The Return of Ben Stein ?
After spending several years writing money-losing columns that were lacking in any insight into Wall Street for the New York Times, Ben Stein has returned.
After his NYT dismissal for becoming the pitchman for scam site FreeCreditReport.com, enough time has elapsed that Stein seems to have landed a gig with Bloomberg owned BusinessWeek.
We will see which direction of wrong Stein heads in this time. His former free market absolutism out of favor, he seems to be tacking in the direction of populist outrage.
This is another column not worthy of much dissection, but one sentence leapt out: “Goldman can make money by creating a scam synthetic security, as the SEC’s complaint alleges…”
No, that is not what the SEC complaint alleges — the legal charge is GS and Tourre engaged in fraud, made material misrepresentations about the security for sale, and had omissions of material facts.
Once this faux outrage passes, I expect to see the same old money losing lack of insight we’ve come to know and love about Ben Stein . . .
>
UPDATE: April 21, 2010 9:14pm
“Bloomberg informs me that Ben Stein is not a BusinessWeek or Bloomberg employee. This was a one-time editorial contribution.”
I am thrilled to be wrong!
>
Previously:
Farewell To Ben Stein (January 29th, 2008)
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/01/farewell-to-ben-stein/
Good Riddance, Ben Stein (August 7th, 2009)
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/08/good-riddance-ben-stein/
Source:
Goldman Sachs SEC Fraud Lawsuit Makes My Eyes Burn
Ben Stein
Business Week, April 20, 2010
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-20/goldman-sachs-sec-fraud-lawsuit-makes-my-eyes-burn-ben-stein.html
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April 21st, 2010 at 7:23 am
Publicly attributions have to be spot on….he has appeal to a perceived core audience, but I don’t know what the focus groups see in him, certainly not content.
April 21st, 2010 at 7:24 am
What’s really interesting is that you don’t simply ignore those who have beenso wrong in the past.
I don’t get the continual recycling of scam artists, wrong-way Corrigans, and other detritus like Greenspan.
The best revenge against these ‘famous’ people is just pretend they dont’ exist.
Why on eart give them one more drop os ink unless it be that of their indictments?
April 21st, 2010 at 7:45 am
“Welcome back Ben!”……never underestimate the value of a good contrary indicator.
April 21st, 2010 at 7:46 am
Im no fan of Ben, nor a basher of him… though I do agree that he made some very wrong calls with the market crisis.
However, Barry, your post reeks personal.
So he’s wrong and you take the low road?
Makes one wonder what kind of objectivity we will receive from you if/when the fiscal matters upon which you comment are also one day personal matters….
April 21st, 2010 at 8:01 am
[...] Oy Vey! Ben Stein finds a new gig, this time writing for BusinessWeek/Bloomberg. (TBP) [...]
April 21st, 2010 at 8:05 am
Whenever I see good old Ben on TV, the word “whore” just leaps out of my mouth. Not sure why that is ;-)
April 21st, 2010 at 8:17 am
HCSKnight says:
“….So he’s wrong and you take the low road?
….Makes one wonder what kind of objectivity we will receive from you….”
Whoa there , Sparky , since when is calling a source , whose track record *fails* to back-up the apparently *un-deserved * street cred which is supposed to substantiate their so-called *unobjective* opinion on the market , for what they are ; namely a bogus source of anything more than faulty infotainment.
Besides haven’t you gotten it yet that this is an *opinion* blog , and a fairly educated one at that with *genuine* street cred , and *not* just reportage.
Obviously you’re for treating Ben Stein as a spoiled brat son of a genuine economist and that makes as much an *enabler* for this phoney’s market blather whose just milkng his “Ferris Bueler’s Day Off” posuedo-celebrity for all it’s worth ……
…and at this point what his *Ben & Jerry’s brand of market snake oil is less than skim milk at that.
April 21st, 2010 at 8:17 am
Thanks for giving Ben much needed attention ……
April 21st, 2010 at 8:19 am
Stein is a poster boy for everything wrong with “conservatism” in the US today. An empty-headed pundit with no apparent personal basis in the real, everyday world. His opinions are based on his opinions. He’s fawned over by the right in spite of his demonstrated lack of knowledge or insight regarding most issues. He should have stuck to the, Bueller . . . Bueller . . . schtick.
HCSKnight:
I reread BR’s post, and I don’t see a personal attack (is that you, Ms. Stein?).
April 21st, 2010 at 8:20 am
How dare you criticize Ben Stein at a time of war.
April 21st, 2010 at 8:37 am
@flipspiceland
What’s really interesting is that you don’t simply ignore those who have been so wrong in the past.
In a saner, more rational time I would agree with you 100%. But this is not that time, as those who “have been so wrong in the past” no longer do the honorable thing and slink away into obscurity. They continue to blather on and, worse yet, attempt to rewrite history. It is for that reason, in my opinion, that they must continually be called on their BS.
April 21st, 2010 at 8:44 am
speaking of trading, has anybody here traded the relatively new Vix proxy, the VXX? I’ve been looking at it and wonder how close it correlates. Also, any hidden downsides?
Thanks
April 21st, 2010 at 8:44 am
Taliesyn-
why don’t you put me to sleep already “sparky” w/ your witty banter
MA-
Ben Stein was great as the head “Pixie” or “Fairy” on some Cartoon Network show my daughter use to watch- so the dude has some talent(-:!!!
VD-
I don’t get it
April 21st, 2010 at 8:46 am
[HCSKnight Says: " I'm no fan of Ben, nor a basher of him… though I do agree that he made some very wrong calls with the market crisis.
However, Barry, your post reeks personal.
So he’s wrong and you take the low road? "]
__________
“Restatement of the obvious is sometimes the first duty of a responsible man.”
{– George Orwell}
April 21st, 2010 at 8:54 am
I suspect the trashing of Ben Stein and Alan Greenspan on this board has more to do with ideology than anything else. This board leans progressive and Stein and Greenspan are conservatives.
Personally I admire both for admitting they were wrong in their absolute faith in the self-correcting nature if free markets. They both naively assumed that no way would bankers be so greed-filled and corrupt as to engage in activities that 1) not only collapsed the economy but 2) would be continued even after their destructive consequences were clear.
April 21st, 2010 at 9:27 am
Ben Stein wasn’t just wrong about the market crisis – he was disparaging of those who felt different than he did. There was, of course, his classic call in August 2007 : “Some smart, brave people will make a fortune buying in these days, and then we’ll all wonder what the scare was about.” Or his criticism of Doug Kass in December of that year regarding the economic crisis that lay ahead (which Stein did not believe was coming). Or his criticism for Jan Hatzius for not being objective in his economic analysis.
In short, it is & has been personal & politcal for Ben Stein for a long time. And, unfortunately, there are many others like him.
April 21st, 2010 at 9:40 am
I actually heard something on Marketplace on public radio that basically said the same thing.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/04/20/pm-banks-focus-goldman-credit/
“He says in the end, this is all about reputation. And Goldman’s reputation as a solid moneymaker will more than make up for a whiff of scandal. ”
A whiff of scandal? Outright fraud = a whiff of scandal? Designing products that almost caused the entire global economy to collapse, trivial. Perhaps clients won’t want to invest in Goldman’s products anymore because they have no idea what they are getting? Or perhaps this can all be explained by blaming poor people somehow.
I used to respect Marketplace, but the quality of their content and reporting has been on a downward spiral for quite a while now.
April 21st, 2010 at 9:50 am
Ben Stein is living proof of the concept of regression to the mean or “the son isn’t usually as bright as the father if the father is very bright.” His career peaked with his role in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” I have had absolutely no respect for him for years after his role in the production of the intellectually bankrupt and dishonest so-called “documentary” (Expelled) promoting “intelligent design” and equating Darwinism with Nazism.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24239755/
April 21st, 2010 at 9:52 am
Why waste your time on this moron?
He is hateful.
April 21st, 2010 at 9:59 am
bsneath,
I have to disagree on Greenspan.
“They both naively assumed that no way would bankers be so greed-filled and corrupt as to engage in activities that 1) not only collapsed the economy but 2) would be continued even after their destructive consequences were clear.”
You’re talking about the guy who “never” saw it coming and then joined the hedge fund that bet against housing.(Paulson)
Funny how all those “masters of the universe” and other Feds, Goldmans… who played tough guy before the crisis were in fact uninformed lambs (Fuld).
I don’t believe a word of it, Greenspan is a financial debris, a human derivative that should have never been.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:11 am
Ben Stein = living proof that it are one’s connections that matter more than anything in this country today.
The Tyranny of the Incompetent Express rolls onward.
Why, pray tell, would anyone hire this guy, much less listen to anything he writes or says?
April 21st, 2010 at 10:14 am
The only way to finally root out this Tyranny is to call them out on their crap EVERY time they utter or write a word. Ignoring them doesn’t do anything to combat their idiocy. I admire BR for calling out these buffoons in a very vitriolic manner. Eventually it might work. Ignoring them, like we’ve done in the past, clearly hasn’t worked at all.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:15 am
beaufou,
I understand how you can reach your conclusions. Perhaps it is so and only the “MOU” himself knows for certain.
I can accept that Greenspan was probably blinded by his Ayn Rand, libertarian, invisible hand view of the world and although he was aware of the machinations of the bankers, he blindly believed that the markets would self-correct and that it was wrong to interfere with the natural order of things. I further suspect that he took great pride in his “role” in creating a society where home ownership became available to so many and this contributed to his blind eye towards the impending disaster ahead. But then since I also was naive about Wall Street, so might I be about Greenspan and Stein as well.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:32 am
@bsneath
You shouldn’t give up your day job to become a detective, unless you takeover for Inspector Clousseau.
The only ideology I possess is ‘do unto others….’
In the case of Stein he is a somewhat funny ad man but a horrible economist who deserves infamy but who had little impact for anyone who read him at least twice, but Greenspan is a horrifically failed intellect with bad breath who is the fount of all that went wrong.
His puny apology is like Hitler apologizing to the Poles after he sacked Warsaw. Greenspan is the devil while Stein is simply an errant elf. Worlds apart.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:40 am
“In a saner, more rational time I would agree with you 100%. But this is not that time, as those who “have been so wrong in the past” no longer do the honorable thing and slink away into obscurity. They continue to blather on and, worse yet, attempt to rewrite history. It is for that reason, in my opinion, that they must continually be called on their BS.”–Invictus, above
yes, a list, to understand those we cannot understand, is, unfortunately, too, necessary..
~~
bsneath,
were you being sarcastic?
April 21st, 2010 at 11:25 am
Mark E Hoffer Says: bsneath, were you being sarcastic?
Not at all. I explained my reasoning further at 10:15am, by Barry has me on a short leash so it will take a while to display (as will this).
Stein has his faults, no doubt. He was absolutely, totally wrong about the severity of the current recession. But he is on the right track with respect to Wall Street and GS today.
The question is; Has he changed his thinking due to the change in circumstances and a better understanding of why we are in the mess we are in, or is he a pond scum sucking opportunist who is just out to make a buck? I believe it is the former.
April 21st, 2010 at 11:25 am
“Creating money” and “creating wealth” are not the same thing.
- Austrian Quack
April 21st, 2010 at 11:45 am
Ben Stein has a collective history of being wrong most of the time, OK, more than he has been right. As for Right wing – he probably tried to be a winner among losers…BUT
Ben has to be right at least 5% 10% – he is right now —– Arthur Anderson sits and waits for new partners in his dungeon. Mr Goldman and Mr. Sachs are on their way to Join Arthur. Importance is a sometime thing.
Goldman Sachs has run out of importance… Some companies who really screw up in their own arrogance, usually change their name. GS is Dead in the Water…it just takes time to recover the body.
The name Goldman Sachs will be retired. The Company will emerge as two companies – a public company and a partnership – they will probably agree (under settlement contract) not to deal with each other under the threat of surrender of licenses, etc.
All of the Wall Street people (including Barry) will feel the freedom to express their real opinions – rather guarded against GS Wrath!
GS – I don’t care how wrong they were – IT IS OVER FOR GS – america will not tolerate their continuance. (PERIOD!)
No matter how good they were – how big they are – they are big enough to fail!!! Nothing, no one, will ever be too big to fail again.
April 21st, 2010 at 11:46 am
flipspiceland Says: The only ideology I possess is ‘do unto others….’
Yes, there must be a reason why it is a fundamental pillar in nearly all of the world’s religions. In my mind it primarily stands for honesty, integrity and fairness. One of these days I’ll figure out it also means treating other bloggers with respect even when I disagree….
I’m curious how the masters of Wall Street interpret this concept.
April 21st, 2010 at 1:21 pm
There’s a difference between being conservative and simply being Wrong. Stein is Wrong. Do you people not get that? He’s wrong. About everything. He even argues against evolution.
Wrong.
April 21st, 2010 at 2:18 pm
taking up the banner of Felix Salmon’s Ben Stein Watch?
April 21st, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Look on the bright side, Barry, the return of Ben Stein means the return of that wonderful synonym for the hacktacular: bensteinery!
April 21st, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Could be worse, could be Caroline Baum. Oh, wait a minute.
April 21st, 2010 at 2:58 pm
My theory is that Ben Stein, like Bill Kristol, is a top-secret experiment to determine how many times, with disastrous consequences, a nepotism-beneficiary right-wing hack pundit can be completely wrong, while being arrogantly contemptuous of those who were correct, and still fail upwards.
The limit has yet to be found.
April 21st, 2010 at 3:00 pm
bsneath: re your various assertions & qualifications…
As a recovered Conservative who has probably forgotten more Conservative philosophy than you’ve ever read, allow me to paraphrase Gertrude Stein [as far as I know she's no relation]:
An ideologue is an ideologue is an ideologue.
At the end of the day, whether they take their marching orders from Chairman Mao or Rush Viagrabaugh, they all behave the same. To wit: no shame, no honesty, intellectual or otherwise, and a willingness to say or do anything to get ahead regardless of how many corpses they have to climb over to do so, regardless of how many disasters they’ve caused.
BR is not an ideologue. From posts I’ve seen in the past 20 months I know he hails from the Right side of the US political spectrum. As do I.
I suspect that if you were to take a poll of long term contributers to the discussion threads here, you’ll find that a majority have their intellectual roots in the same neighborhood. By and large we’re appalled and disgusted by the demise of basic decencies and any sense of personal responsibility.
We are in the 30th year of a slow motion cultural revolution carried out by oligarchs in three piece suits that differs from its Chinese predecessor only in terms of its subtlety and skill of execution. We will take far, far longer to recover than China did.
Yes, you are naive. I say that as someone who has been where you are now. You need, as I did, to bone up on your economic and social histories of Europe and the US. Kevin Phillips last 2 books are a good place to start.
If you are not doing so already, start reading foreign press sites. 20+ years in Europe from 73-94, learning Cricket and German along the way, disabused me of a great many illusions about the world and America’s role in it. You’ll soon discover as did I that the political center of our national ‘discourse’ is way to the right of anywhere else in the developed world.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste…
Cheers–
April 21st, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Apologies if this is a double post–it did not appear to go through on first attempt–maybe WordPress ate it…
bsneath: re your various assertions & qualifications…
As a recovered Conservative who has probably forgotten more Conservative philosophy than you’ve ever read, allow me to paraphrase Gertrude Stein [as far as I know she's no relation]:
An ideologue is an ideologue is an ideologue.
At the end of the day, whether they take their marching orders from Chairman Mao or Rush Viagrabaugh, they all behave the same. To wit: no shame, no honesty, intellectual or otherwise, and a willingness to say or do anything to get ahead regardless of how many corpses they have to climb over to do so, regardless of how many disasters they’ve caused.
BR is not an ideologue. From posts I’ve seen in the past 20 months I know he hails from the Right side of the US political spectrum. As do I.
I suspect that if you were to take a poll of long term contributers to the discussion threads here, you’ll find that a majority have their intellectual roots in the same neighborhood. By and large we’re appalled and disgusted by the demise of basic decencies and any sense of personal responsibility.
We are in the 30th year of a slow motion cultural revolution carried out by oligarchs in three piece suits that differs from its Chinese predecessor only in terms of its subtlety and skill of execution. We will take far, far longer to recover than China did.
Yes, you are naive. I say that as someone who has been where you are now. You need, as I did, to bone up on your economic and social histories of Europe and the US. Kevin Phillips last 2 books are a good place to start.
If you are not doing so already, start reading foreign press sites. 20+ years in Europe from 73-94, learning Cricket and German along the way, disabused me of a great many illusions about the world and America’s role in it. You’ll soon discover as did I that the political center of our national ‘discourse’ is way to the right of anywhere else in the developed world.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste…
Cheers–
April 21st, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Apologies if this is a double post–it did not appear to go through on first attempt–maybe WordPress ate it…
bsneath: re your various assertions & qualifications…
As a recovered Conservative who has probably forgotten more Conservative philosophy than you’ve ever read, allow me to paraphrase Gertrude Stein—as far as I know she’s no relation:
An ideologue is an ideologue is an ideologue.
At the end of the day, whether they take their marching orders from Chairman Mao or Rush V-i-a-g-r-a-baugh, they all behave the same. To wit: no shame, no honesty, intellectual or otherwise, and a willingness to say or do anything to get ahead regardless of how many corpses they have to climb over to do so, regardless of how many disasters they’ve caused.
BR is not an ideologue. From posts I’ve seen in the past 20 months I know he hails from the Right side of the US political spectrum. As do I.
I suspect that if you were to take a poll of long term contributers to the discussion threads here, you’ll find that a majority have their intellectual roots in the same neighborhood. By and large we’re appalled and disgusted by the demise of basic decencies and any sense of personal responsibility.
We are in the 30th year of a slow motion cultural revolution carried out by oligarchs in three piece suits that differs from its Chinese predecessor only in terms of its subtlety and skill of execution. We will take far, far longer to recover than China did.
Yes, you are naive. I say that as someone who has been where you are now. You need, as I did, to bone up on your economic and social histories of Europe and the US. Kevin Phillips last 2 books are a good place to start.
If you are not doing so already, start reading foreign press sites. 20+ years in Europe from 73-94, learning Cricket and German along the way, disabused me of a great many illusions about the world and America’s role in it. You’ll soon discover as did I that the political center of our national ‘discourse’ is way to the right of anywhere else in the developed world.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste…
Cheers–
April 21st, 2010 at 4:20 pm
bsneath wrote: “I suspect the trashing of Ben Stein and Alan Greenspan on this board has more to do with ideology than anything else. This board leans progressive and Stein and Greenspan are conservatives.”
Well, as a recovering academic, all I can say is that issues like “evolution” vs. “intelligent design” are not issues of “ideology” and Ben Stein produced a dishonest documentary promoting ID, for which there is absolutely no scientific evidence. That’s not a “liberal” or a “conservative” position, whatever that means these days (I’m old enough to recall when the Ayn Rand libertarians were atheists, pro-choice and for the legalization of drugs.) Unless one is a complete relativist, some issues just shouldn’t be presented by intelligent people as “two competing points of view.” For example, does one have to be a Pulitzer Prize winning historian of the civil war to argue that Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox? Does the “other point of view” deserve “equal time?” That’s my problem with Ben Stein, among others. Many others have already pointed out the problems with the history of his economic analyses, so I won’t bother.
April 21st, 2010 at 8:09 pm
GrafSchweik Says: “As a recovered Conservative who has probably forgotten more Conservative philosophy than you’ve ever read,….Rush V-i-a-g-r-a-baugh…..our national ‘discourse’ is way to the right of anywhere else….A mind is a terrible thing to waste,”
First, why is it that some feel the need to name call? Isn’t that a bit childish, particularly for someone who obviously is as well educated as yourself?
Why should we care if we are more conservative than other nations? Yes we are more conservative as a nation than most. Yes we have a stronger free market philosophy and hold our rights to freedom and liberty in higher regard than Europeans, but yes also we are the nation that has eliminated tyrannies from across the globe when other nation states failed or tried appeasement. Have we not done many things right? (until greed overcame common sense that is) Do we not have one of the highest standards of living? Have we not made improvements in diversity, acceptance and tolerance that is in many ways light years ahead of a quite racist and ethnocentric Europe? (Apparently you have not had any recent discussions with your average German about the Turks, your average Brit about the Pakistanis, your average Belgian about the Moroccans or your average Balkan about ant of their neighbors. Why is it that citizens of many of the nations who disparage us also constantly compare themselves to Americans as if to see if they measure up?
and btw, I read more foreign newspapers than American. I find those from places such as India, China, the Middle East in fact to be more informative and objective than the MSM here. And England both for the same reason and to be ceaselessly amazed at the extent to which they allow the nanny state to encroach on personal freedoms.
Yes, I am more libertarian-conservative than most on this board, such as believing in small government. I worked for government. It has major inherent weaknesses in its ability to implement. I find I can arouse anger on both liberal and conservative boards exactly because I do not accept the dogmatic black/white worlds of the ideologues from either side.
And yes, I am willing assume that Stein and Greenspan, like most people on this planet, are attempting to be good human beings and therefore, just perhaps, there is a reason why they once took the positions that they did and have changed their positions today. I take Greenspan at his word when he admits he was wrong. Are they ideologues, or is it that their views do not conform to your ideology?
If you listen you will learn there are oftentimes valid points on both sides of any argument.
Seek first to understand….
Cheers Back At You-
April 21st, 2010 at 11:37 pm
“Yes we have a stronger free market philosophy and hold our rights to freedom and liberty in higher regard than Europeans”
No you don’t, sorry, freedom and liberty does not mean the free exercise of cupidity.
My freedom stops where yours begins, and so it goes for an entire nation, your free market philosophy nowadays only serves a tiny portion of your so-called “we” which does not exist, 1% does not represent the USA.
“but yes also we are the nation that has eliminated tyrannies from across the globe when other nation states failed or tried appeasement”
Define Tyranny, please, it exists in many different forms, military-financial-or financed military-terrorism-financed terrorism, it is a vast subject, I’m not sure you’re ready to discuss this even-minded.
“Have we not done many things right? ”
Absolutely, American culture is the most popular in the world right now, research, flying to the moon…etc
“Do we not have one of the highest standards of living?”
Nope
http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/world-top-ten-quality-of-life-map.html
“Have we not made improvements in diversity, acceptance and tolerance that is in many ways light years ahead of a quite racist and ethnocentric Europe?”
Another interesting topic.
You see, what is said in public and what is said in private does make a difference, a little like making the crisis go away and turning a blind eye to cities like Detroit or Cleveland.
You watch the news too much, you should only read it and from different sources.
“Yes, I am more libertarian-conservative than most on this board, such as believing in small government”
Another obsolete discussion, small government…what does it mean?
From a conservative? conservatives have done nothing but support corporations, do you mean you prefer corporatism?
Google it, you’ll see what it equals to.
“I find I can arouse anger on both liberal and conservative boards exactly because I do not accept the dogmatic black/white worlds of the ideologues from either side.”
I’m not surprised, but I doubt you’ll find anger from progressives who are just puzzled by your libertarian-conservatist openness.
Conservatives in the old days, even in retarded Europe, were not so much bent on profit but on progress and getting ahead.
Maybe a few history or political history books would help (not written by some obscure libertarian conservative of course)
April 21st, 2010 at 11:51 pm
There are so many smart people. Why does Bloomberg risk its reputation with a proven loser? A one-off is one too many for a hack con man like Stein.
April 22nd, 2010 at 7:26 am
Stien and Kudlow are two of the lowest pitchmen in the world.
April 22nd, 2010 at 10:26 am
Damn now I know that GS will get off.
April 22nd, 2010 at 2:24 pm
BR its ok to knock Ben but shouldn’t your blog watchers know how right or wrong you’ve been?
~~~
BR: I am wrong all the time — that’s the nature of trading.
But when it comes to the Big Picture issues — Housing, Economy, Employment, market turns, etc — the track record speaks for its self.