What better time for an Ayn Rand movie?

TRANSLATION SERVICE OF THE DAY: Who is John Galt? = Whatever

Atlas Shrugged hits the screens! Please, please, make sure you've read it FIRST, though.

Atlas Shrugged is all about how productive people are enslaved by the unproductive and political classes, and how government redistributes to create power, and how government is used to punish innovation and ability. How "need" is used to allocate, with disastrous results?

This book also tells how the legend of Robin Hood corrupted all of Western Civilization. No kidding. Or how the idea of Santa Claus corrupts our children at an early age (OK, I made that one up.)

Pure fantasy, right? It's just a book about railroads.

Atlas Shrugged has been on my recommended reading list for many years. It's a tough read, but the lessons there are as relevant as they were in 1957, maybe more so. It's still a big seller.

Even if you think Ayn Rand was a kook, this book should hit home for you.

UPDATE: A reader writes that they thought "The Fountainhead" was a better book, but one of the most horrible movies of all time. I'm not sure HOW you make either book into a movie, and I'll agree that "Fountainhead" was a great book.

It just didn't have fun train stuff in it. It was all about (blah) architecture. And self-determination, and the nanny state. Sounds like a theme, huh?

More on Government, er, General Motors

Read that headline fast and you'll get at the core of what's happening with this brain trust.

Reuters has a story over the weekend that suggests taxpayers may actually lose money (ahem, MORE money) when the GM IPO happens. Whenever that is.

I thought it was interesting that nothing was going to happen before the election in November. No kidding? Maybe I have a future as a weatherman.

I've written about these guys before, but the gist that GM stole from bondholders and the taxpayer simultaneously to hand money to the UAW and its pension liabilities, in the process starting a NEW GM that has actually paid back US Treasury TARP monies from a slush fund made up from, you got it, US Treasury TARP monies.

So now the NEW GM is going to IPO.

The real question that Dr. Williams and I are asking is: what fiduciary in their right mind would buy anything from this NEW company? How can asset managers purchase this stuff, doesn't it violate the "prudent man" rule? Maybe if you discount the value of government largess and stimulus back to the present, exclusive contracts, etc. then I could see it being worth it.

Wesley Mouch would be proud.

UPDATE:

Article today that says the special IG for TARP reports that the IPO will have to be at least $134 per share for the US to be repaid. I haven't check the number here, so I don't know if that means the NEW GM will repay or EVERYTHING will repay. I bet it's just the NEW GM.

Mission focus, latest addition

From the latest Business Week, a story about an ad exec who decided to pull a Jerry Maguire.

Alex Bogusky probably doesn't believe in all the things I believe in, but he is surely a bright guy, and he obviously believes in hard work and professionalism. He must be very brave, too.

I applaud him, and hope that the youth of today would find him to be a role model.

From all appearances, he finally figured out that some things are more important than others.

He was just "selling pizzas," and finally realized it. He was helping other people sell things to kids that they didn't need.

He took the plunge and decided to get out at the top. That's happening a lot these days. Ayn Rand wrote a whole book about it. This may not BE that type of drop out, but who knows?

Some of us refuse to just "sell pizzas." Our lives mean more than that. In Mr. Bogusky's case, it was evident that his professional life was inconsistent with his evolving personal values.

That, or he got out because he felt he could afford to.

Rock bands do that all the time. But even then, they don't stop playing music all day, they just stop doing it for cash. The creative thing doesn't go away, the drive to achieve doesn't go away, but the need to support this huge glowworm of followers gets old in a hurry and they get out. Some can handle it, and some can't.

Let's hope Mr. Bogusky can find his Raison d'etre elsewhere. Good for him.

UPDATE

I've linked here to an adweek story/blog about the "midlife crisis" aspect of this, with some more "in" stuff.