... you don't always [usually/sometimes/ever] get the strongest, most viable companies.
Stephen Spruiell at NRO looks at the IPO of hybrid-car battery-maker A123 by comparing it to a similar recent IPO, VeraSun. (VeraSun was in the ethanol business)
Both were highly-touted green energy companies. I use the term "were" because VeraSun went bankrupt last fall:
Why did VeraSun fail? In short, the market changed in ways that Washington policies were not designed to take into account. The industry, built around legislative mandates rather than real economic demand, was not flexible enough to adjust, and collapsed.
The takeaway: Government-created markets for money-losing, uncompetitive green-energy companies are inherently unstable.
What makes politicians think they can do a better job picking the winners and losers in the economy? Why do people assume that politicians have any skill at picking which companies should succeed and fail?
