http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=ar2de0RP4ebo June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Imagine a novel of more than a thousand pages, published half a century ago. The author doesn’t have a talk-radio show and has been dead for 27 years. As for the storyline, it is beyond dated: Humorless executives fight with humorless public officials over an industry that is, today, almost irrelevant to the... [more]
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=ar2de0RP4ebo
June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Imagine a novel of more than a thousand pages, published half a century ago. The author doesn’t have a talk-radio show and has been dead for 27 years.
As for the storyline, it is beyond dated: Humorless executives fight with humorless public officials over an industry that is, today, almost irrelevant to the U.S. economy - - railroads. The prose itself is a disconcerting mixture of philosophy, industrial policy, and bodice-ripping: “The wind blew her hair to blend with his. She knew why he had wanted to walk through the mountains tonight.”
In short, you would think “Atlas Shrugged” might be long forgotten.
Instead, Ayn Rand’s novel is remembered more than ever. This year the book is selling at a faster rate than last year. Last year, sales were about 200,000, higher than any year before that, including 1957, when the book was published.
Some assumed the libertarian philosopher would fall from view when the Berlin Wall fell. Or that at least there would be a sense of mission accomplished. One Rand fan, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, wrote in his memoir that he regretted Rand hadn’t lived until 1989 or 1990. She’d missed the collapse of communism that she had so often predicted.
But “Atlas Shrugged” is becoming a political “Harry Potter” because Rand shone a spotlight on a problem that still exists: Not pre-1989 Soviet communism, but 2009-style state capitalism. Rand depicted government and companies colluding in the name of economic rescue at the expense of the entrepreneur. That entrepreneur is like the titan Atlas who carries the rest of the world on his shoulders -- until he doesn’t.
Back Ache
You get the feeling plenty of Atlases are shrugging these days, in part because their tax burden is getting heavier. It’s interesting to compare sales of “Atlas Shrugged,” provided by the Ayn Rand Institute, to Internal Revenue Service distribution tables.
In 1986, a year when “Atlas Shrugged” sold between 60,000 and 80,000 copies, the top 1 percent of earners paid 26 percent of the income tax. By 2000, that 1 percent was paying 37 percent, and “Atlas Shrugged” sales were at 120,000. By 2006, the top 1 percent carried 40 percent of the burden.
Yet President Barack Obama has made it clear he would like to see the rich pay a greater share. Anyone irked at that prospect can find consolation in Rand’s fantasy, in which the most valued professionals evaporate from the work place because of such demands.
Sounding Weird
The hard-money monologue of Rand’s copper king, Francisco d’Anconia, used to sound weird. Who even thought about gold in the early 1990s? Now, D’Anconia’s lecture on the unreliable dollar sounds like it could have been scripted by Zhou Xiaochuan, or some other furious Chinese central banker:
“Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, ‘Account overdrawn.’”
Other “Atlas Shrugged” characters are likewise relevant: Orren Boyle of Associated Steel, one of the corrupt businessmen, is so skilled at anticipating what government will do that he could have taught Jeff Immelt a few tricks. Wesley Mouch, the Washington fringe-character-turned-politician who unexpectedly makes his way to center stage, recalls Timothy Geithner at Treasury in his early days.
Game of Pretend
Rand knew that government tends to drive the most- productive economic figures away even as it pretends to utilize them. Today’s shortage of primary care doctors serves as an example. Various administrations, Democratic and Republican, have tried to nudge more medical students into primary care. Young doctors simply haven’t complied. That is in part because of the higher compensation of specialties. But it is also because the great charm of being a primary care doctor -- autonomy to work in a range of areas -- has been removed.
Rand foresaw this: “Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce,” says one of her characters. “It is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled.”
Long before managed-care existed, Rand was describing doctors’ frustration with it.
Most compelling is Rand’s understanding of how politicians’ lack of imagination can kill economies. Of all American governors, Arnold Schwarzenegger of California is the one who most resembles Rand’s outsized characters.
Missing Gene
Yet Schwarzenegger seems to be missing the Rand gene. His policies are all pain and no growth. As the Randerati have been quick to note, California’s uncompetitive treatment of film production is driving Hollywood out of California. Yet Schwarzenegger moved disappointingly late to sign legislation that would even begin to address that problem.
Rand’s persistent heroine Dagny Taggart lectures a public official, but substitute Schwarzenegger for the official and the dialogue still makes sense:
Dagny: “Start decontrolling.”
Schwarzenegger: “Huh?”
Dagny: “Start lifting taxes and removing controls.”
Schwarzenegger: “Oh no, no, no, that’s out of the question.”
Dagny: “Out of whose question?”
In short, it’s time for all of us in policy land to tip our collective hat -- though she detested collective anythings -- to Ayn Rand. Politics today is proving dramatic enough to change even literary tastes.
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ut as the largest bailout in government history unfolded in almost dizzying waves over recent days, a very different view prevailed at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, an outpost of free-market, anti-government thinking located just a few blocks from the newly aggressive and highly interventionist Department of Treasury in downtown Washington.
"It's a complete disaster," said Yaron Brook, the executive director of the center. "Its a form of national socialism of the financial markets...This is socialism 101."
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Response by Riversider
about 17 years ago
Posts: 13573
Member since: Apr 2009
Massive financial bailouts drive up sales of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged
For FUCKS sake, can you please take this Politics/Economic talk to a POLITICS forum? Your drive by posting of everything Obama/Democrats is so fucking annoying.
NOBODY HERE GIVES A SHIT you fugging loser.
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Response by The_President
about 17 years ago
Posts: 2412
Member since: Jun 2009
I agree. The political stuff is starting to get annoying. If you want to post anti-Obama stuff, then do it on World Net Daily. You'll have lots of fun on that site talking to the birthers.
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Response by evnyc
about 17 years ago
Posts: 1844
Member since: Aug 2008
Yawn. And please...
"In short, you would think “Atlas Shrugged” might be long forgotten."
Cam we let Atlas shrugged be forgotten? Along with The Fountainhead? Because frankly, both books sucked like Hoover vacuum cleaners.
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Response by falcogold1
about 17 years ago
Posts: 4159
Member since: Sep 2008
look...up in the sky...it's a bird, it's a plane...no!...it's wonderboy!
out on a weekend pass or is this another trial run at mainstreaming?
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Response by CB123
about 17 years ago
Posts: 132
Member since: Mar 2009
This thread was gone. Why bring it back front just to say it has no place here? Talk about a loser...
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Response by alanhart
about 17 years ago
Posts: 12397
Member since: Feb 2007
She's the antichrist, so take it to a religious forum. I'm sure nobody at any political forum would be interested in reading it.
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Response by Ubottom
about 17 years ago
Posts: 740
Member since: Apr 2009
the most prominent outspoken ayn rander of our time: alan greenspan, mr new paridigm
he laissez faired us to this lovely economic period in which we all live
birthing death paneler--have you read palin's work?--she'd be a good next read for you
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Response by malthus
about 17 years ago
Posts: 1333
Member since: Feb 2009
I'm sure sales of The Turner Diaries are probably up right now as well.
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Response by Riversider
about 17 years ago
Posts: 13573
Member since: Apr 2009
What does Gold spike & U.S. dollar falling say about our Economy?
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Response by malthus
about 17 years ago
Posts: 1333
Member since: Feb 2009
That we are now paying the price of a multi-decade deregulation spree and will be for some time.
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Response by Ubottom
about 17 years ago
Posts: 740
Member since: Apr 2009
check the vastly superior state of solvency of the canadian banks and insurance companies
better regulation, better enforcement, way fewer economic troubles
also nationalized health care that the populace is generally quite pleased with
check recissions
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Response by petrfitz
about 17 years ago
Posts: 2533
Member since: Mar 2008
any one who reads or references Ayn Rand is a complete partisan moron.
Some years ago when I worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, we used to label any new hire who had not yet read "Atlas Shrugged" a "virgin." Being conversant in Ayn Rand's classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement. If only "Atlas" were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I'm confident that we'd get out of the current financial mess a lot faster.
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Response by Riversider
about 17 years ago
Posts: 13573
Member since: Apr 2009
For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.
In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as "the looters and their laws." Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. These include the "Anti-Greed Act" to redistribute income (sounds like Charlie Rangel's promises soak-the-rich tax bill) and the "Equalization of Opportunity Act" to prevent people from starting more than one business (to give other people a chance). My personal favorite, the "Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Act," aims to restrict cut-throat competition between firms and thus slow the wave of business bankruptcies. Why didn't Hank Paulson think of that?
These acts and edicts sound farcical, yes, but no more so than the actual events in Washington, circa 2008. We already have been served up the $700 billion "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act" and the "Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act." Now that Barack Obama is in town, he will soon sign into law with great urgency the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." This latest Hail Mary pass will increase the federal budget (which has already expanded by $1.5 trillion in eight years under George Bush) by an additional $1 trillion -- in roughly his first 100 days in office.
Atlas Shrugged received largely negative reviews after its 1957 publication,[7] but achieved enduring popularity and consistent sales in the following decades. In the wake of the late 2000s recession sales of Atlas Shrugged have sharply increased, according to The Economist magazine and The New York Times. The Economist reported that the fifty-two-year-old novel ranked #33 among Amazon.com's top-selling books on 13 January, 2009.[8]
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Response by Ubottom
about 17 years ago
Posts: 740
Member since: Apr 2009
good points rs---if we'd regulated our banks properly in the first place, none of this grabbing at straws would be going on now
cato=partisan garbage can
soak the poor!!! those damned leeches!!!
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Response by Riversider
about 17 years ago
Posts: 13573
Member since: Apr 2009
We should've regulated our financial institutions better. We should've listened to Brooklsey born and not Greenspan, Rubin & Summers. Now we'll redistributing money and blowing up our deficit so people get paid to buy houses, refrigerators & cars, at the expense of people who acted responsibly.
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Response by JPCrecom
about 17 years ago
Posts: 22
Member since: Aug 2009
I am a Libertarian. Like Ayn Rand's books. Capitalism is great. All that.
Go away and stop posting this stuff here. I don't go to Reason Magazine's blog to read about apartments in New York.
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Response by petrfitz
about 17 years ago
Posts: 2533
Member since: Mar 2008
this whole problem we are facing now is a dergulation problem - the opposite of what Rand spews. The problem we have now started under Reagan, was amplified by the Republican controlled congress, exascerbated by the dunce Bush. It is a purely conservative Republican caused problem.
Yawn.
Yawn, hey yawning is contagious.
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1842879,00.html
ut as the largest bailout in government history unfolded in almost dizzying waves over recent days, a very different view prevailed at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, an outpost of free-market, anti-government thinking located just a few blocks from the newly aggressive and highly interventionist Department of Treasury in downtown Washington.
"It's a complete disaster," said Yaron Brook, the executive director of the center. "Its a form of national socialism of the financial markets...This is socialism 101."
Massive financial bailouts drive up sales of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/afterword/archive/2009/03/05/massive-financial-bailouts-drive-up-sales-of-ayn-rand-s-atlas-shrugged.aspx
Who needs Coney Island? All the freaks are here.
For FUCKS sake, can you please take this Politics/Economic talk to a POLITICS forum? Your drive by posting of everything Obama/Democrats is so fucking annoying.
NOBODY HERE GIVES A SHIT you fugging loser.
I agree. The political stuff is starting to get annoying. If you want to post anti-Obama stuff, then do it on World Net Daily. You'll have lots of fun on that site talking to the birthers.
Yawn. And please...
"In short, you would think “Atlas Shrugged” might be long forgotten."
Cam we let Atlas shrugged be forgotten? Along with The Fountainhead? Because frankly, both books sucked like Hoover vacuum cleaners.
look...up in the sky...it's a bird, it's a plane...no!...it's wonderboy!
out on a weekend pass or is this another trial run at mainstreaming?
This thread was gone. Why bring it back front just to say it has no place here? Talk about a loser...
She's the antichrist, so take it to a religious forum. I'm sure nobody at any political forum would be interested in reading it.
the most prominent outspoken ayn rander of our time: alan greenspan, mr new paridigm
he laissez faired us to this lovely economic period in which we all live
birthing death paneler--have you read palin's work?--she'd be a good next read for you
I'm sure sales of The Turner Diaries are probably up right now as well.
What does Gold spike & U.S. dollar falling say about our Economy?
That we are now paying the price of a multi-decade deregulation spree and will be for some time.
check the vastly superior state of solvency of the canadian banks and insurance companies
better regulation, better enforcement, way fewer economic troubles
also nationalized health care that the populace is generally quite pleased with
check recissions
any one who reads or references Ayn Rand is a complete partisan moron.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html
Some years ago when I worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, we used to label any new hire who had not yet read "Atlas Shrugged" a "virgin." Being conversant in Ayn Rand's classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement. If only "Atlas" were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I'm confident that we'd get out of the current financial mess a lot faster.
For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.
In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as "the looters and their laws." Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. These include the "Anti-Greed Act" to redistribute income (sounds like Charlie Rangel's promises soak-the-rich tax bill) and the "Equalization of Opportunity Act" to prevent people from starting more than one business (to give other people a chance). My personal favorite, the "Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Act," aims to restrict cut-throat competition between firms and thus slow the wave of business bankruptcies. Why didn't Hank Paulson think of that?
These acts and edicts sound farcical, yes, but no more so than the actual events in Washington, circa 2008. We already have been served up the $700 billion "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act" and the "Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act." Now that Barack Obama is in town, he will soon sign into law with great urgency the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." This latest Hail Mary pass will increase the federal budget (which has already expanded by $1.5 trillion in eight years under George Bush) by an additional $1 trillion -- in roughly his first 100 days in office.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged received largely negative reviews after its 1957 publication,[7] but achieved enduring popularity and consistent sales in the following decades. In the wake of the late 2000s recession sales of Atlas Shrugged have sharply increased, according to The Economist magazine and The New York Times. The Economist reported that the fifty-two-year-old novel ranked #33 among Amazon.com's top-selling books on 13 January, 2009.[8]
good points rs---if we'd regulated our banks properly in the first place, none of this grabbing at straws would be going on now
cato=partisan garbage can
soak the poor!!! those damned leeches!!!
We should've regulated our financial institutions better. We should've listened to Brooklsey born and not Greenspan, Rubin & Summers. Now we'll redistributing money and blowing up our deficit so people get paid to buy houses, refrigerators & cars, at the expense of people who acted responsibly.
I am a Libertarian. Like Ayn Rand's books. Capitalism is great. All that.
Go away and stop posting this stuff here. I don't go to Reason Magazine's blog to read about apartments in New York.
this whole problem we are facing now is a dergulation problem - the opposite of what Rand spews. The problem we have now started under Reagan, was amplified by the Republican controlled congress, exascerbated by the dunce Bush. It is a purely conservative Republican caused problem.