The October 14, 2008 edition of the UK paper The Telegraph printed the following letter on Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged (towards the bottom of the page):

Sir – Ayn Rand has been mentioned several times in your pages of late, but it is startling how prescient was her novel Atlas Shrugged.

There is the socially responsible banker who went bust because he gave loans to those who needed them, rather than to those who could afford them. There’s the government regulation and takeovers to ensure that failed businesses keep going.

There’s the unthinking desire to cling on to “stability”, and the consensus that it is a global problem and everyone must pull together for the common good.

All is in denial of reality, a rejection of reason. Result: the rational is distrusted; men are guilty of being “unfair” if they value competence and “unfeeling” if they refuse to indulge failure. The individual is subordinated to the national, and the national to the international.

If Rand was right thus far, what of the years ahead? Perhaps the motor of the world is stopping.

Iwan Price-Evans, Enfield, Middlesex

The big question is whether our version will have the same happy ending or not…