Editing Herbert Stein

{{Short description|American economist (1916–1999)}}
{{About|the economist|the American football player|Herb Stein}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Herbert Stein
| office              = 9th Chair of the [[Council of Economic Advisers]]
| president           = {{ubl|[[Richard Nixon]]|[[Gerald Ford]]}}
| term_start          = January 1, 1972
| term_end            = August 31, 1974
| predecessor         = [[Paul McCracken (economist)|Paul McCracken]]
| successor           = [[Alan Greenspan]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1916|8|27}}
| birth_place         = [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|1999|9|8|1916|8|27}}}}
| death_place         = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
| party               = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| education           = {{ubl|[[Williams College]] {{small|([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])}}|[[University of Chicago]] {{small|([[Master of Arts|MA]], [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])}}}}
| module              = {{Infobox Economist
|child            = yes
|field            = {{ubl|[[Economic policy]]|[[Macroeconomics]]}}
|school_tradition = [[Chicago school of economics]]
|influences       = [[Milton Friedman]]}}
| children            = 2, including [[Ben Stein]]
}}

'''Herbert Stein''' (August 27, 1916 – September 8, 1999) was an American [[economist]], a senior fellow at the [[American Enterprise Institute]], and a member of the board of contributors of ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]''. He was the chairman of the [[Council of Economic Advisers]] under [[Richard Nixon]] and [[Gerald Ford]]. From 1974 to 1984, he was the A. Willis Robertson Professor of Economics at the [[University of Virginia]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia Judaica|last=Ronall|first=Joachim O.|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|year=2007|edition=2nd|volume=19|location=Detroit|pages=178–179}}</ref>

==Biography==
[[File:President Nixon meeting with economic advisors and Cabinet members - NARA - 194579.jpg|thumb|left|A meeting of [[Nixon administration]] economic advisors and cabinet members on May 7, 1974. Clockwise from [[Richard Nixon]]: [[George P. Shultz]], [[James T. Lynn]], [[Alexander M. Haig, Jr.]], [[Roy L. Ash]], Herbert Stein, and [[William E. Simon]].]]
Stein was born on August 27, 1916, in [[Detroit|Detroit, Michigan]], and his family moved to New York during the [[Great Depression]].  He enrolled in [[Williams College]] just before he turned 16. After graduating with [[Phi Beta Kappa]] honors, he went to [[Washington, DC]], to work as an economist in various agencies. He received his [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in economics from the [[University of Chicago]] in 1958.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|year=2002|editor-last=Jackson|editor-first=Kenneth T.|volume=5|location=New York|pages=555–556}}</ref>

Stein, who died September 8, 1999, in Washington, DC, was married to Mildred Stein, who died in 1997 after 61 years of marriage. He is the father of the lawyer, author, and actor [[Ben Stein]] and the writer Rachel Stein. Herbert Stein was also the original writer for the advice column [[Dear Prudence (advice column)|Dear Prudence]].

==Views==
Stein was known as a [[pragmatism|pragmatic]] [[conservatism in the United States|conservative]] and was referred to as "a liberal's conservative and a conservative's liberal."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1999/09/09/economist-herbert-stein-dies/11891c3f-ae80-49e2-96f7-a414ce7b85b1|newspaper=Washington Post|author=Richard Pearson|title=Economist Herbert Stein Dies|date=September 9, 1999|access-date=June 11, 2018}}</ref> He was the author of ''The Fiscal Revolution in America''.

In one article, Stein wrote that the people who wore an "[[Adam Smith]] necktie" did so to:

<blockquote>make a statement of their devotion to the idea of free markets and limited government. What stands out in [Smith's seminal work] ''Wealth of Nations,'' however, is that their patron saint was not pure or doctrinaire about this idea. He viewed government intervention in the market with great skepticism. He regarded his exposition of the virtues of the free market as his main contribution to policy, and the purpose for which his economic analysis was developed. Yet he was prepared to accept or propose qualifications to that policy in the specific cases where he judged that their net effect would be beneficial and would not undermine the basically free character of the system.<ref>[http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2006/06/09/adam-smith-did-not-wear-an-adam-smith-necktie/ "Adam Smith Did Not Wear an Adam Smith Necktie, ''Wall Street Journal,'' April 6, 1994]</ref></blockquote>

=== 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."

== Publications ==
*{{cite book|author=Herbert Stein|title=On the Other Hand - Essays on Economics, Economists, and Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WPo76WCDlHQC|year=1995|publisher=American Enterprise Institute|isbn=978-0-8447-3877-2}}
*{{cite book|author=Herbert Stein|title=The fiscal revolution in America: policy in pursuit of reality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BrQWAQAAMAAJ|year=1996|orig-year=1969|publisher=AEI Press|isbn=978-0-8447-3936-6}}
*{{cite book|author=Herbert Stein|title=Presidential economics: the making of economic policy from Roosevelt to Clinton|url=https://archive.org/details/presidentialecon00ste_s2c|url-access=registration|year=1994|orig-year=1984|publisher=American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research|isbn=978-0-8447-3851-2}}
*{{cite journal|author=Stein, Herbert|title=The Washington Economics Industry|journal=The American Economic Review|volume= 76| issue =  2|year=1986|pages=1–9|jstor=1818725}}
*{{cite journal|author=Stein, Herbert|title=A Hard Look at America's Unfavorable Balance of Payments|journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume=330|year=1960|pages=77–85|doi=10.1177/000271626033000117|jstor=1032988|s2cid=154591112}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{C-SPAN|538}}

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{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Paul McCracken (economist)|Paul McCracken]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chair of the [[Council of Economic Advisers]]|years=1972–1974}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Alan Greenspan]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{CEA Chairs}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Herbert}}
[[Category:1916 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century American economists]]
[[Category:Academics from Detroit]]
[[Category:American Enterprise Institute]]
[[Category:Chairs of the United States Council of Economic Advisers]]
[[Category:Economists from Michigan]]
[[Category:Ford administration personnel]]
[[Category:Member of the Mont Pelerin Society]]
[[Category:Nixon administration personnel]]
[[Category:20th-century people from New York (state)]]
[[Category:University of Chicago alumni]]
[[Category:University of Virginia alumni]]
[[Category:University of Virginia faculty]]
[[Category:Washington, D.C., Republicans]]
[[Category:Williams College alumni]]