I am John Galt: today's heroic innovators building the world and the villainous parasites destroying it

321 Pages·2011·1.8 MB·English

by  Donald L. Luskin

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I AM
JOHN GALT
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I AM
JOHN GALT
Today’s Heroic Innovators
Building the World
and the
Villainous Parasites
Destroying It
D O N A L D L . L U S K I N
A N D R E W G R E TA
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Copyright © 2011 by Donald L. Luskin and Andrew Greta. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Luskin, Donald L.
I am John Galt : today’s heroic innovators building the world and the villainous parasites
destroying it / Donald L. Luskin and Andrew Greta.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-118-01378-6 (hardback); 978-1-118-10096-7 (ebk.); 978-1-118-10097-4 (ebk.);
978-1-118-10098-1 (ebk.)
1. Entrepreneurship—Biography. 2. Creative ability in business. 3. Self-esteem.
I. Greta, Andrew. II. Title.
HC29.L87 2011
338'.040922—dc22
2011010991
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To Christine, Roark, and Roark
—Don
To my wife Emily, and daughter Lucy
—Andrew
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Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 The Individualist 17
Steve Jobs as Howard Roark, the man who
reinvented four whole industries just because
it was so cool
By Andrew Greta
Chapter 2 The Mad Collectivist 45
Paul Krugman as Ellsworth Toohey,
the man who preaches socialism from the
pages of America’s newspaper of record
By Donald L. Luskin
Chapter 3 The Leader 71
John Allison as John Galt, the man
who walked away after building
America’s strongest bank
By Donald L. Luskin
vii
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viii contents
Chapter 4 The Parasite 97
Angelo Mozilo as James Taggart, the
businessman who corrupted government
and nearly wrecked the U.S. economy
By Andrew Greta
Chapter 5 The Persecuted Titan 131
Bill Gates as Henry Rearden, the businessman
who created revolutionary technologies and was
criminalized for his success
By Andrew Greta
Chapter 6 The Central Planner 163
Barney Frank as Wesley Mouch, the politician who
meddled in the economy and almost destroyed it
By Andrew Greta
Chapter 7 The Capitalist Champion 191
T. J. Rodgers as Francisco d’Anconia, the
modern Renaissance man and agent provocateur
for capitalism
By Andrew Greta
Chapter 8 The Sellout 219
Alan Greenspan as Robert Stadler, the
libertarian who became an economic czar
By Donald L. Luskin
Chapter 9 The Economist of Liberty 239
Milton Friedman as Hugh Akston, the
academic who showed the world the connection
between capitalism and freedom
By Andrew Greta & Donald L. Luskin
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