After All That it May Not Work

Investing billions of dollars in an effort to rescue failing businesses is not a guarantee that those businesses may not still fail. That is the message we glimpse as more and more information flows in about the performance and problems of recipients of government bailouts.

U.S. Pressed to Add Billions to Bailouts is a New York Times article with some sobering news for Americans. Despite a 150 billion dollar commitment to American International Group (AIG) the company is in trouble. Automakers are facing severe difficulties after billions were alloted to help them.

Nationalizing businesses may have an ideological appeal to the far left but it is no business panacea. History has shown that government ownership of business leads to further lack of competitiveness, not the opposite. Eastern Europe and some western European nations provide textbook examples in recent decades. Sadly it looks like common Americans will pay for this flawed political and economic strategy for years to come.