ARI Media Feed

Apple Inc., #1 on Fortune magazine’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies, is currently on trial in Manhattan federal court, defending against antitrust charges. Question: How many other businesses in Fortune’s top ten have been recently subjected to some kind of antitrust enforcement? Answer: all of them. This op-ed was published at Forbes.com on June 20, 2013. Link to original

The debate over raising the minimum wage is in part a debate over whether entrepreneurs should be forced to shoulder even greater burdens. By not seriously considering what the minimum wage demands from such business people, we are treating them not as human beings with rights, but as pack animals that must obediently carry whatever additional weight is piled on their backs. This op-ed was published at The Daily Caller on June 19, 2013. Link to original

How absurd is it that in many states a microbrewer is forced to use a third-party distributor to take a few cases of beer to a convenience store down the street from his brewery? This op-ed was published at Politix.topix.com on June 11, 2013. Link to original

This interview was published at EducationNews.com on May 21, 2013. Link to original

Long before General Motors neared collapse, it was a proud and flourishing symbol of American manufacturing. In the 1950s, GM was the first company to ever make $1 billion in a single year, and it had 50% of the domestic automobile market. GM executives used to proudly quip, “we’re still losing 5 out of every 10 sales!” What happened to this great company? This op-ed was published at Forbes.com on May 20, 2013. Link to original

Ayn Rand Hits a Million…Again! Atlas Shrugged Author Sells 1,000,000 Books in 2012 IRVINE, Calif.—Thirty years after her death, novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand is still selling a lot of books, a million to be precise. The popular author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead has sold 1,000,000 copies of all of her titles in 2012. 2012 saw Atlas Shrugged sell 359,105 copies, its third highest total of all time, behind 2009 (#1) and 2011 (#2). As the decades move along Rand has only gotten more popular. Atlas Shrugged was a bestseller in Rand’s day, but it’s selling more than ever in the 2010s. Annual purchases of Atlas Shrugged by decade averaged: 1980s — 74,300 per year 1990s — 95,300 per year 2000s — 167,028 per year 2010s — 303,523 per year To date Rand’s books have sold a total of 29,500,000 copies. 2,962,876 of these have been requested from the Ayn Rand Institute by American school teachers. # # # The Ayn Rand Institute has speakers available for interviews. Please contact Kurt Kramer at [email protected] or call 202-609-7470, ext. 202. The Ayn Rand Institute is a 501©(3) organization dedicated to promoting the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. For more information on Objectivism and Ayn Rand, visit www.aynrand.org. Link to original

Starting next year, the Affordable Care Act will limit how much health insurance premiums can vary based on age. Health insurers will be restricted to charging older people no more than three times higher premiums than they charge younger people. This is bad news for the young. This op-ed was published at Politix.com on April 26, 2013. Link to original

Earlier this year, the Internet giant capitulated to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission after a 19-month investigation, promising to change its advertising practices. This op-ed was published at Investor's Business Daily on April 18, 2013. Link to original

Long after he had established himself as one of America’s leading businessmen, as well as history’s greatest steelmaker, Andrew Carnegie reflected that “We all live in the richest and freest country in the world, where no man is limited except by his own mental attitude and his own desires.” This article was published at Forbes.com on April 12, 2013. Link to original

Right now there is a campaign underway to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 or more, and polls indicate that Americans overwhelmingly support it. And who wouldn’t? Who could object to making sure that everyone can earn a living? This article was published at Forbes.com on March 27, 2013. Link to original

The sequester debate is a national embarrassment - though not for the reasons you might think. This article was published at Politix.com on March 20, 2013. Link to original

“Give back.” That’s the message sent to successful businessmen. You built a company? You made a lot of money? Fine. Now it’s time for you to use the money you’ve made to do some real good in the world. This article was published at Forbes.com on March 12, 2013. Link to original

Why were most children made to work before the twentieth century? Is it because parents were sadistic and governments cruel? Hardly. This article was published at Forbes.com on February 25, 2013. Link to original

We can limit today’s unlimited government. But to do so we will need to mount an unapologetic moral defense of freedom. The first step is to arm ourselves with Ayn Rand’s unsurpassed stockpile of intellectual ammunition, and then to speak out for freedom. This article was published at FoxNews.com on February 4, 2013. Link to original

Abortions are private affairs and often involve painfully difficult decisions with life-long consequences. But, tragically, the lives of the parents are completely ignored by the anti-abortionists. Yet that is the essential issue. In any conflict it's the actual, living persons who count, not the mere potential of the embryo. This article was published at Huffington Post on January 23, 2013. Link to original

The purpose of your life is not to help the Tiny Tims of the world. It is to do everything in your power to create a life filled with joyous memories. This article was published at Forbes.com on December 23, 2012. Link to original

America is surely heading toward a financial reckoning. Let's face reality, unplug the third rail and have a real debate about the future of Medicare. This article was published at The Daily Caller on November 26, 2012. Ultimately, we will need to discuss the possibility of ending Medicare as we know it — of no longer forcing some people to pay the medical bills of others. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/26/its-time-to-unplug-medicares-third-rail/#ixzz2DQwCZk12 reckoning. Let’s face this reality, unplug the third rail Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/26/its-time-to-unplug-medicares-third-rail/#ixzz2DQvvI0Ok reckoning. Let’s face this reality, unplug the third rail and have a real debate about the future of Medicare. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/26/its-time-to-unplug-medicares-third-rail/#ixzz2DQvrsQmQ America is surely heading toward a financial reckoning. Let’s face this reality, unplug the third rail and have a real debate about the future of Medicare. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/26/its-time-to-unplug-medicares-third-rail/#ixzz2DQvebkWy Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/26/its-time-to-unplug-medicares-third-rail/#ixzz2DQvebkWy America is surely heading toward a financial reckoning. Let’s face this reality, unplug the third rail and have a real debate about the future of Medicare. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/26/its-time-to-unplug-medicares-third-rail/#ixzz2DQvYDcw2 America is surely heading toward a financial reckoning. Let’s face this reality, unplug the third rail and have a real debate about the future of Medicare. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/26/its-time-to-unplug-medicares-third-rail/#ixzz2DQvYDcw2 Link to original

If an insurance company is willing to offer me coverage for contraception, and if such coverage makes financial sense to me, that’s great. But if the alternative is between being left free to make this choice and being coerced into a policy constructed by a government bureaucrat, I’d rather buy my own contraception, thank you very much. This article was published at Townhall.com on November 13, 2012. Link to original

The definitive history of the financial crisis remains to be written. But one thing is for sure: it shouldn’t be written by those who have a quasi-religious conviction that the freedom to pursue profits is the cause of all the world’s problems, and that government regulation is the unfailing elixir. This article was published at Forbes.com on November 12, 2012. Link to original

Instead of liberals dismissing Rand's appeal to the American spirit of individualism and independence, as President Obama recently did in his Rolling Stone interview, why don't liberals make Rand part of a new canon? Why let conservatives monopolize her? This op-ed was published at HuffingtonPost.com on November 2, 2012. Link to original

What is Barack Obama’s vision for America? Here’s one telling clue. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the president declares that the individualist credo of novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand misses “what’s best in America.” Really? This article was published at Forbes.com on October 28, 2012. Link to original

If you want to understand the ideas of one of today’s most important thinkers—and enjoy a moving literary experience—there’s no better time to read Atlas Shrugged than right now. This essay was published at PJMedia.com. Read it here. Link to original

Paul Ryan has been called the “Ayn Rand candidate,” owing to his praise of Rand’s philosophic novel "Atlas Shrugged." But her name, and more importantly, her ideas, were absent from last Thursday’s debate. This essay was published at Forbes.com. Read it here. Link to original

New movie based on the 1957 novel; new book by Ayn Rand Institute authors hits best-seller lists; Playboy to reprint Rand interview as e-book IRVINE, Calif.—October 10 marks the 55th anniversary of the publication of Atlas Shrugged, the Ayn Rand masterpiece that sold more than 445,000 copies last year alone. Rand continues to be a pervasive figure in American culture, as politicos and business leaders regularly cite her works and opening weekend approaches for the second installment of the motion picture series based on the novel. The book by Ayn Rand Institute executive director Yaron Brook and ARI fellow Don Watkins, Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government, applies Rand’s philosophy to current economic events. The book hit four best-seller lists, including the Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today, and also earned a spot on the Tea Party Patriots’ recommended reading list. Playboy will republish its 1964 interview with Rand as an Amazon e-book on Oct. 10. “Millions of individuals have read Rand’s novels, and she has inspired and shaped many people’s thinking,” said Brook. “What’s unique about what’s happening today is that her ideas, and especially herself explicitly, are entering the mainstream debates.” Ayn Rand’s ideas of limited government and free markets, and her philosophy—particularly her moral philosophy—are what more and more Americans across the political spectrum are looking at more closely,” Brook said. In addition to Atlas Shrugged, Rand also wrote The Fountainhead, Anthem, and We the Living. ARI’s high school essay contests, which are based on the novels, received more entries this year than ever before, and ARI has distributed more than 2.5 million copies of Rand’s novels to high schools around the country through its Books to Teachers program. “It is encouraging to see more people talking about Ayn Rand and her ideas,” Brook said. “Even Paul Ryan, who doesn’t agree with all of her ideas, is certainly correct when he says that ‘Ayn Rand, more than anyone else, did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism.’” ### Link to original

IRVINE, Calif.--The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) announced today that John Allison, a member of the Institute’s Board of Directors, has decided to resign from the Board, noting a desire to reduce his professional commitments and devote full energies to his new position as chief executive officer and President of the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. Michael Berliner and Arline Mann, co-chairs of ARI's Board of Directors, commented: "We are extremely grateful to John for his many years of highly effective work on behalf of ARI and Objectivism. This is a loss for us; fortunately, John has generously agreed to be available for us to consult with, on an occasional, ad hoc basis. We wish him well in his exciting new position at Cato." "I am proud of the Institute's accomplishments in achieving its mission to spread Ayn Rand's ideas," said Mr. Allison. "I am sincerely grateful for the support I've received from the Institute's Board of Directors, contributors, and employees. I certainly continue to support ARI, which is well-positioned and is on a clear path to increasing Ayn Rand's influence on the culture." # # # Link to original