Ben Stein

Ben Stein is a lawyer, economist, and commentator on finance (and a well-known actor and Hollywood personality).

He served as an economist at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He has been a longtime contributor to Barron's and a columnist and editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal. He has also written extensively about finance for New York magazine and The Washington Post.

In addition to writing for Yahoo! Finance, he currently writes a biweekly column on economics and finance for The New York Times and appears weekly on the Fox News network commenting on finance and economics.

He is the author of several personal finance books, including "How to Ruin Your Financial Life," "Moneypower: How to Make Inflation Make You Rich," "Financial Passages," and - with Phil DeMuth - the best sellers "Yes, You Can Time the Market," "Yes, You Can Be a Successful Income Investor," and the forthcoming "Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably." He grew up in Silver Spring, Md. His father was Herbert Stein, the well known economist. He graduated from Columbia University in New York City in 1966 with honors in economics. He studied law and economics at Yale from 1967 to 1970 and graduated from Yale Law School as valedictorian in 1970.