The Ayn Rand Center Responds to the Financial Crisis

Washington D.C. – Americans are now facing an historic economic crisis. What was the cause? What is the cure? How do we prevent it from happening again? 

While pundits and politicians blame the current housing and financial crisis on “greedy” businessmen and lax regulators, and are frantically urging the government to expand its control over our economic lives, the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights has launched a new Web page to defend a different view—that the actual cause of the crisis is government intervention, and the only cure, laissez-faire capitalism. 

We invite you to check out our collection of essays, op-eds, lectures, and interviews arguing for a rational approach to this crisis—an approach you will not find anywhere else.

Hey, Big Spenders!

Washington, D.C. – In Friday’s presidential debate, John McCain railed against government spending, trumpeting his opposition to earmarks.

“While McCain and Obama pose as opponents of government spending, they are not,” said Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. “To actually stem the torrent of government spending, it is not just pork that must be cut–but the massive welfare state entitlements that neither McCain nor Obama dares challenge.

“It takes little courage to denounce bridges leading to nowhere and buildings dedicated to campaign donors. Such projects are transparent examples of politicians using taxpayer funds to curry favor with special interests. But such projects make up only a tiny fraction–six-tenths of a percent–of the government’s $3 trillion dollar budget.

“The real spending spree isn’t to be found in government pork but in massive welfare state entitlements, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. These are the programs that have led to soaring debt, a crushing tax burden, and economic stagnation.

“So long as America is forced to bankroll costly welfare programs, there is no way to meaningfully reduce government spending. What we need is a politician who will stand up for the ideals of the Founders: a government limited to its proper function of protecting individual rights; a government under which people are responsible for providing for their own needs–and are left free to do so. That would take real political courage.”

Yaron Brook is executive director of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and a contributing editor of The Objective Standard. His articles have been featured in major newspapers such as USA Today, the Houston Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Providence Journal and the Orange County Register. Dr. Brook is often interviewed on radio and is a frequent guest on a variety of national TV shows, having appeared in the new Fox Business Network, FOX News Channel (The O’Reilly Factor, Your World with Neil Cavuto, At Large with Geraldo Rivera), CNN (Talkback Live and the Glenn Beck Program), CNBC (Closing Bell and On the Money), and C-SPAN. Dr. Brook, a former finance professor, lectures on Objectivism, capitalism, business and foreign policy at college campuses, community groups and corporations across America and throughout the world.

The Looming Crisis over Free Speech

What: A lecture examining the escalating censorship in America and explaining what is needed to protect our freedom of speech

Who: Eric Daniels, research assistant professor at Clemson University’s Institute for the Study of Capitalism

Where: 101 Morgan Hall, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720

When: Monday, October 6, 2008, 7 pm

Description: In this lecture, Dr. Daniels examines the state of free speech in America and finds that it is under serious threat. From campus speech codes to anti-discrimination and harassment law, from campaign finance to commercial speech, Americans today enjoy less and less freedom in communicating their ideas. Today’s colleges and universities have become a hotbed of censorship, producing generations of Americans who have accepted suppression of speech as the norm. Daniels argues that the emerging crisis is a result of the lack of a proper understanding of individual rights, especially property rights. Only by understanding the proper basis of rights can we act to secure our freedom of speech and to protect the rights that give rise to it.

Bio: Dr. Eric Daniels is a research assistant professor at Clemson University’s Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He has lectured internationally on American history, particularly on American intellectual history, business history and political history. He taught for five years at Duke University’s Program on Values and Ethics in the Marketplace, where he was nominated for a university-wide teaching award. Dr. Daniels was a contributor to the recently published Oxford Companion to United States History, and wrote a chapter in The Abolition of Antitrust. He has appeared on C-SPAN and Voice of America Radio.

For more information on this lecture, please e-mail media@aynrand.org.

Republican Liberty Caucus issues formal statement on bailout plan

“NO Bailout for Failure, NO Rescue from Risk,” says Republican Group

Thousand Oaks, CA – A national caucus of Republican activists has urged GOP legislators to stand firm against the “Paulson Bailout” of a corrupt financial regulatory system. “This proposal is a government takeover of the entire U.S. economy,” says Republican Liberty Caucus Chairman William Westmiller, “whose only purpose is to rescue those who made risky bets on bad mortgages.”
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Pelosi says bailout plan has to pass (Reuters)

Reuters – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday a plan to rescue U.S. financial institutions “has to happen,” but final agreement is up to conservative Republicans who revolted against the plan being negotiated between Congress and the Treasury Department.

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First McCain-Obama debate remains doubtful (AP)

AP – The first presidential debate between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama remained in doubt Friday, the very day it was to be held, embroiled in the same partisan divisions that were holding up a Wall Street bailout plan.
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A bad day for the GOP on politics, bailout plan (AP)

AP – Even for a party whose president suffers dismal approval ratings, whose legislative wing lost control of Congress and whose presidential nominee trails in the polls, it was a remarkably bad day for Republicans. Read more…

US wrangling and mutual collapse sparks new market fall (AFP)

AFP – Deadlocked talks on a bailout of the US financial system and the collapse of Washington Mutual bank sparked new falls on global markets Friday despite the injection of tens of billions of dollars by central banks.
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Prospects for nuclear deal uncertain in Congress (AP)

AP – A landmark agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation between India and the U.S. has been a high priority for President Bush and the Indian government, but time is running out as lawmakers wrap up this year’s session to campaign for the November elections.

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Lawmakers to tackle bailout plan again Friday (Reuters)

Reuters – Congressional leaders will try again on Friday to save a $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan after talks broke down in acrimony against the backdrop of the nation’s biggest-ever bank failure.

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