A failure of Randian economics

Here's a fascinating confession by Alan Greenspan in today's Breakpoint:

Greenspan told a House committee that he had "made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations," like banks, made them "best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms."

When chairman Henry Waxman said to him, "in other words, you found that your view of the world . . . was not right," Greenspan replied, "Absolutely, precisely." He then confessed to being "shocked" by this "flaw" in his thinking.

I thought, "Wow, Greenspan must have been a Randian," then I read:

Greenspan was a devotee of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged, the bestselling book which is still very popular. Her worldview, called objectivism, promoted the idea that if you pursue your own self-interest, it will always be rational and help the most people. We've seen in recent weeks where that leads.

What a revelation, that the banking crisis at least partially resulted from Randian economics. When I get bugged over liberal talk of regulation, I often think of John Galt's words to the socialistic government in Atlas Shrugged: "Get out of my way!" But the book really made me cringe at how it (that is, Rand) assumed self-interest and the utter absence of altruism could result in anything besides anarchy. Rand, and Greenspan, don't recognize how much their own assumptions are guided by the shadows of Christian thought still inescapable in their lifetimes, but now fading rapidly. Like C.S. Lewis pointed out in The Abolition of Man, "They remove the organ and demand the function." Or as Jennifer Morse said, "A free market depends on individuals having a conscience." Or as Colson concluded:

Forget human nature and you don't get free markets, you get the Darwinian law of the jungle—a view of the world that shouldn't come as a shock to any Christian.