I’ve been pretty horrified at the recent media valorizing of Ayn Rand, the author whose long-term damage to our country, especially via the time bomb named Alan Greenspan, may never be calculated. I was therefore pleased to see Digby unlock the puzzle, perhaps more simply and clearly than I was able to do myself at the old shop.

Though I think the old piece is still cogent, about the young Nixon aide becoming enthralled with AR:

From that “inner  circle” to the Nixon campaign to the grand poo-bah of the Federal Reserve: quite the path to power.  Did 50 years change that fanatical edge, until Bill Clinton and other Dems took him seriously? Or was he just biding his time?

Full disclosure: Just about 30 years ago, I fell under the spell of Rand  myself. I read Atlas Shrugged 20 times and pestered my friends to read it. I read — ok, skimmed — books by Murray Rothbard and Greenspan himself. I  was an activist in the Libertarian Party. My only excuse: 30 years ago, I was 12 years old.

Only smart depressed 12 year olds, we’d hope, need the validation  those books provide.But instead, as that Times piece linked above demonstrates, MBA’s took it and ran with it, and joined Rupert Murdoch’s universe in preaching her gospel to the world.

Until a company named after Rand’s most famous hero can go after the  public trough, and almost run away with the keys to the kingdom.