Ayn Rand Institute thrives despite recession

A news website in Orange County, California, has an article featuring the amazing success of the ARI, which is based in Irvine. It reports that

"The Ayn Rand Institute, the largest of the Rand think tanks and perhaps Orange County’s most eclectic nonprofit (because how many nonprofits dedicated to profit arethere, really?), has seen revenues shoot up26 percent over the past three years (to$6.3 million), while net assets jumped 30 percent (to $1.3 million).

“And we might have our best year ever this year,” said a clearly-pleased Yaron Brook, the foundation’s president.

Why? “Something is going on,” he said. “People are frustrated. They don’t like what this administration is doing, they want answers, and she is viewed as having answers. The result is people are willing to write checks right now. It’s viewed as an antidote to where the culture is heading.”"

The full article is available here and makes for some very interesting reading.

A related article traces the origins and personal history of Yaron Brook, ARI's charismatic president, whose leadership has seen the foundation grow to more than three times its size from when he took over the reigns in 2000. It asks and answers the question

"How did Yaron Brook (brought up as a socialist in a Kibbutz in Israel) come to be one of the nation's – nay, the world's – leading spokesmen for "rational selfishness" and "laissez-faire capitalism"?"

The full article is available here