News
- 1/27/2009: 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
A recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Stephen Moore noted the clear and ominous parallels between recent government bailout rhetoric and economic policy on the one hand, and the events of Ayn Rand's classic 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged, on the other. The article was so widely read and had such a strong response that the Journal followed up with a video interview with the author on it and its impact. It also helped cause a new surge in sales of the novel, which is still selling strongly over fifty years after publication.
'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years, Stephen Moore, The Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2009.
Video Interview: 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years, Stephen Moore and James Freeman, The Wall Street Journal, January 20, 2009.
(Hat tip to Harry Binswanger.)
- 11/19/2008: It's Started
When we first acquired the domain "RepealTheBailout.net" and set up this website, one of the things that we were asked by a number of people was "Why? The bailout is a done deal, and it's naive to think that they're going to even consider repealing it." Our answer was simple: because once started, the bailouts were not going to stop. There was a lull before the 2008 elections to see whether elected officials who supported the bailouts were going to be punished for it by voters, but clearly they have not been -- and regardless of our voter activism efforts, we didn't expect them to be.
Consequently (and unfortunately), we expect this domain and website to be policy relevant for years to come. So with all due respect to those who may have thought us naive, we would like to gently suggest that it was more naive to believe that the government was going to close the the "Pandora's Box" of bailout policy once they had opened it. And events over the last two weeks have firmly borne out our expectations on this matter.
The ink wasn't dry on the ballots from the 2008 election before a raft of new bailout calls began to emerge. Suddenly, not only Secretary Paulson, but prominent members of congress, are all trying to change the game and the rules of how the current bailout funds are to be dispensed -- and a free-for-all has emerged, in which everyone's pet theories about the best thing to do with the money are being advanced. These range from Paulson's sudden change of heart that we should now more formally institute national socialism by having the government buy ownership shares in financial institutions, to congressmen who want to bail out homeowners, to the most recent calls to bail out General Motors and the American auto industry.
The only thing surprising about this turn of events is that there are apparently some to whom it is surprising. In response, we will simply quote a favorite fictional character of ours, and say: "Brothers, you asked for it!"
On the calls for an auto industry bailout: here's a link to an excellent editorial in Investor's Business Daily, making a strong case that Bankruptcy, not Bailout, is the right answer to the problems of General Motors:
"So rather than waste precious capital in the naive hope of propping up that which investors don't value, it's essential to let GM fail. Only then will a necessary change of ownership occur; the latter change the only solution when it comes to properly utilizing assets whose misuse is presently destroying a formerly great company, not to mention the economic health of the state in which it is headquartered."
Pulling Plug On GM Would Help Both Auto Industry And Michigan, John Tamny, Investor's Business Daily, November 11, 2008. (Hat tip to Henry Solomon.)
- 11/7/2008: The Maestro vs. The Market
Alex Epstein and Yaron Brook from the Ayn Rand Institute weigh in on the ridiculous idea that Alan Greenspan was an advocate of free markets, or of Ayn Rand's philosophy:
"Greenspan, while once associated with laissez-faire philosopher Ayn Rand, hasn’t advocated genuinely free markets for decades. Remember, this is a man who for two decades reveled in being, as the New York Times put it, “the infallible maestro of the financial system.”"
The Maestro vs. the Market, Alex Epstein and Yaron Brook, The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights.
- 11/2/2008: A Presidential Voting Option: Write in "None of the
Above"
Although voter activism isn't the principal focus of Repeal the Bailout, we do recommend at least taking a candidate's stand on the bailouts into account in casting one's vote. Since both major party candidates are Senators who voted for the disastrous $850 billion Bush/Paulson bailout, such a stand would not seem to favor one candidate over the other in this year's election. For this and other reasons, many voters may find the current choice of candidates to be simply unacceptable.
For those who may (for whatever reason) find themselves unwilling to vote for either candidate in one or more contests this year, an alternative to consider is casting a write-in vote for "None of the Above," or NOTA. This is the recommendation of the non-partisan organization Voters for None of the Above, which promotes enacting legislation to add "None of the Above" to election ballots.
- 11/1/2008: The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights has released a
very good Op-Ed by Amit Ghate explaining the crucial economic role of failure
in a capitalist system:
"...when the government tries to “manage” the economy--when the consequences of risky behavior are shifted from self-interested actors to taxpayers, as was done by the creation of the Fed and its various insurance programs, or when weak financial firms are propped up rather than being allowed to fail--people take on risks they would not otherwise. Banks are less careful, depositors no longer evaluate their institutions, and risks are concealed and amplified until they become catastrophic."
Amit Ghate, Let Them Fail, The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights.
- 10/29/2008: Richard Salsman weighs in on the scapegoating of
capitalism with a spot-on article in the Financial Post yesterday:
"First, government manipulates markets (via subsidies and regulations) until they become dysfunctional; next, government blames market-makers for the losses and pain resulting from hamstrung markets; finally, instead of repealing the initial manipulations, government launches inquisitions, imposes fines, threatens litigation and enacts still more laws, subsidies and regulations, further roiling markets."
Well said, Richard!
Richard Salsman, Welcome to the ‘scapegoat phase’, Financial Post, 10/28/2008.
UPDATE: A new and longer version of Richard's article can be found here:
Richard Salsman, The GOP Betrayal of Capitalism, Alan Greenspan's Lies and The Scapegoat Phase of the Bear Market, Capitalism Magazine, 10/31/2008.
- 10/28/2008: In a brief letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, Cathy Cretsinger eloquently captures the absurdity of blaming the free market or Ayn Rand's ideas for the current financial crisis:
"Alan Greenspan, of all people, should know that under the strict laissez-faire capitalism advocated by Ayn Rand, there would be no Federal Reserve manipulating money and credit markets, no FDIC shielding banks from some of the consequences of irresponsible lending, no Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac buying mortgage securities and promoting further lending and no Community Reinvestment Act pressuring banks to lend to unqualified borrowers... Our regulatory climate is so far from strict laissez-faire that attributing the crisis to a failing of the free market is absurd."
Bravo to Cathy for stating the matter so well and so succinctly!
- 10/27/2008: Ed Cline dismantles the absurd notion that Alan
Greenspan's "admission" of a flaw in his so-called "free
market" ideology is a legitimate reflection on Ayn Rand or on actual
free-market ideas. Greenspan abandoned the free-market and the
philosophy of Ayn Rand decades ago. He has been regularly denounced
for years for his anti-free-market policies as head of the Federal
Reserve by actual advocates of the free market -- and most
especially by Objectivist economists who actually do understand and
advocate Ayn Rand's ideas. To try to hold him up now as a representative of
laissez-faire is such a breathtakingly brazen insult to the intelligence of
the American people that I scarcely know what to make of it.
As readers of Repeal the Bailout should know, it was, more than anything else, the regulatory actions of the Federal Reserve (predominantly under Alan Greenspan) that created the current economic crisis. Trying to blame the free market for a crisis caused by an inherently regulatory institution like the Fed doesn't even begin to pass the smell test for someone capable of applying a modicum of logic and common sense. Unfortunately, these latter seem to be regrettably rare qualities for those in the congress and in the media today.
Ed Cline, Alan Greenspan vs. Ayn Rand (Capitalism Magazine).
- 10/25/2008: Here's an excellent 2 minute video interview with Yaron Brook
of the Ayn Rand Institute. Yaron very succinctly states what should
be done instead of the current policy of government bailouts, in order to deal with
the economic crisis. That crisis was created by government in the first
place, and particularly by the actions of the Federal Reserve. (Hat Tip to Brent M.)
- Yaron Brook, The Capitalist Manifesto (Conde Nast Portfolio Magazine).
- 10/20/2008: Here's a refreshingly forthright and courageous article
("At
Moment of Truth, Where Was Dagny Taggart?") by Joseph L. Bast
from the Heartland Institute, commenting on the government's frightening
exercise of fascist power last week. (If you missed that story, check it out
here.
Secretary Paulson summoned the CEOs of nine major US banks to Washington,
and forced them to sign an "agreement" to sell shares to the US
Government, whether their banks wanted and needed a bailout or not.)
Mr. Bast's response is precisely the kind of morally self-confident and
uncompromising response to the actions of these burgeoning economic
dictators that is desperately needed right now. Here's an excerpt:
"Missing from this meeting was someone willing to play the role of Dagny Taggart, Ayn Rand's heroine in Atlas Shrugged, who saw government incompetence, corruption, and moral bankruptcy all around her and vowed not to join other businesses in capitulating to it. Like Mr. Kovacevich, she would have challenged the need for another government bailout. More than that, she would have challenged the bureaucrats' right to call such a meeting, to make such demands, and most especially to claim the moral high ground by claiming to speak on behalf of the "good of the country.""
Well said, Mr. Bast! (And hat tip to Paul Blair for alerting us to this article.)
- 10/18/2008: Thanks to everyone who has written to offer encouragement and
help with the site. For those who may be interested in contributing to Repeal
The Bailout, here are some suggestions about what kinds of material
would be most useful to us:
- Our most timely need is for information on members of the house who voted for the bailout, and their opponents. Please see our Voter Activism page for the format we are using if you would like to help contribute to it.
- Suggested links to good articles and other websites opposing the bailouts, which we will consider linking to if we agree with them.
- Offers of original material to be included on the site, such as articles and letters, which we will consider publishing (with credit) if we agree with them.
While we do appreciate the several offers that we've received to develop new and more elaborate web designs for us, our primary interest is in new content for the site. The current format will be adequate for our purposes, and will be simpler for us to maintain.
- 10/17/2008: Peter Schiff had a good article in yesterday's Washington Post titled "Don't Blame Capitalism," in which he summarizes how government policy was the primary cause of the "subprime crisis" -- and how the bailout policy now being pursused will only make things worse.
Also, check out the Cox & Forkum cartoon posted a few days ago on the bailout. They also follow up on the story I posted about yesterday, regarding how the federal government is forcing reluctant banks who don't need the money to accept bailout payments.
- 10/16/2008: Take a look at this astonishing report from the NY Times, about how the CEOs of the country's nine largest banks were summoned before the US Treasury Secretary and forced to sign a paper "agreeing" to sell shares in their banks to the US Government. Even banks like Wells Fargo and BankAmerica, whose CEOs claimed that they did not have a subprime exposure and did not need a government bailout, were pressured into signing. So much for the pretense that this is an emergency measure for the good of the country, and not the start of a socialist takeover of the US Banking Industry.