Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ben Stein

What follows is an email I sent to Ben Stein yesterday after reading his column in Sunday's New York Times Business section, "It's Time to Take a Deep Breath."

Dear Ben,

Well, the first days are the hardest days,
don't you worry anymore
When life looks like Easy Street
there is danger at your door.
Think this through with me
Let me know your mind
Wo-oah, what I want to know
is are you kind?
--The Grateful Dead, "Uncle John's Band"

I read with interest your New York Times column in the Sunday Business section.

It might be time to take a deep breath. But for another reason, to recognize the dramatic and the cumulative impact of excessive debt/leverage creation on our citizenry (especially the consumer-kind) and to consider the ramifications of the Black Swan of Credit event that awaits the unwind.

In your article, you have basically recounted the same argument that you have used in prior columns. You write that "the percentage of those who have defaulted is still fairly small." In other words, all will be well, as market participants are overreacting to an isolated credit situation and the Fed will pull us out of this limited mess.

Disappointingly you added Cramer to your criticism, using him as a symptom of the overzealous media. Jim is an easy target, too easy, and you take advantage of it in a derisive comment. I, too, have been at odds with Jim but, quite frankly, have defended him over the last few years because he is generally well-informed; he educates the individual investor (who believes too much of what he hears in the media), and has actually walked the walk (not just talked the talk) in running a successful hedge fund.