Speaking of Ayn Rand fans, McSweeney's has a great update of Atlas Shrugged for the current financial crisis:

"There's a whole world out there of byzantine financial products just waiting to be invented, Dagny. Let the leeches run my factories into the ground! I hope they do! I've taken out more insurance on a single Rearden Steel bond than the entire company is even worth! When my old company finally tanks, I'll make a cool $877 million."

This is clearly someone who read Atlas Shrugged. He's got the prose just right:

She appeared casual but confident, a slim body with rounded shoulders like an exquisitely engineered truss.

I wonder if the upcoming Angelina Jolie Atlas Shrugged movie will be affected by this financial downturn. A lot of this current crisis has to do with choices made by Alan Greenspan, and he is, frighteningly, a huge Rand fan. In many ways, this recession is Ayn Rand's baby.