The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

FT.com / Europe – Sarkozy unveils €600m press rescue.

PJ O'Rourke compares government intervention to "fix" markets to Dad burning dinner and the family deciding to have the dog cook the next one. It is certain is that the trillions currently being spent (they would say "invested" but they don't understand the word) by governments worldwide will be misdirected. Dead tree publishing – particularly of periodicals – is a dying business. Its decline has nothing to do with the economic downturn and everything to do with the fact that advertisers can target consumers more precisely using Google etc. There is only one good reason for a politician to direct money to the newspapers – and that's to buy their support while it still has some political value.

French taxpayers are pretty relaxed about Government waste, but surely even they will see this for what it is?