Columnist Ben Stein

It's spring. The weather out here in Malibu is fabulous, although cool at night, as always. This past weekend, I made a roaring fire and spent the evening studying my stock brokerage statements for the past year. It made for depressing reading.

Now for a few words that may give you some guidance on life as it is. Last week, my pal Mike Long and I had dinner at a Thai place in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Then we walked one long, steep block to Barnes & Noble so I could buy a few photo books

My old dad, may he rest in peace, taught me many things. One of the best lessons came in 1956 (yes, in 1956, when I was in the sixth grade) when I brought home some data a teacher had given me. It said that according to a crank named Stuart Chase,

Let me be the first to agree: The finance news lately is bad. The collapse of venerable firm Bear Stearns in the past few days has been dazzling. The company was supposed to be worth a bare minimum of $80 per share. It turns out to have been worth

This is going to be a bit controversial. Bear in mind that I often make mistakes and could be wrong about some of this, but it's all food for thought. Irrational Pessimism First of all, markets are made up of human beings, and human beings can be