Kass: Ben Stein Whistles Past Mortgage Mess

This blog post originally appeared on RealMoney Silver on Aug. 15 at 8:20 a.m. EDT.

From my perch, one of the most astonishing features of the recent decline in stocks and rise in credit spreads is the smug rejection of the notion that "things have changed" -- particularly of a credit nature.

No better view of the ostrich-in-the-sand mentality was delivered than by warm and cuddly actor/lawyer/columnist/comedian/economist/
Clear Eyes shill Ben Stein in this weekend's business section of the New York Times, and then again on CNBC Monday evening.

In the past, I have admired the common sense and logic of argument in Stein's writings. Maybe Stein was acting this week, as he did in the role of the economics teacher in the classic movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. After all, on Sir Larry Kudlow's show, Stein suggested that the mortgage lenders will "end up fine," and he concluded that the subprime mess is a media hoax in an attempt to "talk America into a panic." Excuse me?...