Do you remember the solar power company Solyndra? The company managed to go bankrupt despite the government being its biggest investor. Or, maybe they went bankrupt because the government was the primary investor.
Burt Folsom, a historian and professor at Hillsdale College, says that this is nothing new. Looking at the history of the race to build America’s railroads and airplanes Folsom shows why private investment works and government investment does not.