On Thursday, John Allison, the long-time leader of BB&T bank, will be inducted in to the N.C. Business Hall of Fame. In addition to being a wildly successful banker, Allison is known for his strong belief if the theories of author Ayn Rand.
"Rand is an advocate of reason, individual rights and capitalism," Allison said in the Hall of Fame's release detailing his accomplishments. "In the long run, if the government violates individual rights, including the right to the product of your labor, the philosophic principles which have made America great will be destroyed."
Ayn Rand and her ideas and books have been in the news a lot of late, and are frequently cited by those critical of the government's unprecedented intervention in the economy over the last year.
A new book, "Ayn Rand and the World She Made" by Anne Heller, was recently published and was reviewed in the New York Times yesterday. Among the more interesting things included in Heller's book is that Rand gave up 7 cents per copy in royalties for "Atlas Shrugged" so that her famous, and famously long, radio address by the book's hero John Galt would not have to be edited down.
What would John Galt think of this?
A former Raleigh mayor, a Raleigh restaurant entrepreneur and a Winston-Salem banker turned university professor will all be inducted in to the 
