26th Mar, 2004

BB&T offers $1 million to study Capitalism

The University of South Carolina announced Wednesday a $1 million grant from North Carolina-based BB&T to promote the study of capitalism.

USC will get the funds over the next couple years, said business school dean Joel Smith III, and will use the money to create a capitalism ethics class, a capitalism-focused professorship, a lecture series and a room in the business library dedicated to the works of authors that support free enterprise such as Ayn Rand.

John Allison, chairman and CEO of BB&T, said USC and the bank jointly developed the focus of the endowment.

“If you look at a lot of business education programs, they do a good job of teaching people the technical part of business,” Allison said. “But they don’t often explain the philosophical foundations for capitalism, and anybody can make better decisions if they understand the context.”

I saw John Allison speak at last summer’s Objectivist Conference, and I think its wonderful (and rare) to see a successful CEO defend capitalism. You can see how he applies Objectivism to the corporate philosophy of BB&T at their philosophy page.

Posted by: David

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