Can Ayn Rand Survive the Economic Crisis? | Newsweek Business

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What does that mean for the current situation?
Everything that [Treasury Secretary Henry] Paulson and Bernanke have done since day one of this crisis has made things worse, not better, if only because they have been so panicky and hysterical, and changed their minds so many times and offered so many different plans. The market has come to the conclusion that they have no idea what they're doing.

You want to do away with the Federal Reserve, but something that radical isn't going to happen, at least not anytime soon. In the meantime, wouldn't more regulation of the financial sector make sense?
No, I think quite the opposite—more financial regulation would be a disaster. Financial regulations created this mess. The Community Reinvestment Act, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae—they're the institutions and proposals that got us into this. Regulators are not good at managing financial institutions. Think about the [savings and loan] crisis: the S&L industry was the most regulated industry in the United States. Did that stop the crisis from happening? No. Regulations don't prevent crises; they cause them.

But AIG's downfall was due largely to credit-default swaps.
There's nothing wrong with credit-default swaps. If they'd let AIG fold, we would have discovered that. There's been no problem with the credit-default swap-market to date. It's actually working better than the securitized mortgage market, which is a government creation through Fannie and Freddie.

But AIG had too many credit-default swaps on its books, and almost collapsed as a result. Shouldn't we prevent that level of risk-taking?
Yes, AIG made mistakes. And the company should suffer for those mistakes. But do you think that if federal regulators were regulating the credit-default-swap market, things would be better or worse? I suggest that things would probably be worse.

With free markets now in disrepute, what's going to happen to the popularity of Ayn Rand's most famous book, "Atlas Shrugged"?
I think it's going to go up dramatically. I think it already has. [People] are saying, "We're heading toward socialism, we're heading toward more regulation." "Atlas Shrugged" is coming true. How do we get out? How do we escape? Unfortunately, there is no escape. Businessmen are panicking, and I think they should be panicking. Many of them understand that this was not a crisis of free markets. There was no free market to fail. What we have is a regulated market, and the regulated market has failed.

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YashBudini.. while you are busy spouting off rhetoric and vitriol that accoplisheses nothing other that perhaps a to give youirself a sense of undesrved moral superiority and self righteousness, Libertarians are out there silently earning their keep and paying their way every day. They're too busy living their lives to be trying to tell others how to live theirs. The fact that that "old people " use the system they paid into all their life does not negate this fact or their contribution to that sytem any more than it would have if they put it into a trust fund for their retirement . You seem to forget the fact that IT WAS THEIR MONEY TO BEGIN WITH. AND IT WAS TAKEN FROM THEM WITHOUT THEIR CONSENTAT THE POINT OF A GUN ( which is what backs up all forms of government expropriation) The only difference being that along the way back to it's source , the greatest portion of that weath was redistributed to those who had not earned it.." for the betterment of mankind" for the good of society.. but certainly not for the good of the person who caused it to come into existence in the firstplace.. This is what today passes for justice and morality.. to take that what is deserved and give it to those who don't desrve it.. THIS IS WHAT WE CALL MORAL??? Would you also endorse the right oif af a holdup man to rob you of your weekly wages? Why then do we condone behaviour from our lawmakers that we refuse to tolerate in our law breakers? Every productive human being who wishes to earn the keep and refuses to ask for handouts is at heart a Libertarian.. they just don't know it.

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Posted By: RodiKenley @ 05/04/2009 2:29:08 AM

I'm also going to guess: those that go out to ball games, are poor but need a life, some bank problems with people's accounts, people from the internet or else that get into your account, those with little to no health insurance and others.
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Posted By: RodiKenley @ 05/04/2009 2:24:38 AM

Who's to blame for the financial crisis? I'm going to guess smokers, those that buy wine often and others.
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Posted By: Ragnars spawn @ 04/15/2009 3:07:06 PM

YashBudini.. while you are busy spouting off rhetoric and vitriol that accoplisheses nothing other that perhaps a to give youirself a sense of undesrved moral superiority and self righteousness, Libertarians are out there silently earning their keep and paying their way every day. They're too busy living their lives to be trying to tell others how to live theirs. The fact that that "old people " use the system they paid into all their life does not negate this fact or their contribution to that sytem any more than it would have if they put it into a trust fund for their retirement . You seem to forget the fact that IT WAS THEIR MONEY TO BEGIN WITH. AND IT WAS TAKEN FROM THEM WITHOUT THEIR CONSENTAT THE POINT OF A GUN ( which is what backs up all forms of government expropriation) The only difference being that along the way back to it's source , the greatest portion of that weath was redistributed to those who had not earned it.." for the betterment of mankind" for the good of society.. but certainly not for the good of the person who caused it to come into existence in the firstplace.. This is what today passes for justice and morality.. to take that what is deserved and give it to those who don't desrve it.. THIS IS WHAT WE CALL MORAL??? Would you also endorse the right oif af a holdup man to rob you of your weekly wages? Why then do we condone behaviour from our lawmakers that we refuse to tolerate in our law breakers? Every productive human being who wishes to earn the keep and refuses to ask for handouts is at heart a Libertarian.. they just don't know it.