement board, there were people using Greaney’s retirement study to plan their retirements. These people became my friends. I felt bad to see them tricked. I eventually worked up the courage to speak up. Now I feel better.

You are asking me to go back to doing things that made me feel bad about myself. I am not interested.

I wish you all good things. But I would be grateful if you would be willing to try to find someone else to help you push your smelly Buy-and-Hold garbage. It’s not my particular cup of tea. It’s not a close call.

My best and warmest wishes to you and yours.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for one of my columns at the Value Walk site:

Rob,

Quit trying to blame someone else for your failures. You are not even fit to tie Jack’s shoes, let alone even try to discussing investing strategies with some as accomplished as Jack.

I love the man and I admire the man. But all of us are affected by the mistake that he made. So it is my view that we are all fit to ask him questions about how the strategy he advocates has been discredited by the last 35 years of peer-reviewed research in this field.

Shiller describes his 1981 finding that valuations affect long-term timing as “revolutionary” in impact. He was awarded a Nobel prize for his work. So that finding was a very, very big deal.

Can you please tell us how Bogle changed Buy-and-Hold as a result of what he learned from Shiller’s research? I have been studying this stuff for years. I have not been able to identify a single change that he has made. Does that sound right to you, Sammy?

Do you think that those who hold themselves out as experts in this field have a responsibility to stay on top of developments in the peer-reviewed research and to correct any errors in their strategies that they discover as a result of new findings? I believe that they do.

Millions of people have suffered as a result of Bogle’s failure to come clean for 35 years now. This is not a joke. A failed retirement is a serious life setback. I believe that we all need to pull together to make sure that honest and accurate investing advice is available to every investor alive today. Do you agree? Or do you disagree?

Do you believe that ANY of the millions of investors who have been hurt by the 35-year cover-up have a right to tie Bogle’s shoes? I believe that Bogle has a responsibility to these people to try to get it right. And I believe that all of us who are aware of what the research says have a responsibility to push Bogle along a bit so that he sets things right sooner rather than later.

If Bogle is the man that I think he is, he would want that of us. I think that it would be fair to say that you hold a much lower opinion of this man than I do. It might be you who are not fit to tie his shoes rather than me. Fair enough?

Rob

 

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

Shiller and Bogle are not in conflict. Shiller said that the market historically followed a pattern somewhat linked to valuations. That is not even close to saying that you can use that pattern to time the market and beat buy-and-hold. He has never said that. Only you say he said that.

If the market follows a pattern linked to valuations, then overvaluation is a real phenomenon and investors planning their retirements need to take valuations into consideration when calculating the safe withdrawal rate, Anonymous.

Financial fraud is a crime. It’s a felony. That means prison time. Not freakin’ interested. Not this boy.

Please try to find someone else.

My best wishes.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a recent comment that I posted to the discussion thread for one of my columns at the Value Walk site:

Rob,

His words are clear. Stop making things up. PERIOD.

His research is also clear. And his Nobel prize is clear.

I can accept that Shiller may not have a complete understanding of how long-term timing works. My sense is that he does not. He has a partial understanding. To make his understanding more complete, he needs to engage in daily back-and-forth with lots of people exploring the subject from lots of different angles. That’s how we humans learn.

It is this daily back-and-forth in which lots of us offer lots of different takes that has been missing in investing discussions for 35 years now and which has been holding up progress for 35 years now. I mentioned up above that Shiller has made it his life’s work to show why exercising price discipline is required when buying stocks. I have made it my life’s work to get this national debate started.

I have chosen to do this because having the national debate is so darn important. You are not wrong to point out that Shiller said that P/E10 should not be used for timing. He really did say that. It is an exceedingly odd thing for the person who discovered the importance of price discipline to say — it is only through the practice of long-term timing that investors can exercise price discipline! So we really need to get to the bottom of the issue that you brought to the table with your post.

Where we get on very different tracks is when you point out one aspect of the puzzle and ignore the other. Shiller really did publish research showing that price discipline is required back in 1981. He really did write a book explaining why Buy-and-Hold can never work for a single long-term investor. He really was awarded a Nobel prize for his work in this area.

We need to get Shiller to address these matters. You cannot do the subject complete justice and I cannot do the subject complete justice. We need Shiller to address the subject head-on in a clear and complete and firm statement. If you really believe that Shiller thinks that long-term timing does not work, you should feel comfortable encouraging him to address the matter.

You Goons have contact with Mel Linduaer and Mel Lindauer has contact with John Bogle. If you asked nicely, Lindauer would be willing to ask Bogle nicely to ask Shiller nicely whether he believes that long-term timing works or not. And Shiller is a nice man. Shiller would agree to the request if Bogle put it to him in a nice manner. So we have the means by working together to get a FINAL answer to this perplexing question.

The key is that you need to be open to hearing what Shiller really thinks. He may issue a statement agreeing with me rather than with you and Bogle. So you are taking a risk going ahead with this suggestion to contact Lindauer. I encourage you to do it. If Shiller says “this Rob Bennett fellow is a fool, I do not AT ALL believe in long-term timing, I think thus guy is dangerous,” I will write a column here reporting on what he said and putting that statement in the headline.

Working together, we could learn something important. Working together, we could advance the ball in an important way for lots of people. If you are game, I am certainly game.

I naturally wish you all the best that life has to offer a person in any event, my good friend.

Rob

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for one of my columns at the Value Walk site:

Please take care????

No, I am fine.

Instead………..

Please stop lying. Please stop defaming Wade Pfau, Jack Bogle, Robert Shiller, Rick Ferri, Mel Lindauer, John Greany and all the others you continue to bash. Please go get a job and provide for your family.

If you can’t a way to do the above, please get help from a mental health professional because you have a serious problem.

Fama and Shiller were awarded Nobel prizes on the same day. Numerous articles reporting on this noted how odd it was that two people saying opposite things about how stock investing works were both awarded the highest honor. One of the two has to be wrong and the error made by the one who is wrong has done serious harm to all investors who came to believe that the one who is wrong was in fact right.

We need to figure out who is wrong and who is right. To do that, we need to have a national debate. I have great respect for all the people you named above. But each of those people has engaged in behavior that has caused a delay in the launching of that national debate. It’s a terrible thing.

All of those people want to do the right thing and yet all of them are afraid to do so because they fear that what you Goons have done to me you will do to them if they come clean. The only way to get to the other side of the mountain is to go through the mountain. If all of those people stuck together, you Goons couldn’t do a thing to any of us. So long as we let you intimidate us, you have the power. We need to stick together. We all need to assert our right to post honestly re that last 35 years of peer-reviewed research in this field and not yield to any of the intimidation tactics that you Goons dish out.

That’s my sincere take re these terribly important matters in any event. For so long as loving my country constitutes a serious problem for me, I do indeed have a serious problem. It’s not a serious problem that I want to solve. I believe that it will all flip following the next price crash, that at that time it will be you Goons who will have a serious problem. But we will see what happens as it all plays out before us, you know.

I hope that works for you, my old friend.

Rob

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

Besides Rob Bennett, is there anyone that will publically say that buy, hold and rebalance is a con? NOPE? I think that says it all.

On the day after the story about this massive cover-up appears on the front page of the New York Times, there will be millions saying it, Anonymous.

This is how cover-ups work. They DELAY the day that the truth gets out. But the tactics that must be used to keep the cover-up going grow increasingly abusive as more and more people learn the realities. When I saw Greaney advancing death threats in August 2002, it became clear to me that this particular cover-up had been going on long before I even came on the scene.

If the realities being covered up are important enough, the cover-up eventually fails. And then there is a flood of information that goes public all at the same time. Shiller showed with peer-reviewed research published in 1981 that there is precisely zero chance that a Buy-and-Hold strategy could ever work for a single long-term investor. Had Bogle come clean immediately, we all would be living better lives today and none of you Goons would be on your way to prison. But once Bogle engaged in a cover-up, a dynamic was set up in which the Wall Street Con Men became desperate that the realities of stock investing not be publicly discussed with the millions of middle-class investors who want to know about them and who very much need to know about them.

I didn’t make this the biggest story in the history of personal finance. All that I did was read Shiller’s book and then explore the implications that logically follow from his “revolutionary” (Shiller’s word) research. Bogle made this a huge story by engaging in a 35-year cover-up. And you Goons made this a huge story by extending the cover-up to the internet, which wasn’t around in the days when Bogle made the decision to engage in a cover-up.

This story has been suppressed for so long that, when it blows up, the explosion will be a nuclear one. We will go from having one guy telling the truth about stock investing to having millions telling the truth about stock investing in the space of one day. Buy-and-Hold dies intellectually 35 years ago. It will die in a practical sense on the day our story is written up on the front page of the New York Times.

Your prison sentence will be announced shortly thereafter. Again, you have no gripe with me. Your gripe is with Bogle. And with your fellow Goons. And with yourself. I did what any man who loves his country is bound by conscience to do. Greaney’s retirement study contains no adjustment for the valuations level that applies on the day the retirement begins. Fact. I told. Good for me. Bad for you that you thought you could lie about it and get away with destroying the millions of middle-class lives that you destroyed by advancing and then “defending” that lie.

I can’t say that I am not sorry for you because I am sorry for you. But I am more sorry for the millions of middle-class investors whose lives you destroyed.

I am sorry for Bogle too. I wish that he had more true friends. A true friend is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear but need to hear when you screw up big time. Bogle’s friends are like Richard Nixon’s friends. They are people who are concerned not for the man but for the favors they can extract from him by flattering him. Not this boy. Find someone else.

I naturally wish you the best of luck in all your future life endeavors regardless of the length of the prison sentence assigned to you by the members of your jury. My best and warmest wishes to you.

Rob

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

But the Nobel winner who created the research you are basing your strategy off of – insists that his research cannot be used for said strategy.

When your jury is determining the length of your prison sentence, one of the things that it will be taking into consideration is what Shiller says re this subject when he testifies under oath. I am confident that what Shiller says under oath is going to be a lot more supportive of what I have been saying for 14 years than it will be supportive of what you have been saying for 14 years, Laugh.

But we are all going to find out for sure as events play out following the next price crash, no? Can you exercise a little patience? You Goons and I do not need to work this out amongst ourselves. There are millions of people whose lives are in the process of being destroyed by your massive act of financial fraud. Their take on all this is obviously going to change following the next price crash. And when their take changes, the way in which Robert Shiller expresses himself is going to change too. And then everything is cool.

Or so Rob Bennett believes in any event. I certainly possess no power to stop you from believing something different for so long as that is your preference. Let’s see how it plays out in the real world. Fair enough?

My best wishes to you.

Rob