CONTRIBUTOR
REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES / NATIONAL IMPACT
David Bahnsen
Member For
1 year 50 weeks
BIOGRAPHY
David L. Bahnsen, CFP®, works as a Senior Vice President in the private client group of one of the premier Wall Street firms in the country, where he provides financial planning and investment management services to individuals and families. He and his wife of eight years (Joleen) reside in Newport Beach, CA with their four-year old son, Mitchell, and two-year old daughter, Sadie. He is an active board member of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, where he serves on the Executive Committee and chairs the Issues Committee. He is a contributing writer to, and investing partner in, Red County.com. He serves on the Blackstone Faculty of the Alliance Defense Fund, and is a Cooperating Board member of the Center for Cultural Leadership, where he is the Senior Fellow of Economics and Finance.
David is a disciple of Milton Friedman, a lover of Ronald Reagan, and a "National Review kind of conservative". His writings strive to reflect an ideology of freedom principles integrated with transcendent truths. His hero is his late father, Dr. Greg Bahnsen, but he is pretty fond of John Calvin, Abraham Kuyper, F.A. Hayek, Winston Churchill, C.S. Lewis, William Buckley, Margaret Thatcher, George Gilder, Steve Forbes, and Larry Kudlow as well. When he is not being so serious, he also admires Tiger Woods and Pete Carroll.
Hobbies include travel, fine dining, golfing, and sports. His true passions in life include anything pertaining to USC football, the financial markets, politics, his vacation condo in the desert, his gorgeous and brilliant children, and his lovely wife, Joleen.
COMMENTARIES
The Christian Right's New Face: It's the Economy, Stupid!
By David Bahnsen | 11/19/09
On Tuesday night I attended the annual dinner of the Family Research Council, an event I served on the host committee for and helped to sponsor (full disclosure). Michelle Malkin was the keynote speaker, and FRC President, Tony Perkins, anecdotally addressed the crowd a few times. Tony has become a public leader in the "Christian Right", appearing frequently on CNN and Fox News, consistently advocating the... read more »
3 Comments | Related Topics »National |
"Too Big to Fail" is Too Good to Miss
By David Bahnsen | 11/17/09
The litany of books on the 2008 economic crisis covers a lot of ground. There are a plethora of good books that have come out thus far (and plenty of bad ones). My reading has already taken me through some books that I find dangerous in their ideology, but also some that are remarkably astute. What I have not come across until this latest addition to the series is a book that was nearly impossible to put down. Andrew Ross Sorkin’s Too Big... read more »
0 Comments | Related Topics »National |
The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Rise of Freedom
By David Bahnsen | 11/09/09
Twenty years ago today was far more than just the fall of the Berlin Wall. No, it was not "the end of history", as Fukiyama suggested a few years later. This event, coinciding with the fall of the brutal Soviet Empire, and made possible by Communism's failure in the Eastern bloc of Europe, was not a catalyst to a new utopian human existence. The fall of the Berlin Wall did not guarantee that there would be no future... read more »
0 Comments | Related Topics »National |
An Open Letter to Every Republican Running for Office in 2010
By David Bahnsen | 11/06/09
Dear Republican Candidate for Office (incumbent or otherwise) – We hope and trust that you are celebrating with us the results of the election Tuesday night. There may be a lot of work to do, but we have to celebrate baby steps these days, and seeing Republicans overwhelmingly elected in states that voted so dramatically the other way just one year ago can only be taken as a huge positive. Well, it is a huge positive if... read more »
7 Comments | Related Topics »National |
Huff and Puff and Blow the Big Tent Down
By David Bahnsen | 11/03/09
If you have not heard the new gospel of political wisdom -that for Republicans to ever win elections again, they need to think and vote like Democrats – then you are living under a rock. If you have not heard the expression, “big tent Republicanism” (a reference to a very inclusive kind of Republicanism that defines “Republicans” as – “all sorts of non-Republicans”), you have been asleep. If you... read more »
2 Comments | Related Topics »National |
Wow! The Stimulus is Creating $1 Million Jobs!!!
By David Bahnsen | 11/02/09
If you believe the numbers coming from the Obama administration's own mouth, the stimulus plan has created (or saved) 640,329 jobs so far. At a cost of $787 billion, that comes out to $1,229,056 per job. Good work if you can get it! Of course, these workers are not making $1.23 million per year. They are making less than $70,000. The vast majority of these jobs are public sector administrative jobs hired to oversee work... read more »
5 Comments | Related Topics »National |
The Left Doesn't Want You to be Happy!
By David Bahnsen | 10/30/09
I was blessed to spend this evening at the Acton Institute's annual dinner event in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For those unfamiliar with Acton, change that now. They are a breath of fresh air in a day and age where the moral foundation of freedom has been abandoned, and the moral superiority of free markets has been forgotten. Their co-founder, Father Sirico, is a friend and patriot. He is a scholar in Catholic social thought,... read more »
2 Comments | Related Topics »National |
Is Christianity Good for the World?
By David Bahnsen | 10/26/09
Is Christianity good for the world? That's the question asked in the DVD, Collision, an important work which releases tomorrow that I heartily commend. The immensely talented and passionate Darren Doane has directed a gripping piece highlighting the debate over God’s existence between Pastor Doug Wilson of Moscow, Idaho and the well-known secular writer, Christopher Hitchens. The video is gripping, the participants are most-compelling,... read more »
16 Comments | Related Topics »National |
The Murder of Lehman Brothers
By David Bahnsen | 10/25/09
I am not really sure where to start in reviewing Joseph Tibman’s new book, The Murder of Lehman Brothers. Like the preceding book on Lehman’s extraordinary fall (see my review of A Collosal Failure of Common Sense here), there is plenty of riveting stuff here, especially if read as a narrative. I should start my review by informing readers that we do not know who the author is. Joseph Tibman is an alias (shorthand for “The... read more »
3 Comments | Related Topics »National |
California Tax Commissions Plan Misses the Major Point
By David Bahnsen | 10/22/09
The final report from the Commission on the 21st Century Economy has completed the work that Governor Schwarenegger commissioned them to do via executive order, specifically that they "set the commission to the task of evaluating and proposing reforms of California's tax system, to realize a revenue stream that is more stable and reflective of the state economy." The biartisan committee completed their work and has submitted it... read more »
1 Comment | Related Topics »CALIFORNIA |
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