Atlas Shrugged, anyone?
 

Don't know if this should be PARF or not...

Reading it for the third time right now. Once in my 20's, once as a 30 something. And now.

At first - couldn't relate all that well.

In my 30's - had worked at a CPA firm, got familiar with government regulation, then politics, then etc. Thought it could have been written in the 90's.

Now - OMG! It is now so relevant in makes you feel like she was a 20th Century Nostradamus(sp?).

IMHO of course!

Reading it now for the first time.

Astonishingly prescient.

If it were published in 2009, it would be seen as a thinly veiled attack on the current paradigm.

I bet it's not in any government school libraries.

The most amazingly accurate predictive book ever.

Not only predicted, 50 years in advance, the political and economic direction the US (and the world) would take, but also the results of having taken that path.

I'm about halfway through it right now - it's eerily prophetic.

I'm waiting for the Obama administration to announce the "Equalization of Opportunity Act". It'd fit right in.

We're living the book right now...

Just read The Fountainhead. Atlas Shrugged is next..

I am ready to move off to a secret valley and build cars out of Reardon metal!

How about the Anti-Dog Eat Dog Act?

I'm reading it now for the first time. It's unsettling to say the least.

I read it for the first time in 2003. Rand conveys her message with brutal effectiveness.

Wow! what a great handle. Is that your name. too?

I read Fountainhead and then Atlas Shrugged while in the Marine Corps, then I read Anthem and some of her other books. I read Atlas Shrugged again a few years ago and think I should read it again. The last time I read it The Clintons were in power and it seemed I could fit all that bunch into the book.
Who is John Galt?

Waiting to get my hands on my new Kindle and it will be one of the first books I order.

The Fountain Head and Atlas Shrugged are two of my favorites. I've read both several times.

Okay... I'm an avid reader, but I've never read anything by Ayn Rand, although I've been generally interested. When I first came across this thread, I went and did a little research between classes (I teach Literature). From the synopses I read, it seems that Rand's argument seems to be against any form of governmental restrictions on the market; I am not attempting to take a political stance here, nor am I attempting to insinuate that anybody here is wrong, but isn't the recent mortgage crisis seen by many to be the manifestation of a LACK of restrictions upon a market?

Like I said, I'm not leveling criticism here, but simply and honestly don't understand the parallel that ya'll are trying to make between our world and the world of "Atlas Shrugged." Please, clue me in; my reading list is backlogged right now, so it would be awhile before I could tackle another 1000+ page novel (I finished "Against the Day" a few months ago, and had to re-shelf "Mason & Dixon" for the time being due to writing and teaching obligations); I'm curious as to what the alleged parallels might be. Thanks! SmileWavy

One link would be the intervention BY the government in banking et al. forcing banks to lend where they didn't want to for fear of being labeled a red-liner. Then the Community Reinvestment Act. (I was the CFO for 18 years of a small So Cal bank - commercial loans only - but we were definitely pressured. And the FDIC would come in and clearly try and help us get around the rules to keep from making bad loans!

It's been 20 years since I read it. I thought it was a great book (along with Fountain Head), so I guess I'm not as liberal as I think I am.

An old roommate of mine, who's now an editor for a large publisher in NYC, though Rand was the biggest load of crap and couldn't stand when I mentioned it. So I guess you really like it or really hate it, but it definitely causes a reaction.

The EXACT opposite is true. In a free market, no bank would dare make sub-prime loans to folks who couldn't afford them. Congress used Fannie and Freddie as a tool to allow poor people home ownership. Congress forced the relaxation in lending standards to pursue "equality" in housing. Without this government interference, Fannie and Freddie would never have failed.

In Atlas Shrugged, the government passes laws in an attempt to force total equality in the marketplace. As each new regulation is passed, it causes a host of unintended consequences that cause an economic meltdown. This happens slowly at first, then with an accelerating pace until the economy is completely in shambles.

Contrast that with the whole subprime mess. This was created by the government forcing banks to lend to people who were not credit worthy. When that started to cause problems, we got TARP, then the second "stimulus", and now another rescue is being debated.

In both cases, the government created the problems, then tried to solve them by forcing businesses to act against their own self-interest.

To add to Legions' post, with each wave of intervention by government, more and more brilliant/productive people dropped out from society and moved out of reach of government.

Hmmm interesting points. To be honest, economics is one area of politics/government of which I have next to no knowledge nor understanding. It's an area that simply did not get absorbed in H.S. (although I was a very good student), and has flown over my head ever since. We all have our areas of weakness, I suppose...

Fine, I'll add the book to my reading list, after about a dozen others!

To echo what Moses and others have said, the financial industry is perhaps the most regulated/meddled with (Federal Reserve, FDIC, Fannie, Freddie, SEC) and politicized (housing policy, HUD, Community Reinvestment Act, etc) industry in the US economy.

Check out this video, as recommended in another thread:
http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reg_ls_financial_crisis

CJ,

Unfortunately, your lack of knowledge of economics is rife today...which is really too bad. The adage, "follow the money" is more important today than ever but the general public malaise surrounding the various stimuli(ous) packages is astounding.

No offense, but the folks spending your tax dollars count on your apathy. It is up to you.

So fly-by-night mortgage companies were forced to give out NINJA loans?

NINJA = (No Income, No Job, No Assets)

Thats not what I've heard. Some loan officers were making as much as $30K a week approving loans to anyone and everyone they could put into a house. Sounds pretty unregulated free-market to me.

The answer is a resounding YES! Fannie and Freddie were financing more than half the mortgages in our country and congress relaxed the lending rules.


Remember ACORN? They SUED Citicorp for not making "NINJA" loans.

Mat, consider that no lender left to make decisions on their own would ever give out a NINJA loan. Out of pure self-interest, the risk of default is too great.

Instead the gov interferred, and created an environment that seperated and hid the risk of default, and forced / encouraged risky mortgages.

This video is an Excellent overview of what has happened.
http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reg_ls_financial_crisis

It is lengthy, but well, well worth taking the time to watch.

ran with a girl in school. if you took her copy of the fountainhead, and laid it on it's spine it would just fall open to the "fireplace" scene. so naturally i became an objectivist.

one of the more prescient thngs in atlas shrugged was her description of various business leaders collaborating with the government. they will sacrifice principle for a momentary advantage. got to keep an eye on people like that.

^ And what exactly happens in the "fireplace scene," pray tell?

Same here. 1/2way through. Bought it based on the posts in PARF in January. Very interesting.

CJ, move Atlas up on your reading list. I'd love to hear your critique of it.

Fountainhead is ok, but it is not predictive like Atlas.

Whether you agree or disagree with the philosophy set forth in Atlas, you can't deny that what it said was going to happen to the US (and this is set forth in great detail) has happened, and is continuing to happen.

Many of the things being said by current politicians are almost verbatim out of speeches by politicians in the book.

I've read Atlas Shrugged 2x and on the 3rd. It is THE most amazing, thought-provoking, book I've ever read. It does seem drag on and on in some parts and Rand's writing style is not for everyone. You literally have to "plow" through some of it and re-read to understand. I would say it's more proof that things have not changed in the US political system in the past 50-60 years than being a prophetic story.

I bought it on CD. Edward Herman reads it. I highly recommend it. It gives you more time to understand her concepts instead of just trying to parse her long sentences.

Well, I'll have to go and get a copy. So many views on this book, it has to be good.

That and the type is making me go blind. I read on the cover that she was born/grew up in Russia? Amazing command of English and nuances in her writing.

Picked up a copy today - too bad the print is so small I can barely read it!

I would say that your most impressionable years are as a young adult. Rand was attending university in Moscow during the Bolshevik rebellion. She fled to the US via family in Chicago IIRC. She worked, in of all places, in Hollywood as an editor of screenplays. I fail to follow/agree with to her atheistic logic, and her real life story was fairly sordid, but Atlas Shrugged remains a testament to her ability to predict what weak government etc types can do to capitalism!

From Chapter 10:

"Wesley Mouch, Top Co-ordinator of the Bureau of Economic Planning and National Resources, was issuing a great many statements, the content and purpose of which could not be defined, except that the word "emergency powers" and "unbalanced economy" kept appearing in the text every few lines"

Wow!

It gets better. Keep reading.

If someone wants to lend me their copy i'd be happy to read it myself. :)