Ben Stein, the anti-Chicken Little

Ah, Ben Stein, always good for a chuckle. Here he defends himself against those who are irate that he didn't foretell the Wall Street meltdown.

Ever the skilled propagandist, Stein changes the question to suit his needs. The question should have been "why did you reassure us that nothing was wrong?" Stein didn't just fail to foresee the distaster—he actively denied that anything was wrong or that anything bad could possibly be in the cards. And he was dismissive to any arguments on the other side, arguments that turned out to be completely correct. With his know-it-all air, which he earned by portraying an intelligent person in various tv/movie roles, Stein told us how it was: there is nothing to worry about; go back to sleep.

His excuse, which I accurately predicted he'd have rather than fessing up to cluelessness, was that by not bailing out Lehman Brothers, the Fed caused the disaster. Without that mistake, everything would have been okay. In other words, the major government intervention that was already happening didn't go far enough to save the free market from itself. Coming from an almost reactionary laissez-faire conservative, that is just rich.

So since nobody could have foreseen it, Stein takes himself off the hook. Unbelievable. Even Alan Greenspan admitted he was "partially wrong" the other day.

It's one thing to not see the sky is falling; it's another to deny that it might ever fall. Stein did the latter, and once again showed why he is the worst pseudo-economist the major media keeps (inexplicably) trotting out to keep the unwashed masses in line and apart from the deservedly rich.