[Publius]

FReeper Book Club

Atlas Shrugged

Part II: Either-Or

Chapter IV: Account Overdrawn

Ping! The thread is up.

Earlier threads:
FReeper Book Club: Introduction to Atlas Shrugged
Part I, Chapter I: The Theme
Part I, Chapter II: The Chain
Part I, Chapter III: The Top and the Bottom
Part I, Chapter IV: The Immovable Movers
Part I, Chapter V: The Climax of the d’Anconias
Part I, Chapter VI: The Non-Commercial
Part I, Chapter VII: The Exploiters and the Exploited
Part I, Chapter VIII: The John Galt Line
Part I, Chapter IX: The Sacred and the Profane
Part I, Chapter X: Wyatt’s Torch
Part II, Chapter I: The Man Who Belonged on Earth
Part II, Chapter II: The Aristocracy of Pull
Part II, Chapter III: White Blackmail
Part II, Chapter IV: The Sanction of the Victim

[Montfort]

Change the names, and this is pretty close to reality.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Will they hire and fire bank management and board members? Nah-h-h, it could never happen here.

Directive 10-289, TARP and you...

[whodathunkit]

Thanks once again Publius!

I like your analogy-"Keep this in mind as we read further and find the ripples in the pond expanding into tsunamis. "

A ship at sea hardly feels the passing of the tsunami beneath it, the volume of water being so great. As the energy reaches the shallower water near shore, it is concentrated into a much smaller volume with devastating effects. We are at this time feeling a slight jolt as does the ship at sea.

[freekitty]

I certainly appreciate your excellent summary.

[demsux]

Once again, thanks Publius.

[Mad-Margaret]

Buzzy Watts, Chick Morrison, Tinky Holloway and Kip Chalmers. What a collection of names! There is a sense that Rand is playing with the reader here, but in fact she is making a point. Nicknames like this – along with Muffy and Buffy – are common at Ivy League schools and especially at Yale University. You can be sure that at Patrick Henry University, nobody was called Tinky!

All the times I've read this book, I've never caught that. Thanks for the insight.

[Still Thinking]

Buzzy Watts, Chick Morrison, Tinky Holloway and Kip Chalmers. What a collection of names! There is a sense that Rand is playing with the reader here, but in fact she is making a point. Nicknames like this – along with Muffy and Buffy – are common at Ivy League schools and especially at Yale University. You can be sure that at Patrick Henry University, nobody was called Tinky!

Without being obvious about it, it is clear that Rand held the Ivy League in low esteem. As the story progresses, the reader sees the disasters caused by the hubris of Ivy League dilettantes with no experience of the real world. One turns to humorist Art Buchwald’s 1974 comment that the Harvard Business School should be shut down as a threat to national security.

Fascinating. I thought Rand just had a thing for goofy names or was trying to tell us they were all dorks. I had no idea there was an actual real world allusion there.

[TASMANIANRED]

As usual, stunning job.. Many thanks.

[Explorer89]

Jim wants to raise freight rates, but Weatherby cuts him off and explains that Wesley Mouch wants to discuss the unions’ demand for a pay raise and the shippers’ demand for a freight rate cut.

My husband was telling me about "The Folly of FDR", which he is listening to during his commute. He said that FDR was actually doing some really ridiculous stuff. They had the economics backwards, and noted that wages were high in good times, so therefore, they mandated high wages, thinking the wages were the engine. It was also the time of the Dust Bowl, and many people were starving, yet the government was destroying crops to keep prices high, because during the boom times, prices were high. Must have been the high prices that caused the boom times.....

In many ways, Rand was not prophesying, she was regurgitating what had already gone before under FDR.

[whodathunkit]

Some interesting and helpful info here...

Characters in Atlas Shrugged

I know, I know, it's Wiki. (caveat emptor)

Spoiler warning - judicious perusal required.

Submitted for furthering the group discussion.

[r-q-tek86]

Part II, Chapter VI: Miracle Metal