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 Maestro's Own Words Condemn Him
By David Bahnsen | 09/05/09
Former Federal Reserve chairman is a main character in the economic collapse of 2008, despite his three years spent trying to turn down the role. The role of the Federal Reserve warrants substantial discussion when looking at the events of last year, not only for their actions and inactions in the years prior to the meltdown, but also for their dramatic actions during the crisis, and the role they will play in the future. But Bill... read more »
2 Comments | Related Topics »National |
Thomas Sowell tells it like it is in The Housing Boom and Bust
By David Bahnsen | 08/27/09
The brilliant Thomas Sowell has jumped in the fray of dissecting the 2008 economic collapse. His book is particularly focused on the housing market, an area of economics he understands as well as anyone. I very much doubt that my series of book reviews will cover too many more books that I enjoyed as much as this one. This is a valuable, readable, concise, and delightful work. The advantage in reading Thomas Sowell about the housing... read more »
Book Review on the Fall of Lehman Brothers
By David Bahnsen | 08/03/09
A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers – by Lawrence C. McDonald Reviewed by David L. Bahnsen My new series reviewing each and every book that comes out regarding the economic collapse of 2008 is bound to cover a lot of topics – many factual and historical, while many others philosophical and ideological. The intent of the series is to not allow any major books to get away... read more »
0 Comments | Related Topics »National |
"House of Cards" Reviewed: What Have We Learned?
By David Bahnsen | 07/25/09
I announced last week the intention to write a review of every significant book that comes out as either a commentary or history of the financial crisis of 2008. Some of the books will prove to be very astute. Some will carry with them a malignant political bias. Some will simply be, well, stupid. My agenda is to provide an aggregate review of the biggest financial storm since the Great Depression that does not allow for... read more »
Financial Crisis Reviewed Part I
By David Bahnsen | 07/22/09
I am starting a series of book reviews on each and every major book hitting the market dealing with the financial crisis of 2008. I not only am a student of this history, having lived through it and worked through it, but I also am of the opinion that the way history gets written about this crisis is going to have a profound effect on future policy. Accurately recording what took place, and what the causes and reactions were, is... read more »
6 Comments | Related Topics »National |
My Reply to Greenhut's Cheap Broadside
By David Bahnsen | 07/16/09
I am going to keep this as short as possible. Steve Greenhut and I agree that “guilt by association” is a logical fallacy. It is no replacement for sound thinking, and it has no place in the world of intelligent discourse. But as a reply to Greenhut’s abominable post about me on the OC Register blog this week, the difference is this: He is trying to make me “guilty by association” when he knows with 100% certainty... read more »
46 Comments | Related Topics »Orange County (CA) | National |
Goldman Sachs Sucker-Punched by Rolling Stone
By David Bahnsen | 07/06/09
Good writers have a huge advantage in the task of persuasion over mediocre or poor ones. The famous music magazine, Rolling Stone, tasked a gifted writer, Matt Taibbi, with writing an expose on the Wall Street behemoth, Goldman Sachs. Somehow, Mr. Taibbi’s impressive writing skills proved quite inadequate in his recent effort to demonize the famed investment bank, for sometimes, even good writing can not cover up complete ignorance,... read more »
6 Comments | Related Topics »National |
Contrasting Philosophies for Independence Day
By David Bahnsen | 07/04/09
Happy Fourth of July to all of you. The incredible blessing of our nation’s freedom cannot be overlooked today, nor can the spirit and vigor with which it was earned. Because I have spent the last six months in utter fear and shock at quotes like these here, I thought your Independence Day might benefit from the quotes I provide beneath them: “There will be a time again for making profits, but those times are not... read more »
6 Comments | Related Topics »National |
Gov. Sanford Should Resign Right Now
By David Bahnsen | 06/24/09
It would be hard for the Governor to have a bigger fan than me this side of Greenville. Though he has been adored in South Carolina where he has admirably served for years and years, he is not well known outside of South Carolina (until now), and I have done my best to change that. I ate dinner with the Governor at the Club for Growth conference in Palm Beach last March, and was taken aback by his intelligence and economic... read more »
The Road to Serfdom Reviewed Today
By David Bahnsen | 06/09/09
It is not often that I read a book I have already read five times, and it is certainly not often that I review such a book. Time does not enable me to do either of these things very often, so clearly I must have had a pretty good reason to pull down Hayek’s 1944 masterpiece off my library shelves despite the dozens of books ahead of it on the “to be read list”. I really have read the book multiple times, and I have been... read more »
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