One of the best financial writers going today must be Ben Stein. He is also, I think, one of the smartest people in America.
Stein is a lawyer, writer, economist, and actor. Heck, he's even written speeches for Richard Nixon, and Win Ben Stein's Money was one of the few game shows that was actually relatively enjoyable to watch. He writes a column for Yahoo! finance and another column for the New York Times called Everybody's Business. His December column Success Is All in a Day's Work is something that I urge you to give to every single young person you know.
Stein also appeared recently on CBS Sunday morning with a message of calm for jittery investors:
The economy is still very strong. The most cagey players on Wall Street, like Goldman Sachs, are now trying to buy -- not sell -- as much distressed merchandise in the mortgage area as they can. This is a good clue about where the smart money is going.
You can panic if you enjoy being panicky. But this will all blow over and the people who buy now, in due time, will be glad they did.
I hope Ben Stein is right, and I think he is.