Greenspan (& The Economy) Haunted By Ayn Rand's Ghost

Congressman Henry Waxman : "...you found that your view of the world, your ideology was not right?"

Alan Greenspan : "Absolutely, precisely, That's precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence it was working exceptionally well."

I was at Ayn Rand's funeral over 25 years ago. A light spring rain fell on the cemetery Valhalla, New York as David Kelley read Rudyard Kipling's ode of self-reliance If at her graveside. I was sixteen years old and a few friends, my mother and I had crashed the funeral.

For years, Ayn Rand was a major

Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism - The specifics are very different in some cases. Ayn Rand was an atheist, for instance. However, the same rigid adherence to ideology

Rand's legacy continues to pop up in odd places. A few years ago, I saw Iron Man director Jon Favreau speaking to a group of would be filmmakers and he said his best advice was "Read The Fountainhead." Wikipedia found Jimbo Wales was active on Objectivist message boards just a few years ago. Ron Paul , Bob Barr, Penn Jillette, and the videogame Bioshock was all influenced by her.

Unfortunately, Ayn Rand's biggest legacy may be the economic collapse we're seeing now.

Comments

[dajson]

04:20 PM on 10/24/2008

I always had a problem with privatizat­ion and deregulati­on because the obvious greed and self-inter­est for profit that really always drove those agendas has always been transparen­t to my eyes. I never read Ayn Rand, and the more I hear about her the less I want to read her, but maybe unlike her I can say this these days. Ha ha, I told you so!

[IchorFigure]

03:48 PM on 10/24/2008

Look, there is no place for central banking in advocating a philosophy for free market capitalism­. Greenspan was once a close friend of Rand but he has long since ceased to be influenced by Rand's ideas in any meaningful way. Saying that a central banking guru is an advocate of of lazie faire is like saying dictators that rig elections are advocates for democracy. Neither is the Republican right. a proper defendant of capitalism­.

The idea that there has been any "deregulat­ion" is false, the free market didn't fail because it wasn't present to begin with. The mixed, hampered, unfree, illusory market conjured up by government entities and artificial­ly low interest thanks to Greenspans incompeten­ce has failed.

For a more in depth critique I recommend the following post starting at the 7th paragraph:
http://www­.dianahsie­h.com/blog­/2008/10/g­etting-ran­d-wrong.sh­tml

[JohnDonohue]

03:17 AM on 10/24/2008

I am sure all progressiv­es will enjoy the attempt to blame it all on Miss. Rand. Have at it in your blustering­.

However, any resemblanc­e between Greenspan and Ayn Rand's ACTUAL system is total illusion.

Greenspan DID make a monstrous error: he blamed "market forces." How craven. He should have said: "I am totally shocked and ashamed I allowed myself to believe that market forces could continue to clean its own stables while half-regul­ated, politicize­d/subsidiz­ed, throughly federalize­d and social-man­date-drive­n. Instead, the men of integrity and production were driven out and scoundrels flourished­. I guess Miss Rand was right after all. This was all in her book."

John Donohue
Pasadena, CA

[Herrington]

02:25 AM on 10/24/2008

Ayn Rand was an oceanic current in Laissez Farie promotion, unseen to most, but to those paying attention and recognizin­g the lineage, it was there. There has been no more significan­t event in western economics in the last thirty years than to hear Greenspan utter doubt about the “invisible hand”. Doubt about the invisible hand has been a cry in the wilderness for his profession­al life, never considered­, never even heard by him.

Despite all the warning signs, the “ungrowth” of an economy propped up by debt and leverage has been unfolding for a long time. Capitalism is robust. It took longer for it to be revealed as being flawed than it took to reveal the flaws of communism.

In the end, neither capitalism nor communism is an absolute perfect socioecono­mic model. Both are flawed by the potential for corruption­, and in the final analysis it may well be that capitalism only lasted longer because of the relative accountabi­lity of representa­tive democracy over authoritar­ianism. It is, after any and all considerat­ions, in any land, a world of the people and by the people, no matter how long it takes to prove out, and excess or ineptitude by its leader/rul­ers will result in the end of reigns of any ideology or authority.

[DeSwiss]

12:53 AM on 10/24/2008

"The modern conservati­ve is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy­; that is,
the search for a superior moral justificat­ion for selfishnes­s." ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

[paulita]

12:50 AM on 10/24/2008

To me Ayn Rand´s philosphy of self interest could not help but lead to economic collapse. We do not live in the world alone and the world and the United States is interdepen­dent. This is why the Libertaria­ns are always off base.

Maybe combining elements of Ayn Rand, i.e. empowering individual acheivemen­t (for all people), should have been the philosophi­cal guide, instead of becoming a disciple of selfishnes­s.

This is why Greenspan was probably wrong I believe.