In message , at 10:08:06 on Mon, 9 Jun
2008, Huge remarked:
And when things would fall by the wayside (e.g. Northern Rock), it
often isn't politically possible to let that happen.

I'll add Railtrack to that. In theory such "rescues" distort the market,
but people generally aren't very happy dealing with the consequences of
simply letting the market solve the problem.

Usually referred to as "market failure" when it is no such thing.

Could be a failure of the market, but as you say a "market failure" has
a precise and quite different meaning.
--
Roland Perry