Atlas Shrugged is coming to a theater near you (ca. 277 screens)--or at least, me. Atlas Shrugged the Movie will be shown at the Movie Tavern, Mill Run Shopping Center in Hilliard, Ohio, 3773 Ridge Mill Dr., April 15-April 21, showings at 10:45 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 7:20 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. (Dates and times could change, www.movietavern.com) Movie Tavern is a restaurant/theatre serving food and drink, so you can make it a date night or book club event. The book was written in 1957, but is relevant to today's political and economic realities.
Read a review of book theme and why Conservatives didn't like Rand when she was alive in WSJ. Donald L. Luskin: Remembering the Real Ayn Rand - WSJ.com
When Rand created the character of Wesley Mouch, it's as though she was anticipating Barney Frank (D., Mass). Mouch is the economic czar in "Atlas Shrugged" whose every move weakens the economy, which in turn gives him the excuse to demand broader powers. Mr. Frank steered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to disaster with mandates for more lending to low-income borrowers. After Fannie and Freddie collapsed under the weight of their subprime mortgage books, Mr. Frank proclaimed last year: "The way to cure that is to give us more authority." Mouch couldn't have said it better himself.
But it's a misreading of "Atlas" to claim that it is simply an antigovernment tract or an uncritical celebration of big business. In fact, the real villain of "Atlas" is a big businessman, railroad CEO James Taggart, whose crony capitalism does more to bring down the economy than all of Mouch's regulations. With Taggart, Rand was anticipating figures like Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide Financial, the subprime lender that proved to be a toxic mortgage factory. Like Taggart, Mr. Mozilo engineered government subsidies for his company in the name of noble-sounding virtues like home ownership for all.
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