Herbert Stein (August 27, 1916 – September 8, 1999) was an Americaneconomist, a senior fellow at theAmerican Enterprise Institute, and a member of the board of contributors ofThe Wall Street Journal. He was the chairman of theCouncil of Economic Advisers underRichard Nixon andGerald Ford. From 1974 to 1984, he was the A. Willis Robertson Professor of Economics at theUniversity of Virginia.^[1]

Stein was born on August 27, 1916, inDetroit, Michigan, and his family moved to New York during theGreat Depression. He enrolled inWilliams College just before he turned 16. After graduating withPhi Beta Kappa honors, he went toWashington, DC, to work as an economist in various agencies. He received hisdoctorate in economics from theUniversity of Chicago in 1958.^[2]

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 actorBen Stein and the writer Rachel Stein. Herbert Stein was also the original writer for the advice columnDear Prudence.

Stein was known as apragmaticconservative and was referred to as "a liberal's conservative and a conservative's liberal."^[3] He was the author ofThe Fiscal Revolution in America.

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

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.^[4]

Stein propoundedStein's Law, which he expressed in 1986 as "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."^[5][6] Stein observed this logic in analyzing economic trends (such as risingUS federal debt in proportion toGDP, or increasing internationalbalance 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.^[7]

• Herbert Stein (1995).On the Other Hand – Essays on Economics, Economists, and Politics. American Enterprise Institute.ISBN 978-0-8447-3877-2.
• Herbert Stein (1996) [1969].The fiscal revolution in America: policy in pursuit of reality. AEI Press.ISBN 978-0-8447-3936-6.
• Herbert Stein (1994) [1984].Presidential economics: the making of economic policy from Roosevelt to Clinton. American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.ISBN 978-0-8447-3851-2.
• Stein, Herbert (1986). "The Washington Economics Industry".The American Economic Review.76 (2):1–9.JSTOR 1818725.
• Stein, Herbert (1960). "A Hard Look at America's Unfavorable Balance of Payments".The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.330:77–85.doi:10.1177/000271626033000117.JSTOR 1032988.S2CID 154591112.
• Stein, Herbert (2008)."Balance of Payments". InHenderson, David R. (ed.).The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.Library of Economics and Liberty (2nd ed.).Liberty Fund. pp. 27–29.ISBN 978-0865976665.

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