Yaron Brook ( he, ירון ברוק; born May 23, 1961) is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, writer, and activist. He is an

Objectivist Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievemen ...

and the current chairman of the board at the

Ayn Rand Institute The Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism, commonly known as the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank in Santa Ana, California, that promotes Objectivism, the philosophy developed by Ayn Rand ...

, where he was executive director from 2000 to 2017. He is also the co-founder of BHZ Capital Management LP.

Biography

Yaron Brook was born and raised in Israel. His parents were Jewish

socialists Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the econ ...

from South Africa. When he was sixteen, a friend lent him a copy of

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...

's ''

Atlas Shrugged ''Atlas Shrugged'' is a 1957 novel by Ayn Rand. It was her longest novel, the fourth and final one published during her lifetime, and the one she considered her ''magnum opus'' in the realm of fiction writing. ''Atlas Shrugged'' includes elemen ...

'', leading him to abandon the socialism taught to him by his parents and to embrace

Objectivism Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievemen ...

. After graduating from high school, he served as a first sergeant in Israeli

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

(1979–1982) and then earned a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering in 1986 from the

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology ( he, הטכניון – מכון טכנולוגי לישראל) is a public research university located in Haifa, Israel. Established in 1912 under the dominion of the Ottoman Empire, the Technion ...

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

. In 1987, he moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, where he received his

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

in 1989 and

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

in finance in 1994 from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. Yaron Brook is married and has 2 grown children.

Academic and business career

Brook began his career as a finance professor at the

Leavey School of Business The SCU Leavey School of Business is one of the professional schools at Santa Clara University, a private academic institution in the San Francisco Bay Area. The School of Business was founded in 1923 and accredited by the Association to Advance ...

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...

, a position he held for seven years and which won him awards of recognition. In 1998, he co-founded BH Equity Research with Robert Hendershott. BH Equity Management was a financial advisory firm. In 2019, BH Equity dissolved and BHZ Capital Management LP became the new entity. Brook became an associate of leading Objectivist intellectuals, such as philosopher

Leonard Peikoff Leonard Sylvan Peikoff (; born October 15, 1933) is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is an Objectivist and was a close associate of Ayn Rand, who designated him heir to her estate. He is a former professor of philosophy and host of a nation ...

, and in 1994, he co-founded Lyceum International, a company that organized Objectivist conferences and offered distance-learning courses. In 2000, he left Santa Clara University to succeed Michael Berliner as President and Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute, which was then located in

Marina del Rey, California Marina del Rey ( Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination of the greater Los Angeles area. The ...

. In 2002, ARI relocated to

Irvine, California Irvine () is a master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on December 28, 197 ...

. Brook speaks and debates at numerous American universities, delivering seminars for businesses and corporations in the United States and abroad, and writing opinion editorials for leading newspapers and websites. Speaking venues include conferences, professional organizations, and community groups. His subjects span a wide range of current events and philosophical issues, including the causes of the financial crisis, the morality of capitalism, and ending the growth of the state, each discussed with Objectivism at its foundation. In recent years, he has spoken to audiences throughout the world, including those in China, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Greece, Iceland, Bulgaria, Israel, Guatemala, and England. Brook was a columnist for ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'', and his articles have been featured in ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''USA Today'', ''Investor's Business Daily'', and many other publications. A frequent guest on a variety of radio and national television programs, he is the co-author of ''

Neoconservatism Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and co ...

: An Obituary for an Idea'' and ''Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand's Ideas Can End Big Government'', and contributing author of ''Winning the Unwinnable War: America's Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism.'' His newest book is ''In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance'', co-authored with Don Watkins.

The Yaron Brook Show

On January 7, 2015, the day of the

Charlie Hebdo shooting On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. CET local time, two French Muslim terrorists and brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper ''Charlie Hebdo'' in Paris. Armed with ...

, Brook made his first-ever podcast and premiered ''The Yaron Brook Show''. The program does not have a set schedule. However, the program is livestreamed on many social-media platforms, approximately, four times/week. When Brook is home, scheduled programs are more predictably livestreamed. When Brook is on the road, scheduled programs are more intermittent.

Events

Brook speaks at events hosted by private companies, student organizations and non-profits in America and internationally. Brook is a contributor, and frequent speaker at events, with The Federalist Society. On September 27, 2017, at the Yale Student Chapter of The Federalist Society, Brook participated in an event named, "Income Inequality: Is It Fair or Unfair?". This debate is the most watched video, ever, on The Federalist Society's YouTube channel.

Podcasts

Through the years, Brook has produced many shows, on many types of issues. Some of these shows have been made into series. In something of an answer(s) to Jordan Peterson's ''Rules for Life'', in April 2021, Brook made a show on his rules for living. The show was a hit and became the launchpad for a series. The shows are given unique titles, describing the program's topic. ''Don't Stop Moving'', ''Being Optimistic in a Crazy World'', and, most recently, ''Cultivating the Virtue of Justice'', are just some examples of what the series tackles. As of June 2022, sixteen podcasts have been produced for this series.

Ingenuism

On January 19, 2021, Brook, along with Robert Hendershott and Don Watkins, launched ''Ingenuism'' on Substack. To introduce themselves, the title of their first post was, "Progress at the speed of thought".

Views and opinions

Rational selfishness

Brook promotes the Objectivist ethical position that rational selfishness is a moral virtue and that altruism is evil. ''Yaron Lectures: The Morality of Selfishness a talk for Cheongshim International Academy'' and ''Yaron Debates: Selfishness is a Virtue, Brook vs Epstein; Moderated by Judge Napolitano'' are two recent presentations of this ethical position.

Politics and economics

Brook is an outspoken proponent of ''

laissez-faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups ...

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...

. In appearances on

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk s ...

and several articles and speeches, he has defended the rights of corporations and businessmen and upheld the

virtues Virtue ( la, virtus) is moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that shows high moral standard ...

of capitalism. In a January 7, 2007, editorial in ''USA Today'', he defended multimillion-dollar CEO pay packages against the attempt by the government to regulate them. In a 2010 interview, Brook called the efforts of Democrats to raise taxes on multi-millionaires "totally immoral." He criticized George W. Bush for signing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which regulates corporate accounting practices. He has also argued that

antitrust laws Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...

are "unjust and make no sense ethically or economically." On gun rights, Brook has stated, "The government certainly has a role in regulating ownership of weapons", but he states that it is a "complex" issue to do with the

philosophy of law Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy that examines the nature of law and law's relationship to other systems of norms, especially ethics and political philosophy. It asks questions like "What is law?", "What are the criteria for legal val ...

. He is inclined to draw the line of prohibition between "offensive" weapons, such as

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful ...

s and

weapons of mass destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natu ...

, and "defensive" weapons. In interviews and through his writings and podcasts, he criticized the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *Republican Party ...

and the George W. Bush and

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

administrations for not abiding by free market principles and for enabling excessive government involvement in the economy. Brook has taught financial courses dealing with topics such as the Financial Crisis, the corporation, and many more.

Foreign policy

Brook applies Objectivist moral philosophy to the question of

American foreign policy The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, ar ...

, particularly on the Middle East. He advocates an American foreign policy of rational self-interest that would serve only to protect the

rights Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory ...

of Americans, as opposed to any form of government monetary aid, state-building, or spreading democracy.
He has criticized the foreign policy of

Ron Paul Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American author, activist, physician and retired politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1976 to 1977 and again from 1979 to 1985, as we ...

and other libertarians. He advocates the withdrawal of US troops from Europe, and US withdrawal from the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and the United Nations, calling the latter "one of the most immoral institutions ever created by man". He is ambivalent about the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...

. Brook called for an

embargo Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they m ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

. Brook has taught foreign policy courses dealing with topics such as the history of the Middle East.

Islamic terrorism

Brook argues that Islamic terrorists initiated a war against the West because they hate its culture, wealth, love of life, and global influence, and that they attack Israel because of the influence Western culture has had on it. He rejects the idea that Islamic terrorists attack Western nations because they support Israel or because of poverty or retaliation.Brook claims that the West is not at war with terrorism but the ideology of Islamic totalitarianism. He repeatedly says that just like in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the US was at war against not Japanese

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending ...

pilots or German tanks but the ideas of

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

and

Japanese imperialism This is a list of regions occupied or annexed by the Empire of Japan until 1945, the year of the end of World War II in Asia, after the surrender of Japan. Control over all territories except most of the Japanese mainland (Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyu ...

.Brook claims that Islamic totalitarians are Muslims who wish to dictate every part of life from the teachings of Islam, taken to its logical extreme. He believes that Islamic totalitarians want to organize their governments according to Islam and that they wish to spread a global Islamic government across the world, sometimes by using legitimate means but mainly by using physical force, terrorism. Brook claims that the Islamic totalitarians repeatedly express that openly by arguing: Brook has taught courses on Islamic terrorism covering topics like the rise of totalitarian Islam.

Morality of war

Brook has laid out a unique theory of the morality of war, based on the ideas of Ayn Rand and

Israel

Brook considers Israel to be a morally good nation because its Western-style government protects the rights of its citizens, Arab and Jewish alike, vastly more than neighboring countries.
On

Zionism Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

, Brook argued that "Zionism fused a valid concern—self-preservation amid a storm of hostility—with a toxic premise: ethnically based collectivism and religion." Brook advocates supporting Israel, which he sees as a Western ally against

Islamic terrorism Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism or radical Islamic terrorism) refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists. Incidents and fatalities ...

.Brook disagrees with many of Israel's policies, including its collectivist and religious influences, and its “self-sacrificial” foreign policy of giving its enemies land, money, and other goods.

Published works

Books

* * * * * * *

Other

* ''Corporate governance: a study of director liability, firm performance and shareholder wealth'', University of Texas, Austin, 1994 hesis
''Shareholder wealth effects of directors' liability limitation provisions''
Brook, Yaron; Rao, Ramesh K. S., Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis, vol. 3, 1994, 481–497 * ''Terrorism in Israel'', Yaron Brook, ''The Intellectual Activist'', Vol. 10, No. 4, July 1996

, Brook, Yaron; Hendershott, Robert; Darrell Lee, Journal of Finance the journal of the American Finance Association, , vol. 6, 1998, 2185–2204
''Do Firms Use Dividends to Signal Large Future Cash Flow Increases?''
Brook, Yaron; Charlton, William T., Jr.; Hendershott, Robert J., Financial Management, (Tampa, Fla. : Financial Management Association International) vol. 3, 1998, 46–57
''Corporate Governance and Recent Consolidation in the Banking Industry''
, Brook, Yaron; Hendershott, Robert J.; Lee, Darrell, Journal of Corporate Finance: contracting, governance and organization, (Santa Clara U; Kennesaw State U), vol. 2, 2000, pp. 141–164
''Hype and Internet Stocks''
Brook, Yaron; Hendershott, Robert J., '' The Journal of Investing'', vol. 2, 53–64
''"Just War Theory" vs. American Self-Defense''
Yaron Brook, Alex Epstein, ''The Objective Standard'', Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 2006
''"The 'Forward Strategy' For Failure''
Yaron Brook, Elan Journo, ''The Objective Standard'', Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 2007

*