Tag Archives: Capitalism

The Financial Crisis: Free Markets as the Only Practical and Moral Solution

Posted on March 21, 2009 by | Comments Off on The Financial Crisis: Free Markets as the Only Practical and Moral Solution

I am delighted to inform everyone that Yaron Brook will be speaking at Rice University on Tuesday, March 31st, at 7:30 pm in 100 Keck Hall. 

Talk Description: 

Virtually everyone today regards the financial crisis as a failure of the free market. In this talk, Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, will argue that in fact it is the un-free market that has failed. It was not capitalism that held interest rates below the rate of inflation,spurring massive amounts of borrowing and a housing boom. It was not capitalism that gave us Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which promoted subprime lending and helped fuel the boom. It was not capitalism that gave us deposit insurance and the “too big to fail” doctrine, which encouraged risky financial practices. These, and many anti-capitalist measures like them, Dr. Brook will argue, laid the groundwork for the financial crisis. The only cure, according to Dr. Brook, is to set the market free. But to do that, Americans must embrace capitalism as a moral system–one that should be defended without guilt.

About Yaron Brook:  Yaron Brook is president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and a contributing editor of The Objective Standard. He received his MBA and Ph.D. in Finance at UT-Austin and has been published in academic as well as popular publications, and his opinion-editorials appear in major newspapers. He is frequently interviewed on national TV and radio. Dr. Brook lectures on Objectivism, business ethics and foreign policy at college campuses, community groups and corporations across America and throughout the world.

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Craig Biddle on Capitalism: The Only Moral Social System

Posted on October 16, 2008 by | Comments Off on Craig Biddle on Capitalism: The Only Moral Social System

Hello All,

Craig Biddle is the editor of The Objective Standard and the author of Loving Life: The Morality of Self Interest and the Facts that Support It. He will be presenting the talk on Capitalism on

October 23, Thursday
100 Herring Hall
7:30 pm

Summary
Capitalism is widely recognized as the practical social system because, wherever and to the extent that it is implemented, it leads to wealth and prosperity. But this same system is widely regarded as immoral because it enables people to act fully in their own self-interest—that is, to act on their own judgment and to keep, use, and dispose of the product of their own effort. More recently, many politicians and commentators would have you believe that capitalism is neither practical nor moral in light of the recent financial crisis. In fact, it is a return to capitalism that will lead to a healthy economy and prosperity. This talk demonstrates why, far from making capitalism immoral, the fact that it enables everyone to act selfishly and own property is what makes it not only the most practical but also the only moral social system ever devised.

See you all there!

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Richard Salsman on Capitalism and Environmentalism: The Virtues of Exploitation

Posted on March 23, 2008 by | Comments Off on Richard Salsman on Capitalism and Environmentalism: The Virtues of Exploitation

The Rice Objectivism Club is sponsoring yet another speaker this semester! We figure who better to challenge the status quo and to present a rational, this-worldly approach to common philosophical, social, and political issues.This time around, we’re going to challenge the environmentalists! You’ve seen the dire predictions about global warming; you’ve been warned about the evils of fossil fuels; you’ve been encouraged to “go green.” But does any of this make sense? Are these predictions and warnings based upon scientific fact? More importantly, will “going green” actually make your life better or worse?

Our speaker Richard Salsman, an Ayn Rand scholar and economist, will address these issues and more in his talk Capitalism and Environmentalism: The Virtues of Exploitation, taking place next Tues., March 25th, at 7:30 p.m. in 212 Herzstein Hall. Take time out of your studies to get an entirely new perspective on environmentalism, a viewpoint that you probably won’t hear in class.

Summary
Man achieves his survival by using his mind to alter his environment to suit his needs and improve the conditions of his existence. It is this process — expressed in science, technology, and capitalism — that has allowed man to rise from the hunger, drudgery, and misery of primitive existence to the comfort of modern civilization. But it is precisely this process that is under attack by the reactionary “greens” — who want to return man to the pre-industrial era or even to the Stone Age.

In this talk, Mr. Salsman does not merely discredit the scientific claims of environmentalism; he demolishes its moral and philosophical base. He demonstrates that: (1) the doctrine that nature has “intrinsic value,” i.e., some sort of mystical value entirely apart from its relation to man, is nothing but the desire to destroy human values, (2) the improvement of the environment — for man — can be provided for only by laissez-faire capitalism, and (3) that it is the environmentalist movement itself that is today’s greatest danger to human health and happiness.

About Richard Salsman
Richard M. Salsman is president and chief market strategist of InterMarket Forecasting, which provides quantitative research and forecasts of stocks, bonds, and currencies to guide the asset allocation decisions of institutional investment managers, mutual funds, and pension plans. He is the author of numerous books and articles on economics, banking, and forecasting from a free-market perspective, including Breaking the Banks: Central Banking Problems and Free Banking Solutions (American Institute for Economic Research, 1990) and Gold and Liberty (American Institute for Economic Research, 1995). Mr. Salsman’s work has appeared in The Intellectual Activist, the New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Economist and Barron’s. From 1993 to 1999, he was a senior vice president and senior economist at H. C. Wainwright & Co. Economics. Prior to that he was a banker at Citibank and the Bank of New York. Mr. Salsman is an adjunct fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.

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