Atlas Shrugged – Part 5 of ?

Sorry for such a long delay in getting back to this.   Been a bit busy with real life.

Any way, this post takes us to when Dagny Taggart is riding on the Taggart Comet, the “premier” train in the country.   She falls asleep while the train is moving and wakes up when it’s stopped.

Why did it stop?  Because a signal was broken.  The signal routed them on to a “side” track and they just sat there.  The engineer knew the signal was broken but it wasn’t his job to override the signal and proceed.   So they just sat there, and sat there, and sat there.

Dagny came out and overruled the engineer’s unwillingness to do what he knew was right because it “wasn’t his job.”  That got the train moving again.

Now ask yourself:

• How many of the problems we are currently facing would be minimized or eliminated if more people had stepped up and said, “Do the right thing!”
• How many bad loans would not have been written if more loan officers had either refused the customer’s request or asked them to reconsider because it didn’t seem a good thing for the customer?  But instead, too often the only concern was, “Can we sell the loan?”
• How many people wouldn’t have bought as much of a house as they did if their real estate sales agent hadn’t “talked” them into more of a house?  I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve had people tell me, “I’ve told the Realtor I wanted to spend less than $150,000 (or whatever) and they keep showing me information at $200,000 or more.”
• How many of the problems in the investment world (aka the Madoff scandal) would have been avoided if people, especially financial advisors, had asked questions that might not normally seem to be their job?  Many people on Wall Street knew something was broken but they didn’t think it was their job to do the right thing…..

Stay tuned, there’s a lot more coming!

Tom Vanderwell

Atlas Shrugged – Part 4 of ?

Okay, here’s where we’re at in Atlas Shrugged.   Let me lay out what’s going on to bring you up to speed:

• Dagny Taggart was running the oldest, cheapest equipment on the Rio Norte line.   Why?  Because she didn’t want to lose too much money when the Mexican government nationalized the line and seized all of their equipment.
• Her brother James insisted that it won’t happen.
• It did happen, the Mexican government nationalized it.
• James Taggart then took credit for it and fired a couple of other people in an effort to put “blame” elsewhere.
• Many people lost a lot of money when it got nationalized.   Francisco d’Anconia lost $15 million of his own money (a lot now, even more then.)

So, what’s the parallel to today?  There are a couple of interesting thoughts:

• There’s a substantial chance that one or more banks will end up getting nationalized quite soon both in the United States and elsewhere.
• Many people are in denial over the problems that the banks are facing and how bad it’s going to be and aren’t preparing for it.  Many of the people in denial are in significant leadership in banks and in Washington.
• Many people are going to lose a lot of money when the inevitable happens and some of the banks end up becoming part of the national government.

History tends to repeat itself and while I know Atlas Shrugged is just a book, it creates some interesting parallels.

Stay tuned for further thoughts on Atlas Shrugged and let me know what you think….

Tom Vanderwell

Atlas Shrugged

Altas Shrugged Part #3 of ?

Okay, here’s a question for you.  

Let me set the stage.  Dagny and her brother James are in her office and they are arguing over the service levels that are currently in place on the Rio Norte Line (their railroad that runs down into Mexico).   Dagny had cut service levels, was running one passenger train and two freight trains per day and was running them on the cheapest, oldest trains she could find. 

Why?  When James confronted her on that, she said it was because that reduced the amount that Taggart Transcontinental would lose when Mexico nationalized the Rio Norte line in Mexico.  

Hmmm, is there any chance that type of an attitude and response might be happening in the banking world right now?   Is eventual nationalization (albeit temporary) that will hurt shareholders negatively impacting the decisions that the top bankers are making right now?

Do you know what I mean?

Tom Vanderwell

Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged – Part 2 of ?

As the “narrator” is “introducing” Dagny Taggart, he says something that I believe is very important about her…..

“She did the work long before she got the title.”

He was talking about how she made her way through the various jobs she had at Taggart Transcontinental.   But think about it, how many of us would be able to say that?   Were we more concerned with, “That’s not my job?”   Or more concerned with doing what needs to be done?   I can think of many instances where a mortgage lender would do things differently if they approached things in the way that Dagny did.   I can think of many instances where this current mess could have worked out differently if a better era of responsibility was in place.   But instead it was, “If Fannie will buy it, that’s all I care” thinking that was part of the mess.

What do you think?

Tom Vanderwell

Dagny Taggart

“Atlas Shrugged” Part 1 of ?

Okay, I’m finally going to get this rolling.   I’ve been rereading Atlas Shrugged again and as I come across what I view are important things, I’ll talk about them.

The first “moment” comes in the first chapter when Eddy is talking to James Taggert.   They are talking about the future of one of the lines of their railroad and Eddy says, “Do the right thing no matter what.”

Do the right thing no matter what.   Think about that for a minute, how many of the problems we are currently having would have been avoided if people had done the right thing, no matter what?

More later……

Tom

Atlas Shrugged, James Ta

Atlas Shrugged – The Series

I’m currently working on rereading and organizing my “thoughts” for a series on Atlas Shrugged.   I expect it to be an approximately 800 part series that will run over, frankly several  years.

There is a lot of material to cover……

Tom Vanderwell

‘Atlas Shrugged’: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years – WSJ.com

Some years ago when I worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, we used to label any new hire who had not yet read “Atlas Shrugged” a “virgin.” Being conversant in Ayn Rand’s classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement. If only “Atlas” were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I’m confident that we’d get out of the current financial mess a lot faster.

Many of us who know Rand’s work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that “Atlas Shrugged” parodied in 1957, when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant hit.

Atlas Shrugged