{"id":193644,"date":"2008-11-27T17:50:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-27T22:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2008\/11\/27\/atlas-shrugged-updated-for-the-current-financial-crisis\/"},"modified":"2008-11-27T17:50:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-27T22:50:00","slug":"atlas-shrugged-updated-for-the-current-financial-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2008\/11\/27\/atlas-shrugged-updated-for-the-current-financial-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlas Shrugged Updated for the Current Financial Crisis."},"content":{"rendered":"

Full disclosure: I have not read Atlas Shrugged<\/em>. I do not intend to do so, The Virtue of Selfishness<\/span> in high school was enough unpleasantness for me.<\/p>\n

All I have read is the Wiki, and a few excerpts.<\/p>\n

That being said, this made me laugh to hard that I think that I broke something.<\/p>\n

Atlas Shrugged Updated for the Current Financial Crisis.<\/span><\/strong><\/a>
<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

BY JEREMIAH TUCKER
– – – –<\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

“Damn it, Dagny! I need the government to get out of the way and let me do my job!”<\/p>\n

She sat across the desk from him. She appeared casual but confident, a slim body with rounded shoulders like an exquisitely engineered truss. How he hated his debased need for her, he who loathed self-sacrifice but would give up everything he valued to get in her pants … Did she know?<\/p>\n

“I heard the thugs in Washington were trying to take your Rearden metal at the point of a gun,” she said. “Don’t let them, Hank. With your advanced alloy and my high-tech railroad, we’ll revitalize our country’s failing infrastructure and make big, virtuous profits.”<\/p>\n

“Oh, no, I got out of that suckers’ game. I now run my own hedge-fund firm, Rearden Capital Management.”<\/p>\n

“What?”<\/p>\n

He stood and adjusted his suit jacket so that his body didn’t betray his shameful weakness. He walked toward her and sat informally on the edge of her desk. “Why make a product when you can make dollars? Right this second, I’m earning millions in interest off money I don’t even have.”<\/p>\n

He gestured to his floor-to-ceiling windows, a symbol of his productive ability and goodness.<\/p>\n

“There’s a whole world out there of byzantine financial products just waiting to be invented, Dagny. Let the leeches run my factories into the ground! I hope they do! I’ve taken out more insurance on a single Rearden Steel bond than the entire company is even worth! When my old company finally tanks, I’ll make a cool $877 million.”<\/p>\n

Their eyes locked with an intensity she was only beginning to understand. Yes, Hank … claim me … If we’re to win the battle against the leeches, we must get it on … right now … Don’t let them torture us for our happiness … or our billions.<\/p>\n

He tore his eyes away.<\/p>\n

…..<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is more, go read.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Full disclosure: I have not read Atlas Shrugged. I do not intend to do so, The Virtue of Selfishness in high school was enough unpleasantness for me. All I have read is the Wiki, and a few excerpts. That being said, this made me laugh to hard that I think that I broke something. Atlas …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[962,1100,1002],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-40yrs","category-funny","category-good-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}