Free Market Revolution How Ayn Rand's Ideas Can End Big Government

by Brook, Yaron; Watkins, Don

• ISBN13: 9780230341692
• ISBN10: 0230341691
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-09-18
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Summary

The rise of the Tea Party and the 2010 election results revealed that tens of millions of Americans are alarmed by big government, but are largely skeptical that anything can or will be done to stop the growth of the state. Free Market Revolutionargues that we must embrace a new way of thinking about capitalism and self-interestone first spearheaded by popular novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand. In the last few years, her works have sold millions more copies, and Tea Party enthusiasts (not to mention politicians such as Ron Paul and Paul Ryan, media figures such as John Stossel, and businessmen such as John Mackey) routinely name Rand as one of their chief influences. Free Market Revolutionis one of the first works that takes Rand's ideas and applies them to today's political events, with chapters addressing the debt crisis, inflation, regulation, the welfare state, and much more. Equally important, the authors discuss the morality of her philosophy vis-a-vis the progressive agendathe perennial controversy that has kept Rand's ideas relevant for so long. Free Market Revolutiontackles today's hot-button issues, including why:unemployment benefits hurt Americansgovernment policy is making the housing crisis even worsethe bailout of the auto industry will ultimately kill itthe new healthcare law will make care more difficult and costlyWith the size of government promising to be the defining issue of the 2012 election, Rand's eloquent defense of free markets is as timely as ever. Free Market Revolutiongives her legacy a new and critical urgency.

Author Biography

Yaron Brook is Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, and CNN.com, and appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, The Glenn Beck Show, On the Money, and Closing Bell, among others. A former finance professor at Santa Clara University, he is the co-writer with Don Watkins of a column on business and capitalism at Forbes.com

 

Don Watkins is a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute and the co-writer with Yaron Brook of a column on business and capitalism at Forbes.com. He appears regularly on radio and TV, and his op-eds have appeared in such venues as Investor's Business Daily, The Christian Science Monitor, FoxNews.com, and Forbes.

Table of Contents

“A powerful and unapologetic case in support of capitalism. For those who think more government will solve our nation’s problems, Free Market Revolution will open your eyes. For those who can already see the light, it will sharpen your vision.”--Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, Inc., host of the Peter Schiff Show on www.SchiffRadio.com, and author of The Real Crash: America’s Coming Bankruptcy—How to Save Yourself and Your Country

 

“Free Market Revolution is a potential game-changer. Brook and Watkins dismantle the myth that free markets are responsible for today’s ills, and they teach us how to take the moral high ground in the fight against Big Government. If there are any Occupiers left, this book should make them lay down their signs in surrender. Anyone who wants to understand why we have strayed so far from the Founders’ ideals, and how we can find our way back, should read this book.”--Mallory Factor, Founder, Mallory Factor, Inc., and Professor of International Politics at The Citadel

 

“This book is a must read for anyone concerned about the demonization of capitalism and deification of collectivism. Yaron Brook and Don Watkins meld philosophy with practicality in their cogent analysis of how Ayn Rand’s moral defense of capitalism can bring down the limitless growth of government and restore its original, intended purpose—protection of individual rights. Changing the trajectory of the country calls for a long and intense fight with very steep odds against victory. But the concept of the Free Market Revolution, celebrating the individual pursuit of rational, long-term self interest as a virtue, provides the arsenal for the assault. And Brook and Watkins give a battle plan of surefire approaches to limit, and then eliminate, even such massive incursions as the government’s takeover of healthcare.”--Jim M. Kilts, Former CEO of Gillette Company

 

“The most important issue in our society today is the morality of capitalism. Free Market Revolution lays bare how capitalism is the only economic system consistent with man’s nature as a thinking being who must act in his long term rational self-interest to survive and prosper. This is an important book which integrates philosophical ideas with their real world consequences.”--John A. Allison, Retired Chairman & CEO, BB&T Corporation

 

“Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government is very welcomed indeed. With clarity and courage Brook and Watkins present?the basic teachings of free market economics, and place them within the?context of Ayn Rand’s broader moral-philosophic system. As the problems?with government intervention into the free market become more and more?evident to larger segments of the population, Ayn Rand’s writing, especially her epic Atlas Shrugged, takes on a new life for a new generation.”--Peter J. Boettke, Professor of Economics, George Mason University