Título: Ben Stein
Seção: Writing career
Background: Stein was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Mildred (nee Fishman), a homemaker, and Herbert Stein, a writer, economist, and presidential adviser. He is Jewish and grew up in the Woodside Forest neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland. Stein graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in 1962 along with classmate journalist Carl Bernstein (class of 1960); actress Goldie Hawn (class of 1963) was one year behind.

Conteúdo: Stein writes frequently on a variety of topics, including politics, investing, and economics. He writes a regular column in the conservative magazines The American Spectator and Newsmax. He has also written for numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Penthouse, Los Angeles Magazine, and Barron's Magazine, where his discussion of the Michael Milken Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond situation, as well as the ethical dimensions of management buyouts, attracted heavy US national attention in the 1980s and 1990s. He wrote a regular biweekly column for Yahoo! Finance online, with his last article dated August 7, 2009. His bestselling books (with investment advisor Phil DeMuth) include Yes, You Can Retire Comfortably, Can America Survive?, and Yes, You Can Time the Market. In 2009, he published a collection of essays, The Real Stars.  Stein was fired from his position as a Sunday Business columnist at The New York Times in August 2009, due to a policy prohibiting writers from performing product endorsements or advertising. Stein had recently become an advertising spokesman for credit information company Freescore.com, and according to a Times statement, had assumed there would be no conflict provided that he did not discuss credit scoring in general or FreeScore.com itself in his column. However, the publication felt that it would be inappropriate for him to write for them while he was involved in advertising, and terminated his

user: Was Ben a writer?

assistant: Stein writes frequently on a variety of topics,

user: Did he have any best sellers?

assistant: His bestselling books (with investment advisor Phil DeMuth) include Yes, You Can Retire Comfortably, Can America Survive?, and Yes, You Can Time the Market.

user: Did he win any awards?

assistant: CANNOTANSWER

user: Did he write any other books?

assistant: He has also written for numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Penthouse, Los Angeles Magazine, and Barron's Magazine,

user: Is he well liked?

assistant: Stein was fired from his position as a Sunday Business columnist at The New York Times in August 2009,

user: Why was he fired from his position?

assistant: due to a policy prohibiting writers from performing product endorsements or advertising.

user: Was he guilty of this?

assistant: Stein had recently become an advertising spokesman for credit information company Freescore.com, and according to a Times statement, had assumed there would be no conflict

user: Was he shammed for this?

assistant: the publication felt that it would be inappropriate for him to write for them while he was involved in advertising, and terminated his contract.