'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years

Re:'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years by seehafer on Saturday January 10, 2009 @01:01AM (#427705)

"The characters are thin shells used to promote Rand's thinking and in no way reflect reality."

Well, whose thinking do you think they should have promoted, exactly? And why do characters in a novel necessarily need to exactly reflect reality? I haven't run into any elves, dwarves, or immortal wizards, but that didn't stop me from enjoying Tolkien.

"The idea that unbridled self interest leads to the greatest good guided Greenspan's monetary policy and got us into this mess."

Really? How do artificially low interest rates translate into unbridled self interest?

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Re:'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years by jwesley on Saturday January 10, 2009 @06:43AM (#427884)

1. If a novel is intended to be realistic fiction, it should reflect reality, not the author's philosophical agenda. (My opinion, but I think this is the only way serious art reveals truth. Imagine if Marx had written a novel.) This is distinct from fantasy. I'm a Tolkien fan too, but I don't think anyone would turn to LOTR for economic guidance.

2. Artificially low interest rates reflect Greenspan's belief that given enough liquidity, markets will be self correcting. He thought banks were in the best position to protect themselves from risk because they bear the greatest consequences of failure. (He has since admitted the failure of this belief.) Clearly they were not, as the low interest rates lead to further inflation of the credit bubble.

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