Set the Market Free: The Cure for the Financial Crisis April 2, 2009

A talk at the University of Texas, Austin

Who: Yaron Brook, president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute

What: A talk arguing that the financial crisis was caused by the government and can only be cured by the free market. An open Q&A will follow.

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 Institute, 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 anticapitalist 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.

Admission: FREE. Open to students and the public

Bio: Dr. Yaron Brook is president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and is a contributing editor to The Objective Standard. A former finance professor, he has published in academic as well as popular publications. He is frequently interviewed in the media and on the Fox Business Network to debate and discuss current economic and business news. His columns and opinion-editorials are regularly published in major newspapers. Dr. Brook lectures on Objectivism, business ethics, and foreign policy at college campuses, and for community groups and corporations across America and throughout the world.
For more information on this talk, please e-mail Alan McKendree at [email protected]