When Alan Met Ayn

[bushwacked]

Lots of good stuff, especially on the connection on how her philosophy throughly influenced Greenspan:

 

And so it was that in October 2008, the mother of all Objectivist reckonings came to pass: The Span had to defend his disastrous policies to Congress one Thursday afternoon and explain why the U.S. economy, for decades under his stewardship, had gone kablooey. Here is what he said to that mob of furious congressmen who made up the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

 

"I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms [...]

 

"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief."

 

Never mind that for years Greenspan had had a bunch of regulators and congressmen all but coming after him with baseball bats trying to get him to see that "the self-interest of lending institutions" was no match for the greed of unscrupulous individuals.

 

For Communist "altruism," read "SEC regulation." For Stalin, read Lloyd Blankfein et so many al. Just follow the money. How much does it cost such guys to pay lip service to the glories of the free market, Communism, whatever, while they grab everything that isn't nailed down for themselves? Not too much, if all you care about is your own, um. Individualism.

 

“You had the authority to prevent irresponsible lending practices that led to the subprime mortgage crisis. You were advised to do so by many others,” said Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, chairman of the committee. “Do you feel that your ideology pushed you to make decisions that you wish you had not made?”

 

Mr. Greenspan conceded: “Yes, I’ve found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I’ve been very distressed by that fact.”

 

He found a flaw! I bet Diane Feinstein popped an aneurysm right then and there.

 

If Alan Greenspan had had a lick of sense he would have known that the jig was up and it was time for him to say, Ayn Rand was the biggest dope on record, except for me, because I listened to her. But guys like Greenspan don't ever seem to say that sort of thing. I suspect that it's because they have gotten so completely used to thinking of themselves as the "elite" who needn't reckon with the "weak" objections of lesser men.

 

So Greenspan maintained his convictions to the last. Even in 2008 with the SHAM WOW! engulfing the fan, he was still trying to prevent more stringent securities regulation. Why?

 

"Whatever regulatory changes are made, they will pale in comparison to the change already evident in today’s markets,” he said. “Those markets for an indefinite future will be far more restrained than would any currently contemplated new regulatory regime."

 

Using the exact same reasoning he'd just admitted to be erroneous, he was still claiming that the market would take care of itself. He found a flaw and then he lost it again pretty much instantly. The remains of the market are sitting right in front of him in a smoking ruin and what is his prescription? More of the same!

 

And what is the result, three years later? The markets in unregulated derivatives, Warren Buffett's "financial weapons of mass destruction," were never outlawed and are alive and well. Nobody went to jail or even really had his hand slapped, except for Bernie Madoff. Nearly all the destructive forces Greenspan set in motion came roaring right back, along with Wall Street bonuses, despite his claims of the enormous restraint certain to follow the debacle of 2008, for "an indefinite future" that didn't last for even one year.

[Chavez]

Perhaps it's time to lump objectivism in with communism - a theoretically wonderful idea that will always be short-circuited by the vagaries of human nature.