Former BB&T Chief Allison's Latest Literary Venture

John A. Allison doesn't understand what it means to retire.

Allison stepped aside as chief executive of BB&T in Winston-Salem, N.C., in late 2008, but he never slowed down. Within a year, he was teaching a class at Wake Forest University's School of Business. By 2012 he had agreed to become CEO of the Cato Institute, a leading libertarian think tank and had written a 320-page book outlining what he believed to be the causes of the financial crisis.

Allison is set release his second book — "The Leadership Crisis and the Free Market Cure" — next month. The 210-page book, which he began conceptualizing at least six years ago, argues that capitalism is critical to creating new ideas and attracting visionaries to important leadership posts. Allison also shares the story of how he built BB&T into one of the nation's biggest financial institutions over his 20 years at the helm.

His thesis dovetails with his already well-known views. Allison, a self-described Ayn Rand enthusiast, used his first book to assert that free markets were the solution to avoiding another financial meltdown.

It is quite possible Allison has another book left in him. In 2008 he told American Banker he was also working on a book that would examine the evolution of the U.S. financial system.