Ayn Rand

Atlas Producer Shrugs and Refuses to Make Sequel

by Kathryn Ciano on April 27, 2011

in Culture, Features, Odds & Ends, Zeitgeist

Post image for Atlas Producer Shrugs and Refuses to Make Sequel

After Atlas Shrugged debuted to devastating debuts, producer John Aglialoro told the Los Angeles Times that he is considering ending the project without producing the second and third parts of the trilogy that were part of the original Atlas plan.

“Why should I put up all of that money if the critics are coming in like lemmings?” Aglialoro asked.

“Critics, you won,” said John Aglialoro, the businessman who spent 18 years and more than $20 million of his own money to make, distribute and market “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1,” which covers the first third of Rand’s dystopian novel. “I’m having deep second thoughts on why I should do Part 2.”

“Atlas Shrugged” was the top-grossing limited release in its opening weekend, generating $1.7 million on 299 screens and earning a respectable $5,640 per screen. But the the box office dropped off 47% in the film’s second week in release even as “Atlas Shrugged” expanded to 425 screens, and the movie seemed to hold little appeal for audiences beyond the core group of Rand fans to whom it was marketed.

Ranked by Forbes Small Business as the 10th richest executive of any small publicly traded company in 2007, John Aglialoro has reportedly spent $20 million over the past two decades working to make Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged into a big screen trilogy.

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Paul Ryan Attacked Because His Father Died Early, Resulting in Survivor Benefits

by Hans Bader on April 22, 2011

in Healthcare, Politics as Usual, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

At the age of 16, Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) suffered the death of his 55-year-old father. Because of his father’s early death, the government made survivor payments for a few years to Paul Ryan’s family — including for Paul Ryan himself, for the two years until he turned 18.

The death of Paul Ryan’s father probably cut government spending on Ryan’s family, since his father never got to collect a dime in retirement benefits despite paying into social security for many years, and since retirees typically collect at least a decade’s worth of benefits. Thus, the Ryan family got no special breaks.

But the liberal magazine The American Prospect, and liberal blogs like Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake, and Daily Kos, are using Ryan’s father’s early death against him, falsely accusing him of hypocrisy. For example, a Daily Kos diary attacks Ryan as an “evil hypocrite” in a post entitled, “Entitlement-hating Paul Ryan collected Social Security benefits until he was 18.” Never mind that Ryan’s recent budget proposal doesn’t in fact seek to abolish entitlements, much less get rid of Social Security, and doesn’t seek to reduce the survivor benefits he once received. It merely seeks to cut the rate of growth of exploding Medicare costs by eventually giving its recipients vouchers they can use to shop around for medical care.

Not all Daily Kos diaries reflect the views of Daily Kos as a whole, but this one does, since it was briefly featured on the top of the front page of Daily Kos, and was listed as a “recommended” blog post in the sidebar on the right side of Daily Kos’s main page in recent days. 282 Daily Kos readers have commented in response to it, seemingly all agreeing with its hateful sentiments.

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“Going Galt”– 90 percent tax may provide impetus

by Fran Smith on March 20, 2009 · 3 comments

in Bailout Watch, Economy, Personal Liberty, Politics as Usual, Sanctimony

Already there’s confusion over what the 90 percent bonus tax bill passed by the House really means. Targeted at the AIG bonuses, which sparked bi-partisan demagogism, the bill would really apply to all firms that received more than $5 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Here’s what the text of the bill states:

· (1) IN GENERAL- The term `TARP bonus’ means, with respect to any individual for any taxable year, the lesser of–

(A) the aggregate disqualified bonus payments received from covered TARP recipients during such taxable year, or

(B) the excess of–

(i) the adjusted gross income of the taxpayer for such taxable year, over

(ii) $250,000 ($125,000 in the case of a married individual filing a separate return).

Here’s what Henry Blodgett thinks it means (by way of MarginalRevolution:

If the “TARP bonus” bill the House passed today becomes law, any of the hundreds of thousands of people who work for Citigroup, Bank of America, AIG, and nine other major US corporations will have to fork over 90 cents of every dollar they make that puts their household income over $250,000.

That’s household income, not individual income.*  If you’re married and filing singly, you’ll have to surrender anything over $125,000.  Indefinitely.

It does seem to mean that if somebody is making $125,000 or a couple filing jointly making $250,000 gets a bonus, the amount above that income level gets taxed at the confiscatory rate.

It’s not likely that those thousands of employees around the country will be happy with this confiscatory taxation. There’s been lots of talk in recent months about “going Galt,”but so far it hasn’t really caught on at the big firms. Caroline Baum at Bloomberg thinks the time may be ripe for that to happen, and this was written before the 90 percent tax vote.

Somewhere John Galt is smiling.

The hero of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” is smiling because he’s seen it all before: the government’s intervention in the private sector; the constraints placed on business in the name of the people; the desperation on the part of government bureaucrats when they realize their leverage is limited; and — this part is still fiction — the decision on the part of business leaders to walk away from the enterprises they built.

Wonder how AIG head Edward Liddy feels after his contemptible treatment by lawmakers this week. And this is the guy who took over the firm in September 2008 and pays himself $1 in salary. He should have been praised for taking on this almost-impossible job. But no, legislators were too busy posturing for the cameras and venting their outrage. But he would be a hero if he “goes Galt.”

D.C. Event: BB&T’s John Allison on the Financial Crisis

by Richard Morrison on January 15, 2009 · 1 comment

in Bailout Watch, Economy, Stimulus to Nowhere

Our friends at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights are hosting what promises to be a fascinating public lecture on the state of the U.S. economy and what it means for the future of capitalism. Former CEO and current Board Chairman of BB&T bank, John Allison, will explain the interventionist government policies that brought us where we are today and their anti-capitalist underpinnings.

Location and Details:

The Financial Crisis: Causes and Possible Cures
Thursday, January 29, 2009

National Building Museum—Great Hall
401 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
Red Line Metro, Judiciary Square

Doors open: 6 PM
Lecture and Q & A: 6:30 PM

This event is FREE and open to the public.