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Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’S Ideas Can End Big Government FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Publication Date: September 18, 2012 Margaret Kingsbury (512) 904-9255 or [email protected] Barbara Cave Henricks (512) 301-8936 or [email protected] FREE MARKET REVOLUTION: HOW AYN RAND’S IDEAS CAN END BIG GOVERNMENT By Yaron Brook and Don Watkins “Free Market Revolution will raise the ire of every statist, socialist and crony capitalist. Rand understood—as do the authors of this all-too-timely book—that free markets are, indeed, moral while Big Government is manifestly not.” – Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Ayn Rand is more popular than ever, especially among the influential Tea Party movement. If her ideas take hold, they would transform our political-economic landscape. Will they? Should they? What would an Ayn Rand America look like? Could the U.S. be headed for a Free Market Revolution? As November approaches, one thing has become clear: “capitalism” will be the buzz word and hot topic of the 2012 election campaign. Each day brings another article by journalists pitting Barack Obama’s and Mitt Romney’s views on free markets against one another. When it comes to America’s future, do we need less capitalism—or more? This debate is not new, and in fact, it’s been brewing for more than four years. In late 2008, as the economy experienced a devastating financial crisis, followed by an avalanche of government intervention, sales of Atlas Shrugged skyrocketed. By the end of that year alone, Ayn Rand’s classic novel would sell more than 200,000 copies and go on to reach half a million in 2009. Almost instantaneously, a 50-year-old book became the calling card of the new Tea Party activists, who carried signs declaring that “Ayn Rand was right.” Why were people suddenly turning to an author who had been dead for more than a quarter century? In their upcoming book, FREE MARKET REVOLUTION: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government (Palgrave Macmillan; $27.00; September 18, 2012), Ayn Rand Institute scholars Yaron Brook and Don Watkins argue that the answer lies in her pioneering philosophy of capitalism and self-interest —a philosophy that more and more people are turning to for answers. Provocative and timely, this book is certain to spark fresh debate by reexamining the increasingly influential ideas of Ayn Rand through the lens of today’s most important political, cultural and societal issues, such as: . A Health Care Revolution. Government intervention in the name of a “right” to health care drives up costs and cripples quality. A totally free market in health care is necessary: no Medicare, no Medicaid, no FDA. A Regulation Revolution. The only proper role of the government is to protect individuals from physical force while leaving them free to pursue profits. While there would be strict laws against force and fraud, there would be no regulation of business. An Entitlement Revolution. The entitlement state is not a safety net but a spider web that ensnares and strangles rational, productive, creative, ambitious individuals, in order to dole out unearned rewards to the irrational and unproductive. An Ayn Rand America would put an end to wealth redistribution and create a “keep it economy:” you earn it; you keep it…every last penny of it. A Moral Revolution. America would be a country that celebrates the pursuit of profit and rational self-interest under economic freedom. This is the Free Market Revolution that Ayn Rand fought for and inspired so many to join. It is a movement to create a complete separation between State and Economics—in the same way that there should be a separation of Church and State. In FREE MARKET REVOLUTION, Brook and Watkins contend that such a transformation is possible and urgently necessary—not only to ensure the economic future of America, but in order to create a more moral society. “Capitalism,” write the authors, “– full, unregulated, uncontrolled, laissez-faire capitalism – is not simply ‘less bad’ than any alternative: it is the only moral economic system in history.” FREE MARKET REVOLUTION: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government Authors: Yaron Brook and Don Watkins Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Publication Date: September 18, 2012 Hardcover; $27.00; 272 pages ISBN: 9780230341692 Visit www.freemarketbook.com for more information About Yaron Brook Yaron Brook is Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute (www.aynrand.org). An internationally sought-after speaker, he has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, The Glenn Beck Show, On the Money, and Closing Bell, among others. His writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, and CNN.com, and he is co- author with Don Watkins of a popular column on business and capitalism at Forbes.com. Yaron can be found online at http://www.yaronbrook.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/yaronbrook Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ybrook About Don Watkins Don Watkins is a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute and the co-writer with Yaron Brook of a popular column on business and capitalism at Forbes.com. He appears regularly on radio and TV, and his op-eds have appeared in such venues as Investor's Business Daily, The Christian Science Monitor, FoxNews.com, and Forbes. Don can be found online at http://capitalism.aynrand.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwatkins3 Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DonWatkinsWriter Advance Praise for FREE MARKET REVOLUTION “A powerful and unapologetic case in support of capitalism. For those who think more government will solve our nation’s problems, Free Market Revolution will open your eyes. For those who can already see the light, it will sharpen your vision.” – Peter Schiff, author of The Real Crash: America's Coming Bankruptcy—How to Save Yourself anD Your Country “Free Market Revolution is a potential game-changer. Brook and Watkins dismantle the myth that free markets are responsible for today’s ills, and they teach us how to take the moral high ground in the fight against Big Government. If there are any Occupiers left, this book should make them lay down their signs in surrender. Anyone who wants to understand why we have strayed so far from the Founders’ ideals, and how we can find our way back, should read this book.” – Mallory Factor, Founder, Mallory Factor, Inc. and Professor of International Politics at The Citadel “Free Market Revolution is must-reading for an age in which the government seems to be treating Atlas Shrugged not as a warning, but as a how-to manual.” – Glenn Reynolds, Founder, Instapundit.com “This book is a must read for anyone concerned about the demonization of capitalism and deification of collectivism. Yaron Brook and Don Watkins meld philosophy with practicality in their cogent analysis of how Ayn Rand’s moral defense of capitalism can bring down the limitless growth of government and restore its original, intended purpose—protection of individual rights. Changing the trajectory of the country calls for a long and intense fight with very steep odds against victory. But the concept of the Free Market Revolution, celebrating the individual pursuit of rational, long-term self-interest as a virtue, provides the arsenal for the assault. And Brook and Watkins give a battle plan of surefire approaches to limit, and then eliminate, even such massive incursions as the government’s takeover of healthcare.” – Jim M. Kilts, Former CEO of Gillette Company “The most important issue in our society today is the morality of capitalism. Free Market Revolution lays bare how capitalism is the only economic system consistent with man’s nature as a thinking being who must act in his long term rational self-interest to survive and prosper. This is an important book which integrates philosophical ideas with their real world consequences.” – John A. Allison, Retired Chairman & CEO, BB&T Corporation and CEO of the Cato Institute “Free Market Revolution is very welcomed indeed. With clarity and courage, Brook and Watkins present the basic teachings of free market economics, and place them within the context of Ayn Rand’s broader moral-philosophic system. As the problems with government intervention into the free market become more and more evident to larger segments of the population, Ayn Rand’s writing, especially her epic Atlas Shrugged, takes on a new life for a new generation.” – Peter J. Boettke, Professor of Economics, George Mason University An interview with Yaron Brook and Don Watkins, authors of FREE MARKET REVOLUTION Q: Why are Americans suddenly talking about Ayn Rand, a writer who died thirty years ago? Brook: On one level, it’s because of the parallels between Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged and today’s world: Atlas describes a world eerily similar to ours, where the economy is faltering under the weight of government intervention, and where capitalism and businessmen are taking all the blame. On a deeper level, it’s because Ayn Rand provides new and challenging answers to today’s most urgent questions, and lays out a powerful moral defense of the original American ideal of individual freedom. Q: What is the definition of a free market, and what kind of revolution would you like to take place? Watkins: A free market means a system in which the individual’s life belongs to him, and he is free to live it as he chooses. The government’s only job is to protect his freedom to think, to produce, and to trade with others voluntarily. Brook: A truly free market would mean an end to the regulatory-welfare state in all its guises—no more entitlement programs sapping our wealth, no more ABC regulatory agencies dictating how we conduct our business affairs.
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