Columnist Ben Stein

So, Bernard Madoff has been sentenced to life plus a century and a quarter in federal prison for destroying the lives of thousands -- tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands -- of innocent men and women. That's a good thing, and I think we can

I received an odd request by email recently; it came from a lecture bureau in Canada, where I often speak. The bureau wanted to know if I could speak to a certain commercial real estate group, but first I had to definitively answer several questions:

“This time, it’s different.” These are four of the most dangerous words in personal finance. They’re dangerous because "this time" is almost never different. This was explained to me by one of the smartest people in finance, Jim

Are we at the bottom of the recession? The stores I see are empty, except for grocery stores. The car dealers are disaster areas. But the airports are mobbed and hotels are jammed where I travel, which is pretty much everywhere. But more important

Recently I found myself on the top floor of One Chase Manhattan Plaza, a huge skyscraper near Wall Street. I was there to hear a panel on financial planning and to receive an award for my writings, including my writing in this space. As I waited and