Capitalistic Prophets…
by Jim Blaine
From an objective point of view, Ayn Rand was clearly a unique philosopher. Author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Ms. Rand was de rigeur reading on college campuses in the 1970’s. More have claimed readership of the massive tomes than can be rationally verified; some of those whowere more diligent have never fully recovered.
One of Ms. Rand’s disciples is North Carolinian John Allison, the former CEO of Branch Banking & Trust (BB&T) and current leader of The Cato Institute. Mr. Allison has recently published a book on the failure of the banking system: The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism is the World Economy’s Only Hope. As the title indicates, Mr. Allison shares not only Ms. Rand’s philosophy, but also her lengthy love of words.
To date, I have given this book the same detailed immersion that Ms. Rand’s received, but there are certainly many nuggets of gold (which, as Mr. Allison suggests, will be invaluable when we move back to that standard) to be found in this work.
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