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Ben Stein

Award-winning Actor, Writer, Game Show Host, Economist

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Fee Range: 40000-74999
  • Economist
  • Longtime Columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Barrons and The New York Times
  • Speech Writer and Aide for Presidents Nixon and Ford
  • Emmy-winning Television Gameshow Host
  • Commentator for CBS News, Fox News and CNN
  • Award-winning Commentator on Finance

*Fee ranges are presented as a guideline only. Speaker fees are subject to change without notice. For an exact quote, please contact your Speaker Exchange Agency representative.

Ben Stein is the most famous economics teacher in history. This is due to his iconic scene as the annoying economics teacher in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, which included the famous quotes “Anyone? Anyone?” and “Bueller? Bueller?”. These quotes have become standard in our daily life. The scene was even voted one of the 50 most famous scenes in American movie history.

But in real life, off screen, Ben Stein is a compelling, extremely humorous speaker about economics, politics and daily life in America. He is an award winning, best selling, economist, lawyer, and teacher (but funny and lively in real life). He studied economics at Columbia and Yale, and studied law at Yale under some of the most famous economists and jurists in the nation. He has written path-breaking analyses of how finance works, what motivates business decision making, what causes economic crises, and what resolves them.

Ben has been a columnist and analyst of economic, legal and cultural behavior for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, The Washington Post, Yahoo Finance and many other publications.

In 2009, he won the Malcolm Forbes Award for Excellence in Financial Writing.

Ben is also the author of dozens of books about economics and finance, the last several of which were New York Times best sellers—Yes, You Can Time Market; Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably; The Wiley Little Book of Bulletproof Investing; and The Wiley Little Book of Alternative Investments, among others. His books on finance in the last several years were co-written with the distinguished and much sought after asset manager Philip DeMuth.

He is a regular contributor to Fox News, a long time commentator on CBS Sunday Morning, and a very frequent guest on CNN.

Ben also writes a very long running column for The American Spectator and has been writing for NewsMax for years.

He is a frequent speaker to powerful groups of business and finance leaders, as well as to charitable and scholarly groups, where his skill is making even economics funny, touching, and understandable. His father, Herbert Stein, was known as the most humorous of economists and Ben followed in his footsteps.

But what really sets him apart is that he has also had a major career as a writer and performer in Hollywood. In addition to his work in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” Stein also played a teacher for three years on “The Wonder Years,” and was host and contestant for almost 1,000 episodes of “Win Ben Stein’s Money” on Comedy Central, for which he and co-host Jimmy Kimmel won an Emmy for Best Game Show Host. (The show itself won 7 Emmys.)

He was also host of the talk show, “Turn Ben Stein On,” on Comedy Central, and co-host of “Star Search” for three years on CBS. Ben was co-host of “America’s Most Smartest Model” on VH-1 and he wrote a number of highly award winning screenplays and teleplays.

Ben was an adjunct teacher of economics, politics, and culture at American University, The University of California at Santa Cruz, and Pepperdine University.

He was a speechwriter in The White House for Richard M. Nixon and for Gerald R. Ford. He was closely involved with the George W. Bush administration and through his father, the well known economist Herbert Stein, has had a pipeline into the inside of Washington since the Eisenhower Administration.

He is extremely involved in bringing acknowledgement and family recovery to the
surviving spouses, orphans, and parents of American warriors killed in the fight against terrorism. This has been and continues to be a major commitment in his life.

Ben is deeply involved in various cultural movements, especially those that question political correctness and halts inquiry into issues about evolution and life’s origins. He was the host of the controversial documentary about political correctness on campus, “Expelled.”

He lives with his wife, Alexandra Denman (former lawyer,) six cats and three large dogs in Beverly Hills. He is active in pro-animal and pro-life charitable events.

Ben Stein on Life

Ben Stein is a profoundly unique individual who has had the good fortune to have “been there and done that” in a myriad of professions that many of us only dream about, see on television, or read about in the news. Always entertaining, always informative and possessing expertise in everything from law to laughs, Ben Stein will leave your audience with useful insight (if you want it!) or simply great memories of a fun time had by all.

Ben Stein on the Economy

In election after election there is endless complaining about waste, fraud and abuse in Washington. Each batch of candidates promises to clean it up, but somehow it never happens. With the latest economic debacle in full tilt, one thing is for certain — you and I will pick up the monster-sized bill in many different ways. What is missing is more regulation from Washington and more prosecution, not less. Ben Stein shares these insights and more regarding the current economy, what prompted this fiasco and what must be done to dig us out.

Ben Stein on the Economic Crisis

What is needed–a positive policy for moral and economic recovery. How we got into this mess, how bad is it, and how are we going to get out-and make sure it never happens again.

Ben Stein at Universities and Colleges

What Does It All Mean for You? The Economic Meltdown: How It Happened and How You Can Survive It and Thrive

Ben Stein for Humorous Events

How to ruin your life. Updated for all occasions.

A Positive Program To Beat the Retirement Crisis

A step by step plan for the nation, each company’s employees, each retiree to be enable to retire comfortably by careful and highly DIVERSIFIED and RISK AVERSE saving and investing. I will lay out how we got into the retirement mess, how much short we are, and how as a nation we can get to a better place. I will also set out a plan to save and invest with the help of financial professionals so that the investor’s money grows—while avoiding the risks of catastrophic downturns without taking unnecessary risks. This is a speech for people who seriously want to retire comfortably and help others do so. It involves discussion of a wide range of investment vehicles with emphasis on the financial professionals’ role in getting a decent retirement.

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