Win Ben Stein's Cheapened Money

Ben Stein, the droning voice of Ferris Bueller's teacher, fancies himself an economist, like his father, Nixon adviser Herb Stein. When he's not a game show host, or an anti-Darwinian propagandist.

Ben has recently posted on Yahoo!Finance a column about why the US and all the other major industrial nations should print money like mad. All the dangers are on the "deflationary" side, he says. There's no danger in the other direction, from inflation/reflation. So ... let's go for it!

Hey, sort of like Zimbabwe, right? How's it working out there?

Here's Ben's column, just so you won't think I'm inventing a straw man!

And here is a fine take-down of Ben's nonsense, by the economics junkie, who rightly says that the Stein column is "so utterly wrong" that somebody had to call him out.

Good work, EJ.

Also, over at Portfolio, Felix Salmon has a semi-regular feature, his "Ben Stein Watch," in which he tilts with this windmill pretending to be a giant. I recommend that.

Now that I check, I see that this is the fourth mention of Stein's economic views I've made in the brief history of this blog. So just follow the tag if you've got the stomach for more. Thanks.