Writer, Actor Ben Stein Reflects on Washington and Hollywood

Presidential speechwriter, Hollywood consultant, actor, lawyer and economist Ben Stein has had a varied career. With a degree in economics from Columbia University and law from Yale, Ben Stein became a lawyer and speechwriter for President Nixon, jumping into a political landscape that still looks the same. He says people were angry in politics when he worked for Nixon and are angry now. He sees little difference in the partisan attacks that defined the Watergate era and those that are the daily fare of Washington now. Stein worked for Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford, as well Nixon. Stein made his mark by delivering a monotone, boring lecture in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Stein found meanness in Hollywood as well. He says he had to file lawsuits nearly every time he was a producer, because people kept stealing his ideas. Stein say there’s a lot of things you don’t want to do in Hollywood, but one you do. He says that in Hollywood you want to be on the set, because everyone is happy on the set and there is always plenty of food. Stein has come full circle, now writing and talking about economics. Stein headlines at conferences sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, which brought him to a conference at the Lake of the Ozarks. He likens his frequent appearances on Fox News to a food fight that lacks facts, figures and intellectual rigor. Stein has written 16 books, but remains most famous for that boring, monotone delivery as a teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.