Editing Herbert Stein (section)

=== Stein's Law===
Stein propounded '''Stein's Law''', which he expressed in 1986 as "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."<ref>{{cite book|author=Herbert Stein|date=January 16, 1986|title=A Symposium on the 40th Anniversary of the Joint Economic Committee, Hearings Before the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, Ninety-Ninth Congress, First Session; Panel Discussion: The Macroeconomics of Growth, Full Employment, and Price Stability|series=S. HRG. ;99-637 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510030778307;view=1up;seq=270|access-date=June 4, 2018|page=262|quote=I recently came to a remarkable conclusion which I commend to you and that is that {{em|if something cannot go on forever it will stop}}. So, what we have learned about all these things is that the Federal debt cannot rise forever relative to the GNP. Our foreign debt cannot rise forever relative to the GNP. But, of course, if they can't, they will stop. [Emphasis added.]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/-130606-media-steins-law_094731626218.pdf|journal=The AEI Economist|title=Problems and Not-Problems of the American Economy|publisher=[[American Enterprise Institute]]|author=Herbert Stein|page=1|quote=I have tried to comfort people who worry about this [the budget deficit and the trade deficit] by propounding {{em|Stein's Law}}, which is that {{em|if something cannot go on forever, it will stop}}. [Emphasis added.]|year=1989|access-date=June 9, 2018}}</ref> Stein observed this logic in analyzing economic trends (such as rising [[government debt|US federal debt]] in proportion to [[GDP]], or increasing international [[balance of payments]] deficits, in his analysis): if such a process is limited by external factors, any failure to stop it through policy is not an insurmountable problem, since it is sure to stop regardless.<ref>{{cite web|title=Herb Stein's Unfamiliar Quotations|publisher=Slate magazine |author=Herbert Stein |date=1997-05-16|access-date=2007-09-24|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2561/}}</ref> A [[paraphrase]], not attributed to Stein, is "Trends that can't continue indefinitely won't."