John Allison Interview

[dianahsieh]

By Diana from NoodleFood,cross-posted by MetaBlog

I haven't yet listened to this EconTalk interview with John Allison, but it looks interesting:

John Allison, CEO of BB&T Bank, lays out his business philosophy arguing for the virtues of profits, self-interest and production. His definition of justice, one of the core values of his firm, is that those who produce more, get more. He argues that Bill Gates would do more for the world improving Microsoft than running his foundation and giving away money. Allison praises

Atlas Shrugged

and refuses to let his bank make loans to companies that use eminent domain to acquire property. Is this any way to run a company? Does Allison really run his company this way? How does he deal with the gap between his philosophy and our popular culture's view of business and profits? Listen as Allison and host Russ Roberts discuss BB&T's unusual business strategy.

http://ObjectivismOnline.com/blog/archives/002530.html

[softwareNerd]

Here's a more recent interview, via Street.com

[John Donohue]

Mr. Allison is quite interesting and I've been following him for many years. I have a slightly inside position because I am involved in a firm that provides education for mortgage professionals in North Carolina and we have watched his bank grow -- and grow fast -- over the last 8 years. We encounter his employees in rubber meets the road situations and spoken to them specifically about the Objectivist slant at BB&T. I have never met Mr. Allison personally.

He is controversial, of course.

He took a public stance against any investing in firms whose projects stemmed from the recent rulings enabling much wider eminent domain rules.

He explicitly promotes the study of Objectivism with his employees.

He funds chairs, reading rooms and other funding at Universities with explicit Ayn Rand 'strings attached.'

Most recently, we were shocked when he "accepted" $3 Billion dollars of the bank bailout/nationalization money. Shocked.

Mr. Allison has responded in public that he was called in on a 'command performance' basis. His bank was NOT in trouble, did NOT require bailout and he did NOT initiate the "meeting." He says that the government 'strongly encouraged' him to participate.

Here is the Qand A with John responding to the "bailout controversy" just past the halfway point of this mp3.

http://www.morganashcom.com/090129_ARI_BBT_Q&A.mp3

Here is his appearance recently sponsored by the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights

http://fr33agents.com/bbt-chairman-on-bail...-govt-stimulus/

Mr. Allison is actually remarkable open about discussing what happened. He prefaces by saying 'I'm talking about regulators who are currently regulating me, so ....' with the definite implication that he has to couch his comments, naturally.

It happens that I know that Mr. Allison declined the money. He was told the Feds needed some healthy firms to participate in order to make it seem less desperate.The feds pressured him. Use your imagination and you won't come up short. This ardent, principled, courageous capitalist took the money. In my opinion, and given more information that I have not written here, he did not betray his beliefs.

"Morality ends at the point of a gun." -- Ayn Rand

John Donohue

Pasadena, CA

[edited to add: $3 Billion was the minimum 'participation' the feds would allow.]

Edited February 12, 2009 by John Donohue