A perfect reminder (perhaps to Rand Paul?) that a strong central government isn't at the mercy of "the free market" in cases like that; it strikes me that this should be the example that proves that "the free market" is just a bunch of children who need to get rescued from themselves periodically.
If it "returned a profit" then it "was a success" -- a success at what? Cleaning up a supreme mess made by the children. My position is: the governement could clean up a LOT more messes than that one.
# "Are you aware that mom's vacuum returned a profit to our playroom?"
/jordan
ps: more here: http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20111003/011544.html