Prophet of Doom In 1976, economist Herbert Stein, father of Ben Stein, the economics professor in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, observed that U.S. government debt was on an unsustainable trajectory. He, thus, established Stein’s Law: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Herbert Stein, looking worried about the budget deficit. [PT] Stein may have been right in theory. Yet the unsustainable trend of U.S. government debt outlasted...