• Florida could be proving ground for BB&T, Colonial deal 
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Capitalism  | Those on the front lines of the integration process in Florida right now say the first few weeks of their banking marriage have been smooth. [....] There will be more for employees to learn over time about BB&T’s particular culture and values system, which has been guided in part by Allison’s personal admiration for laissez-faire capitalist icon Ayn Rand and laid out in a 30-page pamphlet Allison authored on BB&T’s philosophy.  

• • Guilford College gets ethics grant 

Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  | Guilford College has received a $500,000 grant from BB&T to support programs exploring the ethics of capitalism, according to an announcement. The gift is the latest from the Winston-Salem bank to colleges around the country for programs centered on morality and ethics in capitalist society. [....] The grants typically encourage the study of the writings of Ayn Rand, a free-market philosopher who is greatly admired by BB&T Chairman John Allison. At Guilford College, students will read and discuss Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged as well as works by John Maynard Keynes, Paul Krugman and others as part of a new “The Moral Foundations of Capitalism” course.