1. Alan Greenspan turned 100. While Greenspan is best known for being the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, he was a member of Ayn Rand’s Collective. In fact, he was one of the four signers to Rand’s To Whom It May Concern, which excommunicated Nathaniel and Barbara Branden in 1968. In his autobiography, Greenspan said that while he started to doubt certain aspects of Objectivism (such as that government could exist without coercive taxation), he remained friends with Rand until she died. Harry Binswanger said he could tell by the mid 1970’s that Greenspan wasn’t a consistent Objectivist. (I recall that he was harsher, but I can’t find the quote.) I’ve wondered why Rand couldn’t see that Greenspan was at least borderline betraying Objectivism.* Rand’s biographers have said she admired Greenspan because, unlike most of her followers, he was older and had an independent career.
