I Am John Galt : Today's Heroic Innovators Building the World and the Villainous Parasites Destroying It

by Luskin, Donald; Greta, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9781118013786
• ISBN10: 1118013786
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-24
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

John Galt, a fictional character from the hugely bestselling novel, Atlas Shrugged, has come to embody the individualist capitalist who acts in his own self interest and in doing so lifts other ships around him. "Who is John Galt?" may well be the single best known line from all of Ayn Rand's works. So who is John Galt? He is found today, over 50 years after his iconic appearance (and famous speech) in Atlas Shrugged, in CEOs, journalists, sports figures, and actors who have led their lives according to Galt's (e.g., Rand's) philosophy and in so doing they have achieved phenomenal success, not only for themselves but for those around them. Whole Foods is considered one of the best companies to work for and a pleasant place to shop with great products, BB&T is one of the few big banks actually lending during the economic crisis and refusing to take TARP money, Penn & Teller have created a franchise out of their free market views, and Mark Cuban has built a huge fortune and franchise. Now, these success stories are gathered in one place with keen insight and analysis from the popular Donald Luskin, well known market commentator, and experienced journalist Andrew Greta, along with analysis of today's villains, thwarting the efforts of these Randian heroes including power hungry pseudo intellectuals, hapless politicians, and scheming bureaucrats who thwart the heroic. Sure to be of interest to Ayn Rand fans everywhere, and also to those seeking a way to succeed in today's turbulent and confusing times.

Author Biography

Donald L. Luskin is Chief Investment Officer of TrendMacro, an investment strategy and economics research firm. For over thirty years, he has been a leading figure in investment management and financial markets. He was formerly vice chair of Barclays Global Investors (now BlackRock) and is the founder of Investment Technology Group and MetaMarkets.com. Luskin appears weekly on CNBC's Kudlow & Company and contributes frequently to the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of Index Options and Futures: The Complete Guide and editor of Portfolio Insurance: A Guide to Dynamic Hedging, both published by Wiley.

Andrew Greta is an author and business executive with more than fifteen years of experience in financial markets, and currently holds an appointment with the College of Business at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. He formerly led corporate and business development at CME Group in Chicago and GE Capital in Stamford, Connecticut. Greta is a former contributing editor for TheStreet.com. His articles on finance and investing have appeared in numerous national publications including SFO magazine, DSNews.com, ABCNews.com, Online Investor, and Individual Investor.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The Individualist	p. 17
the man who reinvented four whole industries just because it was so cool
The Mad Collectivist	p. 45
the man who preaches socialism from the pages of America's newspaper of record
The Leader	p. 71
the man who walked away after building America's strongest bank
The Parasite	p. 97
the businessman who corrupted government and nearly wrecked the U.S. economy
The Persecuted Titan	p. 131
the businessman who created revolutionary technologies and was criminalized for his success
The Central Planner	p. 163
the politician who meddled in the economy and almost destroyed it
The Capitalist Champion	p. 191
the modern Renaissance man and agent provocateur for capitalism
The Sellout	p. 219
the libertarian who became an economic czar
The Economist of Liberty	p. 239
the academic who showed the world the connection between capitalism and freedom
Afterword	p. 261
Notes	p. 267
Acknowledgments	p. 293
About the Authors	p. 295
Index	p. 297
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